Introduction​​​​

This guide for teachers explains how to assess and mark (grade) a design project for young children in school years 1, 2, 3; that is 6 to 8-year-old children. Level I design tasks are intended to nurture the creativity in the young children-designers and encourage experimentation by teaching the three steps to designing for this level: LEARN, DRAW, and MAKE. The LEARN step at this level is not assessed, as the work is done passively — the children are provided with information on the design topic and will not actively seek nor collect information themselves. The work done by the children during the DRAW and MAKE steps can be assessed. The creativity and experimentation shown in the DRAW step, and the experimentation and quality of work done in the MAKE step, can both be marked.

 

Assessing and Marking​​​​​​​

Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes should follow your national, state, district and school guidelines. The following example of learning outcomes is provided for your information. The generic knowledge, skills, and competence categories and descriptors are derived from “Level 1” of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).
Knowledge

• “Basic general knowledge,” for example:
  • acquire vocabulary;
  • and gaining knowledge specific to the design topics.

Skills

• “Basic skills required to carry out simple tasks,” for example:
  • skills evident in drawing,
  • and making, such as cutting, glueing, and so forth.

Competence

• “Work or study under direct supervision in a structured context,” for example:
  • working on design tasks by following the design steps under the guidance of teachers;
  • and persevering until a task is complete.

A scheme for assessing and marking
Where marks (grades) are required, you may use the following assessing and marking scheme. The basic principle is to give a fair reflection of the quantity and quality of the submitted work. It is good practice for student design projects to be marked by more than one teacher.

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FIGURE: Example of a marking sheet for a Level I design task.

Criteria
For the DRAW step, consider the following:

• Designing
  • The quantity and quality of design ideas. (More and better is good.)
  • Is there evidence of trial-and-error? (Yes is good.)
  • When children worked in groups: did they work well together? (Yes is good.)
• Drawing
  • How detailed are the drawings? (Detailed is good.)
  • How well do the drawings depict the thing being designed? (Better is good.)

For the MAKE step, consider the following:

• Designing
  • Does the design idea work? (Yes is good.)
  • Is there evidence of trial-and-error? (Yes is good.)
• Making
  • How much effort to make the physical model? (More is good.)
  • How closely does the model resemble the thing being designed? (Better is good.) (Note: where a drawing or artwork has been made in place of a model, mark that instead.)

Scoring
Each category is marked out of five points. You may apply the rubric below (based on 60% for pass). You see (above) that the DRAW step has two categories — designing and drawing; and the MAKE step has two — designing and model making. Thus, 5 × (2 + 2) = 20 points in total for the design task.

Rubric
5 ~ Excellent. Correct work; with extra diligence and effort; exemplary for this level.
4 ~ Good. Correct work; with enough diligence and effort; above average for this level.
3 ~ Pass. Mostly correct work; with some diligence and effort; average for this level.
2 ~ Inadequate. Mix of correct and incorrect work; with little diligence and effort; below average for this level.
1 ~ Poor. Mostly incorrect work; with almost no diligence and effort; bad for this level.
0 ~ No submission. Or completely incorrect work; or work that is submitted after the submission date.

Copying and plagiarism
Young children learn and develop skills by copying the actions of others. Success will encourage them to greater heights of creative experimentation. The young children of Level I will naturally be inclined to copy if they see something that inspires them, and they might copy each other’s work. Do not be overly concerned. If one child excessively copies another, give them gentle encouragement: “Well done! Why don’t you try something different?” In time, having done a succession of design tasks over the three school years of Level I, the young children-designers will have gained a notion of ‘design,’ and will have improved their making skills and boosted their creative confidence. Therefore, there is no need to penalise or adjust the marks of students who have copied; and the concept of plagiarism does not apply at Level I.