Meaningful Assessments of Art Content

As a teacher, assessments is one of the best way to see if the approach that I am choosing to deliver standard based content is being learned by students.  I feel that assessments are a direct reflection of how I am doing as a teacher.  I always remind the students that assessments give me immediate feedback of how I am doing as their teacher and what things we need to revisit, maybe in a different way, so that they can fully master the content.
I try to assess differently throughout the year so that students with different learning styles can feel comfortable and experience success. (Ex:  open response, oral assessment, multiple choice, reflections) Writing is a natural part of my art classroom and how the students respond to art tells me much about their art content knowledge.  Essential questions are always noted and explained on the first day of rotations so that students will know exactly what content that I expect them to know after our six days together.