Overview Length or Duration

Your digital visual journal will showcase your

artistic explorations across the unit.
It is to be shaped around a central inquiry
concept that emerged for you as you explored
the content.

LENGTH AND DURATION

Equivalent to 2500 words
The recommended number of artefacts is in the range of 4 – 8. For
example, you may choose one thing from each session, or you may choose
3 things from one session and none from another, as they relate to your
inquiry concept.

 PURPOSE

The purpose of this assessment task is to:

1. Showcase your own artistic processes

2. Connect this learning to readings and resources
3. Show how what you have learnt can be applied in an early
childhood setting
The unit learning outcome(s) assessed is/are: 

 LO1: Contextualise music and movement in Early Childhood from

personal, social, and philosophical perspectives. 
 LO2: Explore the languages of movement, music, drama, and visual
arts in general and in the context of early childhood.  
 LO3: Apply the languages of movement, music, drama, and visual
arts to build rich, multidisciplinary experiences in early childhood
settings. 

 ASSESSMENT DETAILS

You will provide focus to your Digital Visual Journal by choosing

a concept that emerged for you throughout the unit.

Some examples of concepts for your inquiry might

be...
 Movement, Encounter, Ecologies, Assemblage, or Time (the
concepts in the Encounters with Materials book)
 Specific concepts like: ‘Using Natural materials’ or ‘Embedding

Indigenous perspectives'
 Broader concepts like: Form (What is art?), Function (How does art

work?), Change (How is art changing?), Connection (How is art

connected to other things?), Responsibility (What is our
responsibility as ECEs when teaching art?)
 Any other concept that has emerged for you throughout the unit! Be

creative! Post ideas on the discussion board if you’re not sure

You should title your journal ‘An inquiry into...’ (and complete the
sentence with your concept)
Your Digital Visual Journal will examine this concept through your artistic
inquiries with sound, music, movement, drama and materials.
You will use a range of media - photography, written or audio narratives,
videos, drawings, music, sound recordings and other creative media in this
journal.
You will reflect on your own learning as an artist and discuss how this
learning can be applied to your practice as an educator, making
connections to the unit readings and resources.

PLEASE NOTE:
While you should start with a collection of your explorations and material
inquiries in the unit, your visual journal is NOT a collection of
everything that you have done through the unit. It should be carefully
prepared around the concept that emerged for you through the unit.
Remember: this journal is about you as an artist and applying this
knowledge to an Early Childhood Setting.
You will use  Padlet to present your Digital Visual Journal:

 You will submit the Padlet link (and password if you have one) in the
DropBox comments.
 You will submit the Padlet saved as a PDF as your file to the
DropBox, including your reference list.

 INSTRUCTIONS

To get started on your assessment task, please follow the below

instructions.

1. In week 1, start a Padlet to start collecting examples of your

artistic explorations throughout the sessions. If you are
completing in-class activities throughout the unit, you will
 be doing a lot of the work for this assessment task as you
go. 
2. As you work through the sessions, document, document,
document! You will document your activities, responses to
readings, artistic explorations and material inquiries.
Document your own explorations as if you would a child’s -
observe yourself! This documentation will form the raw
data for your journal.
3. Decide on a concept, theme or idea (see list of examples in
the ‘Details’ section above) that has emerged throughout
your studies in this unit. Think about your journal as "An
inquiry into..." that theme/concept/idea
4. Refine your documentation from step 1 so that it relates to
this concept.
5. Give your Padlet a title starting with 'An inquiry into...'
6. Write an introduction that outlines your concept, how it
connects to the unit material and how you will explore it.
7. Artefacts: Consider your artefacts. These are your samples
of the art you created, your documentation of your own play
and experimentation and how you created it. This could be: 
1. Sketches, plans, drawings, paintings, sound
recordings, video, photographs, aural
documentation
2. Notes about the materials, techniques and processes
used
3. The recommended number of artefacts is at
least  6. For example, you may choose one thing from
each session, or you may choose 3 things from one
session and none from another, as they relate to
your inquiry concept.
8. Discussion: For each artefact, discuss connections to early
childhood education research and literature. Use the unit
text (Encounters with Materials), other unit readings, the
 content and resources in the unit to support your discussion
(and your own further research, if you wish (use the VU
library to research).
9. Implications for practice: For each artefact, provide a
description of a rich, multidisciplinary learning experience,
using the language in the artefact and showing how your
artistic learning and understanding of the readings can be
reflected in an early childhood setting.
10. Write a short conclusion that ties everything together.
11. Provide a reference list, (check your in-text citations!) in
line with Harvard conventions.
12. Save your Padlet as a PDF. 
13. Submit the PDF file with a link to the Padlet (and a
password if necessary). (Note: saving the Padlet as a pdf will
mess up the formatting - don't worry, we will be assessing the
Padlet, we just need the PDF so it can be checked for
plagiarism). 

 
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

The following levels of criteria will be used to grade this assessment

task:

 Criterion 1: Artefacts
 Criterion 2: Discussion
 Criterion 3: Implications for practice
 Criterion 4: Presentation of the Digital Visual Journal
 Criterion 5: In-text citations and reference list (harward style).