Arrival · retrieve

Reviewing means looking again with a rule

Reviewing is not deciding whether you like your piece.

Liking is a feeling, and a feeling gives you nothing to do next.

A useful review names one part of the work and one change to it.

You named a borrowed technique in Week 4, so naming a part is familiar.

This week you name a change instead, and the review card list supplies the words.

You need four things on your desk.

• Your Week 4 piece, face up.
• The approved review card list.
• One test strip of the same paper.
• Your arts log page for this week.

Three words matter today: part, change, effect.

The part is where you look, the change is what you do there, and the effect is what it did.

Starter · create the need

Two reviews of the same painting

The painting is the example piece in the approved card pack, so nobody in this room made it.

Review A says the piece is quite good but a little messy.

Review B says the top edge is blurred, so the shape is difficult to read.

Both reviews are honest, but only one of them tells you what to pick up.

Review A judges the entire piece at once, so there is nowhere to begin.

Review B names a part, then describes exactly what is happening in that part.

A review you can act on always points at a place on the paper.

• 1 · name the part you are looking at.
• 2 · describe what is happening there.
• 3 · say what you will change.
• 4 · say how you will know it worked.

I Do · model

Four steps, modelled on my own piece

I hold my piece at arm's length and look for eight seconds.

Distance matters, because up close you notice brush marks instead of the whole shape.

From there I can see that my background tone sits too close to my figure tone.

Now I find that problem on the review card list, which calls it tones too close.

I do not invent my own language here, because the card already supplies it.

Next I test the change by darkening the background on my strip, never on my piece.

The strip tells me the figure now stands forward, so the change is worth making.

I make it once on the piece, then stop and look again from arm's length.

Notice that I repaired one problem, because changing three at once hides which one helped.

We Do · everyone commits

Sort the review cards

Six comment cards lie face up on your table.

Tones too close. Quite good. Spacing tighter at the top than at the bottom.

Needs more work on the tones. Edge blurred where it should be sharp. The top looks unfinished.

Sort the six cards into two groups: those that name a change, and those that only give an opinion.

Then match every change card to the part of a piece it points at.

There are three parts to match against: edge, tone and spacing.

Only a card that names a change goes on the review card list you use later.

Hold up your opinion pile once your table has finished sorting.

Two cards are close, so tables will disagree; give one reason each, because we are not voting.

Then I say where each card belongs, and you keep your reason either way.

I Do 2 · connect

Why the test strip goes first

A test strip is a small offcut of exactly the same paper.

You try the change there before you touch the finished work.

Paint and ink do not come off, so a wrong change stays wrong.

Hold the strip directly against the part you are judging.

Held apart, two tones always look further apart than they really are.

One more rule: change one thing, then look again before the next one.

• 1 · name one part using the review card list.
• 2 · try the change on the strip.
• 3 · hold the strip against that part.
• 4 · make the change once, then look again.

We Do 2 · lab

Borrow another pair of eyes

Work in twos, with both pieces on the table, face up.

Look at your partner's piece for ten seconds without speaking.

Then name one part and read out one card from the list.

You may only use the card words, and never good, bad or nice.

Those three words tell the maker nothing they can pick up.

Your partner records the card, although they do not have to use it.

Then swap over and give them ten silent seconds.

Independent · evidence

One change, tested, made and recorded

Work on your own now.

Choose one card from the review card list for your own piece.

Copy the card words onto the top of your log page.

Try that change on your test strip, then hold the strip against the part.

If the strip says no, choose another card and record why you swapped.

Then make the change once on your piece and stop.

Write one sentence about the effect, beginning with the words: this made the.

• Supported · name one card and test it on a strip.
• Standard · name one card, test it, make the change and record the effect.
• Stretch · as Standard, and name the card you decided against, with a reason.

A change you tested and rejected is still evidence, so keep that strip.

Exit · Audience and Influence

Read the effect to one adult

Read your effect sentence to the adult at your table.

They read it back to you word for word.

If that is not what you meant, say it again and they record the new version.

An adult who reads your sentence back is your first audience.

Then choose next week: keep the piece as it is, make one more tested change, or begin the label.

Record that choice and today's date on your log page.

The piece and the strip both go into the arts log folder.