Worked example · Art · Year 8
DCF: Producing → Evaluating and improving digital content
Also assessed, LNF: Literacy → Writing → Proofreading, editing and improving
A secure Year 8 response, annotated against the 7 success criteria. Mistakes: 12 marked in captions 1 to 3 and 12 more in captions 4 to 6 (caption 4: 6, caption 5: 2, caption 6: 4), 24 in all. Accept 13 for captions 4 to 6 if a pupil counts the surname and the form group as 2 deletions. The privacy mistake is caption 5 and alt text 5: Pritchard and 8W2 must go.
Accept any alt text that starts with the main subject, uses the art room record accurately, leaves out the title, name and size, does not begin “Image of” or “Picture of”, and is about 125 characters or fewer. The literacy evidence is Steps 3, 4 and 6; the digital evidence is Steps 2, 5 and 7.
(a) A blind or partially sighted visitor using a screen reader hears the alt text read aloud. If the picture fails to load, for example on a slow connection, the browser shows the alt text instead.
(b) Everyone can see a caption, and it gives facts about the work: title, artist, medium and size. Alt text is usually hidden and describes what the picture shows, for someone who cannot see it.
(c) They hear “image1.jpg”, a file name. They miss everything in the painting: the 3 coloured boats, the sunset and the cottages.
Names both uses and separates the job of a caption from the job of alt text. Evidences criterion 1.
| Artwork | A1 | A2 | A3 | A4 | C1 | C2 | C3 | PR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| 2 | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| 3 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| 4 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| 5 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 6 | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
(b) Being short is no use if it says nothing. “image1.jpg” is the file name, so a screen reader user learns nothing about the painting.
Alt text 3 is 334 characters and starts “This is a picture of”; it does describe the dragon, so accept ✓ or ✗ for A1 with a reason. Alt text 4 copies the caption, so a listener hears it twice. Every caption fails C3. Evidences criterion 2.
(a) Marked mistakes. Caption 1: harbour → Harbour (C), dusk → Dusk (C), year → Year (C), Acryllic → Acrylic (sp), ^ add “, 30 × 40 cm” after board. Caption 2: grandads → Grandads (C), Grandads → Grandad’s (P), osian → Osian (C), cartrige → cartridge (sp). Caption 3: Gaurdian → Guardian (sp), it’s → its (P), welsh → Welsh (C).
(b) Mistakes I found. Caption 4 (6): yr → Yr (C), wyddfa → Wyddfa (C), ffion → Ffion (C), collage → Collage (C), tisue → tissue (sp), ^ add “, 40 × 30 cm”. Caption 5 (2): street → Street (C), “Pritchard 8W2” X delete. Caption 6 (4): glass → Glass (C), ^ add “, Year 8” after Mali, colour’s → colours (P), aberporth → Aberporth (C). Total 12.
Every mistake has the right symbol, the missing sizes come from the art room record, and “its” is correct because it means “belonging to it”, not “it is”. Evidences criterion 3 and the literacy element.
1. Harbour at Dusk, Cerys, Year 8. Acrylic on canvas board, 30 × 40 cm.
2. Grandad’s Hands, Osian, Year 8. Pencil on cartridge paper, 42 × 30 cm.
3. Dragon Guardian, Elis, Year 8. Glazed earthenware, 15 cm tall. The dragon curls its tail round a Welsh stone.
4. Yr Wyddfa in Winter, Ffion, Year 8. Collage of torn magazine paper and tissue paper, 40 × 30 cm.
5. Our Street, Jac, Year 8. Lino print, black ink on white paper, 20 × 25 cm.
6. Sea Glass, Mali, Year 8. Felt and hand stitching on cotton, 25 × 25 cm. The colours come from sea glass Mali found at Aberporth.
All 6 follow the house style exactly, with title capitals, first name and year group only, medium and size. Evidences criteria 3 and 4 and the literacy element.
| No. | New alt text | Words | Characters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red, yellow and blue fishing boats in a harbour at sunset, orange sky reflected in the water, white cottages on a hill. | 22 | 119 |
| 2 | Close-up of an old man’s wrinkled hands holding a chipped mug, the veins and creases in deep, dark shading. | 19 | 107 |
| 3 | Shiny green clay dragon with folded red wings, curled round a grey stone, its mouth open as if roaring. | 19 | 103 |
| 4 | Snowy peak of torn white paper under a blue-grey sky, above a patchwork of green and brown fields and a winding river. | 22 | 118 |
| 5 | Black and white print of terraced houses on a steep hill, washing lines across the gardens and a cat on a wall. | 22 | 111 |
| 6 | Felt pebbles in pale green, sea blue and white on sandy cotton, outlined in white stitches, a wavy blue sea line above. | 22 | 119 |
Each starts with the main subject, keeps the details a sighted visitor would notice first, and leaves the title, name and size to the caption. None is over 125 characters and none says “image” or “picture”. Evidences criterion 5.
(a) Text speak and slang (“u”, “lol”, “well good”, “pics”); “Hiya everyone!!!” and repeated exclamation marks; in-jokes about Mr Hughes and Mrs Jenkins that visitors will not understand; it talks to pupils, not families. Mistakes: are → our, there → their, its → it’s (3 times), july → July, Dont → Don’t, Jenkins → Jenkins’s.
(b) “At 6” should be 6pm; “the hall” should be the school hall; it never says what the Wales project is or that visitors are welcome.
(c) Welcome to the Ysgol Cwm Arian Art department page. This term, Year 8 pupils have explored the places and people of Wales through painting, drawing, clay, collage, printmaking and textiles. Six of their pieces are shown below. Families and visitors are warmly invited to our summer exhibition in the school hall on 8 July at 6pm, where refreshments will be served. (61 words)
The redraft keeps every true fact, turns the cakes into “refreshments”, adds what visitors need, and stays friendly without slang. Evidences criterion 6 and the literacy element.
(a) It gives Jac’s surname and his form group, 8W2. With the school’s name on the page, a stranger could identify him and find his class. The rule is first name and year group only. It is in alt text 5 too, which is hidden, so it is easy to miss: both must be deleted, not just corrected.
(b) Alt text 3 starts with “shiny green clay dragon” because that is what anyone sees first. I left out the 6 weeks and the kiln, because they are about how it was made, not what it looks like, and the title because the caption already gives it.
Explains the risk, not just the rule, and justifies what was included and left out for the listener. Evidences criteria 4 and 7.