Introducing Victorian Curriculum The Arts – Drama 7-10

Session overview The Arts and Drama in the Victorian Curriculum Learning area, strand, content description, achievement standard, elaboration Working with the curriculum Drama overview: Devising, scripting, presenting and performing, improvising, games … Making and Responding Artist and Audience Curriculum planning for Drama learning 2016 – a year of transition Planning resources and templates Partnerships, incursions, excursions and residencies

Victorian Curriculum F–10 Released in September 2015 as a central component of the Education State Provides a stable foundation for the development and implementation of whole-school teaching and learning programs Victorian Curriculum F–10 incorporates the Australian Curriculum and reflects Victorian priorities and standards Structured as a learning continuum, that is, developmental levels that enable teachers to identify current levels of achievement and readiness to learn and then plan to enable students to achieve expected levels 11 levels for English and Mathematics , 6 bands for The Arts, Health and Physical Education, Personal and Social Capability and and 5 bands for all other Learning Areas and Capabilities Incorporates the key content included in the Australian Curriculum Capabilities are represented as sets of knowledge and skills that are distinct from any single learning area but that students develop and apply across the curriculum Cross-curriculum priorities (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and Sustainability) are embedded and included in the learning areas and capabilities, not represented as additional or separate components of the curriculum Four rather than seven capabilities are included as part of the Victorian curriculum. The additional three general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum are Literacy, Numeracy and ICT. Teachers will develop students’ learning of literacy, numeracy and ICT across the curriculum. In Victorian Curriculum F-10 these capabilities are incorporated in the learning areas and do not require separate treatment

Learning areas & Capabilities The Arts Dance Drama Media Arts Music Visual Arts Visual Communication Design English Health and Physical Education The Humanities History Geography Civics and Citizenship Business and Economics Languages Mathematics Science Technologies Design and Technologies Digital Technologies Capabilities Critical and Creative Thinking Ethical Intercultural Personal and Social Victorian Curriculum F-10 is represented as a continuum of learning

The Arts in the Victorian Curriculum 1 Learning Area with curriculum for six Arts disciplines: F-10 Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music, Visual Arts 7-10 Visual Communication Design

Victorian Curriculum: The Arts 4 Strands: explore & express/represent ideas practices present & perform respond & interpret + 2 Organising ideas: students learn as artist and as audience Students learn by making & responding

Levels of achievement F 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 The curriculum is represented on a continuum across 6 levels of achievement In The Arts, an achievement standard is provided for each band The Foundation (F) standard signifies the importance of The Arts in the early years of schooling A curriculum to support students with a disability is provided and this is know as Towards Foundation Levels A-D

Terminology Content descriptions Achievement standards Band/Level descriptions statements that provide an overview to the content descriptions and achievement standard within the level or band. Strands key organising elements within each curriculum area. Content descriptions specific and discrete information identifying what teachers are expected to teach and students are expected to learn. Elaborations non-mandated, advisory examples that provide guidance on how the curriculum may be transformed into a classroom activity or learning opportunity. Achievement standards statements that describe what students are typically able to understand, and are the basis for reporting student achievement.

Explore and Express Ideas Strands Explore and Express Ideas Practices Respond and Interpret Present and Perform The curriculum for each of the Arts disciplines uses a common structure with four interdependent strands, each involving making and responding This structure provides flexibility for schools to develop learning programs that Are continuous or non-continuous within a single discipline Connect across learning areas or Arts disciplines

Interdependent strands Explore and Express Ideas Drama Practices Present and Perform Respond and Interpret … exploring and shaping ideas … use imagination and responses to stimulii … and drama they have viewed … … skills, techniques and processes for creating and sustaining characters, roles and situations in devised and scripted drama. … shape and structure drama, refining their work in response to feedback. … applying acting, direction, design elements and stagecraft in performance spaces, rehearsing, and refining performances  … use voice, movement,  … and technologies to communicate ideas and meaning to an audience… … reflecting, questioning and analysing as drama-maker, performer and audience … engage with drama from diverse cultures, times and locations …

Learning as artist and audience in Drama drama-maker performerdesigner responding to stimulus, improvising, devising, interpreting scripts developing skills & techniques, applying stagecraft performing, viewing, reflecting, analysing, evaluating

Learning by making & responding students learn as artist and as audience through making and responding making is informed by responding & responding informs making

Exploring & expressing ideas imagining experimenting with techniques or materials exploring possibilities manipulating elements, materials or conventions visualising improvising devising innovating trialling responding to stimulus: visual, audio, kinetic, written shaping ideas

The elements of Drama The elements of drama work dynamically together to create and focus dramatic action and dramatic meaning. Drama is conceived, organised, and shaped by aspects of and combinations of role, character and relationships, situation, voice and movement, space and time, focus, tension, language, ideas and dramatic meaning, mood and atmosphere and symbol.

Practices ‘ways of doing’ in the Arts discipline or selected form, style, genre or tradition developing and extending skills applying conventions using materials, techniques and processes documenting, recording, notating, annotating reflecting, questioning, seeking and responding to feedback developing and extending a personal approach/aesthetic

Drama practices Making Responding improvising, devising, playing, acting, directing, comparing and contrasting, refining, interpreting, scripting, practising, rehearsing, presenting and performing using movement and voice along with language and ideas to explore roles, characters, relationships and situations. shaping and structuring drama using contrast, juxtaposition, dramatic symbol, cause and effect, and linear and episodic plot forms. Responding being audience members listening to, enjoying, reflecting, analysing, appreciating and evaluating their own and others’ drama works.

Present and Perform making decisions about how work will be presented: designing the performance space (physical or virtual) situating work within a broader context creating audience experience using performance conventions applying stagecraft developing and using individual and ensemble/collaborative performance skills, techniques and practices communicating ideas and intentions to an audience

Respond and Interpret researching asking questions exploring ideas considering context seeking and responding to feedback using materials, skills, techniques and processes applying conventions analysing, evaluating, reflecting, refining

Using viewpoints to respond & interpret responses to ideas are informed by different viewpoints and these shift according to different experiences as students make, investigate or critique drama as drama-makers, performers and audiences, they ask and answer questions to interrogate the playwrights’ and actors’ practice or meanings and the audiences’ interpretations. Ballet – why do we stand with feet turned out and arms curved All to dp with costume, dating from renaissance times Street dance – structure – one group and then another group – comes from the ‘dance-off’, urban gangs, A and B, call and response

Level v Year the curriculum should be regarded as a developmental continuum or progression of learning schools and teachers will make decisions about where on the continuum a learning program should focus, for example a learning program for students in year 7 who have never undertaken Dance education might begin with content from the Foundation level

Curriculum and Resources 2016 school choice between AusVELS and Victoria Curriculum Victorian Curriculum from 2017 Resources General advice Specific curriculum advice evolving Bookmark and check for updates Email ideas for updates http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/foundation10/f10index.aspx

Take the web tour Watch the videos: Overview Introduction Using the view and filter options

Making choices about teaching materials No specific materials or stimulus is stipulated in The Arts curriculum When the curriculum mentions ‘across a range of styles, forms’ etc. teachers have the opportunity to choose teaching resources or stimulus materials that are relevant for their students. For example, teachers can make choices to ensure students experience Arts practices typical of cultures that students identify with that reflect the culture practiced by the indigenous people of the Country on which the school in situated, in consultation with the local Koorie, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community used by artists and arts organisations in the local community typical of selected styles or practitioners relevant to particular forms or ways of working Koorie Protocols Starting local can mean connecting through your Koorie Education Co-ordinator (KEC) Koorie Education Support Officer (KESO) to establish a relationship with the local Koorie community. This also means selecting teaching materials based on the children in the class. Connecting with artists living and working in the community. (Often completed through one activity).

Developing Arts teaching and learning programs The common strand structure for each of the Arts discipline-specific curricula allows schools to continue to deliver The Arts through learning programs that focus on one or more arts disciplines, for example, a junior secondary program where students complete a semester of learning in each Arts discipline over 2 years a performing arts program with dance, drama and music components a visual arts program that focuses on 2-d, 3-d and 4d forms a literacy program that draws on curriculum from English, Drama and Media Arts instrumental music Project-based learning where Arts learning is aligned to themes, other learning areas or capabilities or inquiry questions, for example work developed in other learning areas where an Arts form (film, play, song, dance) is used to communicate knowledge and understanding work developed with an artist-in-residence (physically or virtually) or local artist /s or arts organisation a celebration of school and community and identity expressed through dance, drama, media arts, music and visual arts presentations and performances created by the students in consultation with local Koorie elders and members of the community

What’s happening now? Where is Drama in the learning program at your schools? on the timetable in the co-curricular program an integral part of whole school events or projects Connected to drama-making in the community? Visual Arts Specialist and Music Specialist – an hour per week. Drama and Media Arts integrated into English and Digital Technologies in the classroom by classroom teacher. Dance taught as part of the PE curriculum. All Arts disciplines taught by the classroom teacher through dedicated units connected to thematic learning. Combinations of one or two Arts disciplines complimented by a visiting artist in incursion or excursion. Partnerships with teaching or practising artists. 4. Whole school approach – festival or production, community event involving sequenced learning culminating in specific performances and presentations. Eg: Healthy Living festival, Harmony Day, Sustainability festival

Curriculum mapping Mapping identifies the extent of curriculum coverage in units of work and clearly links teaching, learning and assessment while working with the curriculum continuum. Mapping templates support teachers to identify where content descriptions and achievement standards are being explicitly addressed within the school’s teaching and learning program. Instructions: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/foundation10/viccurriculum/curriculumplanning.aspx Templates For each Arts discipline F-6 7-10

Guidelines for including the Arts in a whole-school curriculum plan At the Foundation stage (Prep–Year 2), schools focus on five curriculum areas: English, Mathematics, The Arts, Health and Physical Education and Personal and Social Capability’. (p. 19). At these levels, substantial attention should be paid to the Arts. 3-8 … an Arts program that in Years 3–4 includes all five Arts disciplines and at Years 5–6 and 7–8 consists of at least two Arts disciplines, one from the Performing Arts and one from the Visual Arts. (p. 20) 9-10 … pathways to VCE, increasing specialisation, building on prior learning The challenge is to reconcile the twin demands of providing a learning program that maintains a focus on a common entitlement to core knowledge and skills and high expectations of every student whilst also allowing students opportunities to develop and pursue areas of individual interest and expertise. At F all 5 Arts disciplines will be taught but not necessarily evenly weighted. At 1 – 2 all 5 Arts disciplines over the two years but not necessarily evenly weighted. At F – 2 schools need to plan so the Arts receive significant attention this means that in Foundation and 1 – 2 the curriculum for all 5 Arts disciplines must be delivered. How this happens is a matter for school decision. Schools will make these decisions as a result of their planning process, considering the context, the expertise and the resources available. DET will collect assessments for all strands and achievement standards.

Learning in Learning through Learning in an Arts discipline involves deep engagement with the practices of that discipline Learning through an Arts discipline involves using the practices, knowledge and understanding of that discipline to explore ideas or demonstrate knowledge and understanding in another field

Learning in Drama Learning intention: to explore the meaning of ‘closed’ Explore, express ideas, respond and interpret explore ideas about how the idea of ‘closed’ can be communicated; use voice and movement through improvisation, games, visual and audio stimulus, exploration of techniques from different performance styles Use drama practices, interpret and respond: work in a small group to devise either a physical theatre piece or a language based piece by refining, organising and shaping ideas from the exploration, develop use of specific skills and techniques and expressive elements; use agreed criteria to offer, accept and respond to feedback Present and perform, explore, interpret and respond: plan a performance – explore and trial use of stagecraft, a design for the performance space, information for the audience, rehearse focusing on performance and expressive skills Respond and interpret, practice [documentation]skills use ICT to ‘document’ drama and the drama-making process (in images or words – spoken or written), describe /analyse the drama, record feedback and personal response (use familiar literacy/writing strategies), evaluate the performance

Learning through Drama Activity: Create a mind map showing how Drama can be a context for learning in the Capabilities, for example Personal and Social Capability - Self-awareness and management Critical and Creative Thinking – Questions and possibilities Intercultural Capability – Cultural practices

Using ICT in Drama documenting stagecraft illustrating sharing Embedded in content descriptions, such as … Applied in all learning programs to support learning, such as … documenting stagecraft illustrating sharing distributing seeking feedback Research accessing stimulus storing

Education State goals, ambitions and targets Discuss the opportunities provided by the Education State target for The Arts Page 11: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/educationstate/launch.pdf

Contacts Curriculum Manager: Performing Arts Helen Champion PH: 9032 1723 Email: champion.helen.h@edumail.vic.gov.au