1. Introducing Victorian Curriculum The Arts – Drama 7-10

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Victorian Curriculum: The Arts4
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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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 …

11. 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

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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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
ideas for updates

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

23. 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).

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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:
Templates
For each Arts discipline
F-6
7-10

27. 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.

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. Education State goals, ambitions and targets
Discuss the opportunities provided by the Education State target for The Arts
Page 11:

33. Contacts
Curriculum Manager: Performing Arts Helen Champion PH: