1. Planning Drama 7-10 learning using Victorian Curriculum
Helen Champion
Webinar, 22 November 2016

2. Session overview Victorian Curriculum: The Arts - Drama Planning
Design assumptions
Content
Organisation
Planning
Working from existing sequences of learning/units
New sequences of learning/units

3. check your understanding with colleagues
Where is Drama in the Whole school, Level and Domain plans at your school?
On the timetable?
Core?
Elective?
Co-curricula?
Inquiry/project-based learning?
Make a list;
check your understanding with colleagues

4. VICTORIAN CURRICULUM: THE ARTS
Curriculum design
VICTORIAN CURRICULUM: THE ARTS
Same framework for all Arts disciplines
Designed for use in multiple contexts
No set pedagogies, texts or styles

5. 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

6. to communicate ideas and meaning to an audience.
Learning in Drama
Strand
Explore and Express Ideas
Drama Practices
Present and Perform
Respond and Interpret
Activities
imagining
creating characters, roles and situations.
respond to stimuli - observation, feelings, experience, texts/playscripts, research and drama they have viewed
dramatic play
role play
process drama
improvisation
explore dramatic possibilities
ways of creating dramatic action
developing knowledge and understanding of skills, techniques and processes for
creating and sustaining characters, roles and situations in devised and scripted drama.
Using the elements of drama, forms and conventions to shape and structure drama,
refining their work in response to feedback.
applying
acting, direction, design elements and stagecraft in performance spaces,
rehearsing,
refining performances to communicate ideas and meaning to an audience.
using
Voice
movement,
gesture,
performance and expressive skills and techniques
technologies
as drama makers, designers, performers and audience.,
Describing
Reflecting
Questioning
analysing
evaluating  
interpreting texts
Exploring
how contexts inform drama from diverse cultures, times and locations
how drama connects with other arts forms and disciplines.
to communicate ideas and meaning to an audience.

7. Interdependent content
Concept
Knowledge and skills
Contexts
What is to be taught?
What knowledge and skills will students acquire or develop?
What is the context for the learning?

8. Unpacking a concept Focus
Concentration, engagement, making characters believable, channeling’ energy … etc.
performance styles, solo, ensemble, connections to other performance & expressive skills etc.

9. Focus EXPLORE & EXPRESS PRACTICES RESPOND & INTERPRET
Shape, stillness, closed, Imagining, trialling
Concentration, engagement, making characters believable, channeling’ energy … etc.
PRESENT & PERFORM
RESPOND & INTERPRET
working individually, in pairs, in small groups etc.
performance styles, solo, ensemble, connections to other performance & expressive skills etc.

10. 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
Levels A-D
F-6
7-10

11. Activity #1: The big idea
What is the purpose of the unit/learning? (The big, central idea)
Describe the unit/sequence of learning in 20 words or less
Dramatise a song
Mask drama
Sit-coms
Radio plays
Save the wetlands
Interpret a scene from a script
?????
EXPLORE & EXPRESS
PRACTICES
PRESENT & PERFORM
RESPOND & INTERPRET

12. Activity #2: unpacking
why is this activity in the learning plan for this student/group of students?
What are the key concepts the students will learn?
How will you know what students already know and what learning has occurred?
EXPLORE & EXPRESS
PRACTICES
PRESENT & PERFORM
RESPOND & INTERPRET

13. Activity #2b: more unpacking
how is the activity
introduced?
taught?
aligned to prior learning?
varied to cater for different levels of knowledge and skill?
how does the activity connect to the rest of the unit/sequence?
What opportunities are there for formative assessment?
self-assessment
peer-assessment
teacher observation
EXPLORE & EXPRESS
PRACTICES
PRESENT & PERFORM
RESPOND & INTERPRET

14. Activity #3: identifying possible connections
Thinking about the same activity or aspect of the unit/sequence,
when students are ‘exploring’ or ‘expressing’ what drama practices are they using?
are they also ‘responding’ or ‘interpreting’?
does this activity contribute to
presentation of a performance?
an actual performance
how are digital technologies used for learning and teaching in this activity? How could they be used?
EXPLORE & EXPRESS
PRACTICES
PRESENT & PERFORM
RESPOND & INTERPRET

15. Activity #3a: making connections
Levels 7 and 8 Content Descriptions
Levels 9 and 10 Content Descriptions
Explore and Express Ideas
Combine the elements of drama in devised and scripted drama to explore and develop issues, ideas and themes (VCADRE033)
Develop roles and characters consistent with situation, dramatic forms and performance styles to convey status, relationships and intentions(VCADRE034)
Improvise with the elements of drama and narrative structure to develop ideas, and explore subtext to shape devised and scripted drama (VCADRE040)
Manipulate combinations of the elements of drama to develop and convey the physical and psychological aspects of roles and characters consistent with intentions (VCADRE041)
Drama Practices
Plan, structure and rehearse drama, exploring ways to communicate and refine dramatic meaning(VCADRD035)
Develop and refine expressive skills in voice and movement to communicate ideas and dramatic action in different performance styles and conventions(VCADRD036)
Practise and refine the expressive capacity of voice and movement to communicate ideas and dramatic action in a range of forms, styles and performances spaces (VCADRD042)
Structure drama to engage an audience through manipulation of dramatic action, forms and performance styles and by using design elements(VCADRD043)
Present and Perform
Perform devised and scripted drama using a range of performance styles, maintaining commitment to role and applying stagecraft (VCADRP037)
Perform devised and scripted drama making deliberate artistic choices and shaping design elements to unify dramatic meaning for an audience(VCADRP044)
Respond and Interpret
Analyse how the elements of drama have been combined in devised and scripted drama to convey different forms, performance styles and dramatic meaning (VCADRR038)
Identify and connect specific features and purposes of drama from contemporary and past times to explore viewpoints and enrich their drama making(VCADRR039)
Evaluate how the elements of drama, forms and performance styles in devised and scripted drama to convey meaning and aesthetic effect (VCADRR045)
Analyse a range of drama from contemporary and past times to explore differing viewpoints and enrich their drama practice (VCADRR046)

16. Activity #3a: making connections
7-8 Explore and express:
Combine the elements of drama in devised and scripted drama to explore and develop issues, ideas and themes (VCADRE033)
Develop roles and characters consistent with situation, dramatic forms and performance styles to convey status, relationships and intentions (VCADRE034)
Stimulus?
Ensemble/solo/personal within an ensemble
Using technology
EXPLORE & EXPRESS
PRACTICES
PRESENT & PERFORM
RESPOND & INTERPRET

17. Activity #4: Which level?
Consider the information you’ve gathered about this activity/aspect of a learning sequence and
Identify the content description/s and level/s that is/are the best fit/s
Are adjustments required to align all of the activities in the unit/sequence of learning with a single level?
How can each activity be varied to cater for different learning needs? (for example, within a group)
higher level
lower level
EXPLORE & EXPRESS
PRACTICES
PRESENT & PERFORM
RESPOND & INTERPRET

18. Activity #5: Document audit results and ‘things to do’ or ‘questions’
For example,
Check that all information required for school planning template is available
revise, add or delete activities
incorporate formative assessment opportunities
use digital technologies
enhance skill development

19. … and, how does your Drama learning program connect with
CAPABILITIES
INQUIRY LEARNING
OTHER LEARNING AREAS
LITERACY, NUMERACY OR ICT
CO-CURRICULAR EVENTS

20. Next steps update rubrics, success criteria, learning intentions etc.
transfer information to school curriculum planning template
discuss the process and findings with colleagues and/or curriculum leaders
& maybe
repeat for other units
write a new unit or sequence of learning using this process as a checklist

21. Feedback
Please complete the survey the F-10 unit will to you so that I get your feedback about the relevance of this presentation for your work and whether it met your expectations. You can also me directly:
Helen Champion
Curriculum Manager: Performing Arts
phone: