The Arts Level 6 (Years 9 and 10)
Learning in the Arts draws on the arts disciplines of Art, Dance, Drama, Media, Music, and Visual Communication, both individually and in combination. At this level learning and teaching programs allow students to explore personal interests and develop skills, knowledge and understanding relevant to specific arts forms and disciplines in increasingly sophisticated ways, and provide opportunities for students to continue sequential development of learning in arts disciplines they have undertaken in previous arts programs.
Learning focus
As students work towards the achievement of Level 6 standards in the Arts, they design, make and present arts works. In doing so, they develop skills in making decisions about creative ways of generating and implementing ideas. They reflect on their experiences and observations, consider what they have learned about styles and forms and explore issues and concrete and abstract concepts to generate ideas. They keep their intended aesthetic qualities in mind when they experiment with, select, vary combinations of and manipulate arts elements, principles and/or conventions to effectively realise their ideas, represent their observations and communicate their interpretations of issues and concepts. For example:
- in Music, in response to learning and performing songs, that reflect the ‘human spirit’ students, individually or collaboratively, compose and using conventional or unconventional notation, write down, then present their musical response to an issue holding personal interest for them.
Students consider others’ perspectives when seeking solutions and contributing to collaborative arts tasks. For example:
- in Art, students research installation artists who use natural settings as their gallery, then collaboratively design and present an Installation art work that uses found forms and works in harmony with the selected site.
Students begin to develop a personal style and become more independent in their approach to exploring, developing and refining arts works. For example:
- in Dance, students individually develop their own dance sequence and teach it to others, then, working collaboratively, they combine the sequences and present as one work.
Within and across specific arts disciplines and arts forms, students experiment with imaginative and innovative ways of using traditional and contemporary skills, techniques and processes and a variety of media, materials, equipment and technologies drawn from a range of contexts. For example:
- in Visual Communication, students develop a website home page for a fictitious organisation.
Students consider the purpose and presentation context when they prepare and present arts works to different audiences. For example:
- in Drama, students devise, rehearse, and design an ensemble performance. They construct sets, costumes and props suitable for a selected performance space, and present the performances.
Students use evaluation and reflection on their arts experiences to improve the making and presenting of their arts works. They maintain a record of their exploration, development and refining of ideas, use of elements and principles and/or conventions and application of techniques and processes when making and presenting their arts works.
When exploring and responding, students focus on the development of knowledge and understanding of key concepts, techniques, processes and practices associated with particular arts forms. They develop aesthetic and critical awareness through observation, research, discussion and analysis of arts works from different social, historical and cultural contexts. They compare arts works to consider similarities and differences in the styles, themes, intentions and aesthetic qualities of works by particular artists and arts works made at a particular time within specific cultural contexts. They develop skills in presenting and justifying personal interpretations of, and opinions about, arts works using appropriate arts language. They investigate and discuss the contribution of the arts to society and other disciplines, such as Mathematics and History, focusing on ways contemporary, and traditional arts disciplines, forms and works reinforce and challenge social, cultural, personal and artistic practices and values. For example:
- in Media, students research issues related to ‘body image’ and the visual media’s role in the construction of the ‘ideal body form’, then they identify, analyse and discuss images found in popular magazines that contribute to ‘body image’ issues.
Further examples of arts discipline-specific learning approaches for Level 6 will be published soon.
Standards
Creating and making
At Level 6, within and across areas of specialisation, students apply decision making skills to find the most effective way to implement ideas, design, create and make arts works devised from a range of stimuli, demonstrating development of a personal style. They evaluate, reflect on, refine and justify their work’s content, design, development and their aesthetic choices. Students realise their ideas, represent observations and communicate their interpretations by effectively combining and manipulating selected arts elements, principles and/or conventions to create the desired aesthetic qualities. Independently and collaboratively, they apply their knowledge and understanding to design, create and produce arts works influenced by the style of particular artists or cultures. They vary the content, structure and form of their arts works to suit a range of purposes, contexts, audiences and/or the conventions of a specific style, and demonstrate technical competence in the use of skills, techniques and processes. They effectively use a range of traditional and contemporary media, materials, equipment and technologies. They maintain a record of how ideas develop in the creating, making and presenting of their arts works.
Exploring and responding
At Level 6, students observe, research and critically discuss a range of contemporary, traditional, stylistic, historical and cultural examples of arts works in the disciplines and forms in which they are working. They analyse, interpret, compare and evaluate the stylistic, technical, expressive and aesthetic features of arts works created by a range of artists and made in particular times and cultural contexts. They describe and discuss ways that their own and others’ arts works communicate and challenge ideas and meaning. They use appropriate arts language and, in the arts works they are exploring and responding to, refer to specific examples. They comment on the impact of arts works, forms and practices on other arts works and society in general.
Downloads
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The Arts booklet (
PDF - 249KB) - The Arts standards table (Doc - 41KB)
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Victorian Essential Learning Standards Level 6 ( PDF - 788KB)
