Arts+Report



Here is the final version submitted this evening Ali

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How to submit
Submit a report outlining the rationale for the piece, the VELS standards addressed, how this type of activity would be included within the primary curriculum. **One person in each group** will have to submit the report for Task 3 in the LMS.

Student distractions
A short play performed by Alex Rogers, Svetlana Spaseska, David Barclay, Ian Wilson, Michelle Lotriet, Richard Gay and Alison Harvey. Student distractions represents the ongoing battle teachers face every day when teaching a class – the internal conversations taking place within the student’s head. When a student arrives at school in the morning they bring a backpack with them of all the other events happening in their lives, if and when they choose to unpack this is out of the control of the teacher, but //as// teachers we have to be aware of this and the effect it will have on student learning. We chose the distractions sport, free spirit and bodily functions - which were balanced out by rational thought, and re-enacted some of the myriad of possible ‘conversations’ which could take place in our student’s head. The final song 'We’re All In This Together’, from High School Musical, was chosen to show that the teacher needs to take the distractions and work with them - to produce engaging, meaningful lessons around the students’ interests. At level 4 the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) introduces the “Thinking Processes” domain where students “ need to develop the capacity for metacognition – the capacity to reflect on and manage their own thinking. This can only happen if the school and classroom culture values and promotes thinking and if students are provided with sufficient time to think, reflect, and engage in sustained discussion, deliberation and inquiry. Students need challenging tasks which stimulate encourage and support skilful and effective thinking.” Students who are encouraged and engaged will manage their thoughts and internal distractions paving the way for ongoing, successful learning. Producing a short production such as this, can be included in the primary curriculum in many ways. In Level 1, the beginning of the junior primary years “all students should experience learning in Performing Arts” (VELS Arts domain) and in English, references are made to the correct use of body language and voice and also to the “conventions of different spoken texts” (English domain: speaking and listening). In the upper primary years, students can be involved in all stages of producing a short performance; from the teamwork and co-operation involved to the writing of the script to the final performance to their audience. “At Level 4, students work effectively in different teams and take on a variety of roles to complete tasks of varying length and complexity. They work co-operatively to allocate tasks and develop timelines. Students accept responsibility for their role and tasks." (Physical, personal and social learning: Working in teams). The Arts domain expects students to: “communicate ideas and understandings about themselves and others, incorporating influences from their own and other cultures and times. They evaluate the effectiveness of their art works and make changes to realise intended aims. They consider purpose and suitability when they plan and prepare art works for presentation to a variety of audiences.” And in English, “At Level 4, students plan, rehearse and make presentations for different purposes.” (English domain: speaking and listening). Performances, which involve the students planning, rehearsing and performing their own work, will actively engage all learners. By working in teams, roles can be allocated to suit all the different intelligences (Gardner's multiple intelligences) of the students in the group to encourage engagement in their learning. As part of the integrated curriculum there are many opportunities for teaching all domains: for example, the writing involved in creating the story, the maths in calculating cost of materials for staging the production, the humanities can also be easily included by suggesting a theme for the story. The production can also be incorporated into inquiry learning as a means of sorting out and making conclusions. In her book ‘Classroom connections’ Kath Murdoch gives many examples of where dance and drama can be used in the sorting out stage of an inquiry unit working in partnership with the many specialist teachers in the school. It also sits well within the e5 framework as a means of the students elaborating upon their work.

As students, we learned and grew from our ‘production experience’. We learned to work effectively and co-operatively as a large group and found that we naturally fell into different roles as the performance evolved. As teachers, we can see that our experiences will pave the way for our students to learn and grow confident together as they perform to their audience.