The Arts Education curriculum incorporates the four strands of dance, drama, music and visual art. The curriculum is designed to allow for a variety of possibilities for delivery, respecting that time-tabling situations and personnel vary from school to school. Each of the four strands may be taught separately or interrelated. The course may be taught by one teacher or several, working individually or as a team.
The curriculum is resource-based; therefore, once teachers are familiar with the curriculum they may choose themes or topics suited to their particular teaching situations. Themes might arise from the arts strands, other required areas of study or from topics of particular interest to middle years students. These could include local and international events, traditions, issues and broad areas such as media studies or global education. Many of the themes can be readily applied across the four strands.
The activities included in the curriculum are suggestions. Teachers are encouraged to select and adapt activities to meet the needs of their students.
Core Curriculum policy states that the time allotment for Arts Education at the Middle Level is 200 minutes per week. The time alloted to each of the four strands is 50 minutes per week.
The required units in Arts Education are designed to be taught in 80% of the total time. An optional interrelated unit consisting of studies in all four strands appears at the end of the curriculum guide. This optional unit is intended to be taught when the total 200 minutes per week is available for Arts Education.
Units of Instruction: Each strand is organized into units with each unit having a specific focus. A variety of instructional strategies are included in each unit.
Assessment and Evaluation: Student assessment and evaluation are based on foundational objectives in each strand. Assessment should be ongoing and include a wide range of assessment techniques.
The following chart displays how various aspects of the Arts Education program are related.
Curriculum at a Glance
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glance chart.