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This page is based on the draft Year 10 content for the Arts, which is currently open for feedback. Schools are not required to implement changes until the consultation process is confirmed.
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In Years 9 and 10, students create thoughtful, multi-layered artworks in their chosen art form, using advanced techniques to explore cultural, historical, and social themes through styles such as political theatre, avant-garde, and abstract expressionism.
In this phase, arts teaching is structured around 4 strands that focus on key areas of learning. These include:
- Dance: making and creating, observing and responding
- Drama: making and creating, observing and responding
- Music: music theory, listening and responding, performing, including singing, playing instruments, and creating and composing, and music technology
- Visual Arts: making and creating, observing and responding.
Dance#
With your teen, you could:
- observe movements used in sports and have fun improvising dance movements based on a favourite sport
- prepare a dance to perform at a special event, like a wedding
- talk about why people dance, when, and the different contexts in which people in your family, community, or ethnic group like to dance
- watch a dance and work out the ideas the dancers are trying to communicate and other ways they could have achieved this.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher will focus on helping students analyse danceworks using art terms, make creative choices with tools and technology, and create dances that reflect complex ideas and stylistic influences.
For example, by the end of the year, your teen may be able to:
- use dance elements and choreographic devices to develop a movement idea, for example, starting with a simple movement phrase and developing it through changes to the tempo or level, or by applying devices like repetition, variation, and contrast
- experiment with the structure of dances, for example, by opening and closing with the same shape
- perform dances with different purposes, adjusting energy and expression to suit the intention, for example, using group formations, synchronised movements, and chanting, as in a lakalaka, to show ideas such as community or leadership
- observe and reflect on their own and others’ performances, describing the intention and the effect of decisions about using specific dance elements, choreographic devices, and technologies like music, costume, and lighting.
Drama#
With your teen, you could:
- watch a dramatic performance and talk about the ideas you think it was communicating, and why you think those were the main ideas
- discuss what you notice about the techniques, elements, conventions and technologies used in a performance, and whether you think they worked well to tell the story
- practise taking part in improvised drama by playing theatre sports
- discuss their role in preparing for a performance and how each person contributes to the shared experience.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher will focus on helping students analyse drama using art terms, make creative choices with tools and technology, and create works of drama that reflect complex ideas and stylistic influences.
For example, by the end of the year, your teen may be able to:
- analyse elements of a scripted text to understand how it is to be understood and performed
- analyse the conventions and processes of specific theatrical forms or practitioners and use this to create a performance in the same style
- use drama technologies and the performance space to support storytelling and help establish the intended setting and mood, for example, using a spotlight to focus on a character in a key moment
- reflect on scripted and devised performances by themselves and others, describing the purpose and the use of drama techniques, elements, conventions, and technologies to achieve that purpose
- practise whanaungatanga and manaakitanga when collaborating to develop drama, sharing responsibility, and offering and accepting helpful feedback.
Music#
With your teen, you could:
- sing together in unison and in harmony
- play music by ear or by reading a score
- make a playlist of music from New Zealand
- talk about the work of a musician who has had a positive impact on the world
- view live performances of singing and instrumental groups, cultural groups, and other musicians in the community
- make a digital soundtrack using live and recorded music
- explore the use of AI in music making and talk about your views
- create a music score using notation software.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher will focus on helping students analyse music using specialised terms, make creative choices with tools and technology, and create music that expresses complex ideas and stylistic influences.
For example, by the end of the year, your teen may be able to:
- compose short themes and variations or expressive melodies
- arrange a short piece for a small musical ensemble, thinking about the balance between different instruments
- compare how notation systems vary across cultures, including Māori oral traditions and Western staff notation
- explore how the techniques used in a musical work reflect the historical and cultural context within which it was made
- analyse how composers and performers have contributed stylistic and technological innovations to musical traditions
- sing expressively and in the intended style
- create a sense of texture in compositions, with melodies, chords, bass lines and rhythmic accompaniment working together to create an overall ‘feel’
- reflect upon and record the process of creating a digital composition, explaining creative and technical decisions and the influence of the cultural context.
Visual Arts#
With your teen, you could:
- visit art in a gallery or public space,d ask what they notice, read any artist statements, and discuss if knowing the artist or purpose changes their views
- talk about a family story, then use available materials, like waste and recycled card, to make a sculpture in response
- find a pūrākau that is significant to you or your community and illustrate a character or event from the story
- draw a room or street view using simple perspective lines, so things look smaller as they go back, add colours that look balanced and pleasing together
- make sun prints by placing leaves or objects on dark paper in bright sunlight and notice shapes and patterns
- take a set of photos trying different angles and lighting, crop or edit them to make colours look good and the picture feel balanced
- create an artwork about your favourite music or character, print a photo and decorate it with paint, collage, or digital tools to show mood and personality
- talk about what they are their learning at school and the meaning of some of the art language they have learned.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher will focus on helping students analyse artworks using art terms, make creative choices with tools and technology, and create visual artworks that express complex ideas and stylistic influences.
For example, by the end of the year, your teen may be able to:
- develop their creative ideas and skills by experimenting with art techniques and recording the process in a visual diary or digital tool
- use visual art conventions from a range of disciplines, like photography, printmaking, weaving and sculpture
- create artworks as they:
- respond to work by both modern and traditional artists, and learn how visual art can carry stories and ideas through generations, for example, ancestors represented in pou
- explore the cultural and historical significance of symbolic patterns and motifs, and learn what they represent, for example, plant and animal motifs in hiapo or tīvaevae
- explore their thoughts and feelings about ideas like identity, belonging, whakapapa and personal connection to place
- respect tikanga when engaging with artworks from their own and other cultures
- talk about what influences their creative decisions, including their purpose, the available materials, and the cultural and historical context they live in.
