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This page is based on the draft Year 9 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:
- take part in community dance events and talk about how this experience felt and what you learned
- view live or recorded dances from various genres and compare the similarities and differences you notice and discuss whether you think the dance had a specific idea or message it was trying to convey
- share your experiences of different kinds of dance and try them out
- individually create a movement motif in response to music you like, then teach it to each other, link the movements together, and develop a dance you can share at a family, community or church event.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher will focus on helping students analyse dance works 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 and manipulate dance elements and choreographic devices to communicate an idea through movement
- experiment with different ways of using dance to respond to a stimulus, such as music, a picture, a text, or a story
- create a motif (a single movement, gesture, or short phrase) and develop it by applying choreographic devices like repetition, variation, and contrast
- develop their dance skills and the clarity and impact of their performance through practice, giving and receiving feedback, and reflection
- dance with others using ensemble skills like timing, spatial awareness, and responsiveness, for example, adapting rhythm and energy in a sāsā to express a theme like growth
- perform dance from a range of genres, following the correct protocols, for example, beginning and finishing the dance with stillness.
Drama#
With your teen, you could:
- discuss the different places and ways we can view drama, including on television and our phones, at theatres, and in public spaces
- share personal experiences of being part of a performance and what helped or didn’t help people work well together
- practise taking part in devised drama by playing charades, then give each other feedback on how to communicate ideas more clearly.
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 use drama to express complex ideas.
For example, by the end of the year, your teen may be able to:
- use the techniques, conventions, elements, and technologies of drama to communicate ideas in scripted, devised, or improvised drama
- explore drama in a variety of:
- forms: how a play is presented, for example, clowning, puppetry
- genre: subject matter and style, for example, comedy, tragedy
- describe the stylistic features of various genres or forms, and explain how this knowledge helps them to understand and communicate meaning in drama
- use drama technologies, like lighting and sound, to support storytelling and help establish the intended setting and mood
- reflect on the decisions made to develop and present a performance, describing the purpose and the use of drama techniques, elements, conventions, and technologies to achieve that purpose
- explain why whanaungatanga and manaakitanga are important to enable people to collaborate to develop drama, sharing responsibility and giving each other helpful feedback.
Music#
With your teen, you could:
- sing together in unison and in harmony
- play music by ear or by reading a score
- be DJs and record a performance or a mixtape for a special occasion
- watch music award events, like the Silver Scrolls, Grammys, Te Matatini, The Big Sing and Polyfest, live or on screen, and share your response to the performances, the performance criteria, and the impact on the audience
- listen to music you haven’t heard before and talk about its features, how does it compare to the music your family usually listens to?
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:
- analyse short pieces of music, thinking about key, harmony, and texture
- read, write, and compose short melodies
- explore how the style and meaning of a musical work is influenced by its historical, cultural, and technological context
- use specialised vocabulary to analyse the work of famous composers and how they have used musical elements to convey ideas and emotions
- recognise and analyse the stylistic features of Māori and Pacific musical traditions, and of musical eras such as Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern
- sing in harmony and with control
- create a sense of texture in compositions, with melodies, chords, bass lines and rhythmic accompaniment working together to create an overall ‘feel’
- use software tools to record and edit music
- sensitively incorporate elements from te ao Māori or the Pacific into digital compositions, for example, a taonga pūoro sample or rhythmic motif
- give performances to small audiences, paying attention to all musical elements and conventions, including texture, balance and dynamics.
Visual Arts#
With your teen, you could:
- look at art in your community, at a gallery or online, select artwork that interests you, and think about who made it, when, where, how, and why
- make a drawing every week of something funny, unusual, or inspiring, setting a time limit to complete it
- go online to look at the work of artists Darcy Nichols and Kelsey Taratoa, and then discuss the colour relationships you see and their effect
- layer magazine cut-outs, paint, and ink to explore texture, colour theory, and visual hierarchy, use rule of thirds and integrate cultural motifs like koru or kōwhaiwhai
- design a personal or family logo for clothing or a reunion, using digital tools, applying colour theory, and including symbolic motifs to express identity and connection
- look at favourite objects or features of the local landscape and make a colour palette to match.
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 styles.
For example, by the end of the year, your teen may be able to:
- use visual art conventions and tools from across a range of disciplines, for example, design, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture
- use what they know about visual arts processes, techniques, and elements to explore and communicate meaning, for example:
- using perspective to convey ideas about space
- using tone to show form and balance
- mixing complex colours to convey ideas about the subject matter they are exploring, such as using different greens for a landscape
- use visual diaries or digital tools to record observations about artworks they have seen, and the ideas and decisions they make, developing their own work
- make artworks that reflect who they are and what they’re interested in and inspired by
- recognise the symbolic and cultural significance of te ao Māori, Pacific knowledge, and art from diverse cultures through the elements and tikanga used to make the work
- use art language to respond to artworks and the context in which they are made.
