Assessment
This section provides information about performing roles for assessment against national qualifications.
Introduction
When setting up assessment opportunities for students to perform roles that they have developed and rehearsed, teachers need to choose a context appropriate to the level at which their students are working and to meet the requirements of the individual assessment standards.
Achievement and unit standards
Achievement and unit standards specify what opportunities senior students require in order to meet all levels of achievement. The titles and explanatory notes for each standard state the requirements for the role or the production.
Achievement Standard 90009 V2: Drama 1.4 requires performance of a scripted role, which could be student devised or from an existing script and must be performed to an invited audience.
Achievement Standard 90303 V2: Drama 2.5 requires that the role be substantial.
Achievement Standard 90611 V2: Drama 3.5 requires that the production be significant.
To read the full details for each standard, go to the New Zealand Qualification Authority’s webpage on NCEA.
Finding a script
It can be difficult to find scripts that provide every student in a class with a sufficient role and a fair opportunity to meet the achievement criteria for a particular standard.
As well having the whole class perform a single play, the following approaches have been used to solve the problem of giving every student a fair opportunity:
- performance of scenes or excerpts from a full-length play
- performance of two one-act plays
- performance of a selection of similarly themed scenes by different playwrights
- performances of scenes from selected plays by a single playwright
- two casts playing alternate performances of one play.
Each approach has advantages and disadvantages, and individual teachers must make decisions that best suit the class size and composition.
A list of suggested performance scripts is included in the HOD Handbook: Secondary Drama.