What is an arts exemplar?
An arts exemplar is a sample of authentic student work annotated to illustrate learning, achievement, and quality in relation to levels 1 to 5 of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum.
The purpose of the arts exemplars is to:
- illustrate key features of learning, achievement, and quality at different stages of student development
- help students and teachers to identify the next learning steps
- guide teachers in their interpretation of curriculum levels.
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What could have been exemplified?
Each of the four arts disciplines has its own distinctive body of knowledge, concepts, and modes of enquiry and its own forms or genres, styles, conventions, and processes. The breadth of this curriculum area and the almost limitless scope of what might have been exemplified meant that only selected aspects of learning in the arts could be illustrated. However, the exemplars for each discipline still offer a rich sample of work drawn from classrooms throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
The selected exemplars do not represent learning intentions to be emphasised in teaching programmes. Such decisions will be determined by the learning needs of particular groups of students.
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What is exemplified?
The rationales introducing each discipline explain the particular choices.
More broadly, the exemplars for the arts were chosen to illustrate achievement in the key aspects of learning. These are set out in the left-most column of the matrix for each discipline. Each of these key aspects of learning relates to one or more of the four curriculum strands in the arts:
- Developing Practical Knowledge in the Arts (PK)
- Developing Ideas in the Arts (DI)
- Communicating and Interpreting in the Arts (CI)
- Understanding the Arts in Context (UC).
These strands are referred to throughout the matrices and the exemplars by the letter codes indicated above.
Key principles informing progression in the arts
Progression in the arts disciplines is informed by five principles. These principles, which are stated broadly here, can be applied and adapted to each of the disciplines.
The five principles are:
- Complexity: Students revisit concepts and skills in increasingly complex and sophisticated ways.
- Control: Students acquire increasing control in using art forms as a medium of expression and communication.
- Depth: Students move from exploring a broad range of arts experiences to engaging with more specific aspects in more depth.
- Independence: Students become increasingly autonomous and self-directed and depend less on teacher direction and support.
- Consciousness: Students are increasingly able to deliberate on and structure their works and articulate their thinking and choices.
These principles relate to the vision of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum (page 15) that:
Learning in each discipline is spiral in nature and, at each level, it includes and builds on learning from previous levels.
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How might the arts exemplars be used?
Teachers will use the exemplars in ways that match their own professional needs and approaches and the learning needs of their students. In particular, teachers could use the exemplars to:
- Set and illustrate expectations of students' achievement, particularly through the modelling process.
- Support formative feedback to students individually and collectively, particularly to illustrate specific goals or development points.
- Assess their students' progress. Teachers may also wish to use them to guide their decisions on where their students' achievement "best fits" the levels of achievement described for a particular discipline and key area of learning.
- Reflect on their own practice as they plan, implement, and evaluate their programme of learning in the arts.
- Help them to inform and report to boards or parents on expectations and student achievement in each of the arts disciplines.
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Exemplar format
The arts exemplars are available in three formats: online, in print, and on a double CD-ROM.
Video clips
In all of the dance, drama, and music exemplars and some of the visual arts, video clips capture important sequences during the students' work over a period of time, and elements such as performing movement or singing that cannot be displayed in a static image. To give teachers maximum access, the video clips are available on the double CD-ROM as well as online.
It is essential to view the video clips on the CD-ROM or online when working with the print materials for dance, drama, music, and the visual arts.
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Online
The New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars
This sets out all the exemplar materials, including those for the arts.
The arts exemplar materials are available in both PDF and HTML formats.
This web page, along with the reference and resource lists, introduces the arts as a whole. Each discipline is then presented as a set consisting of:
- a short rationale
- glossary
- matrix
- exemplars.
Access the four disciplines:
Dance
Drama
Music
The Visual Arts
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Print
Please note that there are more exemplars online than in print.
The print exemplars for each discipline vary in some heading styles or layouts in order to better represent the distinctive body of knowledge and the different modes of performance or production. In general, the third banner heading (block capitalised) pinpoints the focus for each exemplar. For example, the relevant heading for the first visual arts exemplar in print is SCULPTURE: CLAY ANIMALS. This means that the exemplar primarily focuses on the following indicators:
- "explores the use of the elements of line, texture, and form through clay sculpture"
- "explores the qualities and effects of working with clay"
- "expresses ideas in response to motivations using observation"
- "uses imagination and invention with clay".
Other key aspects of learning support this core focus, for example, when the students:
- observe shape and proportion in their initial drawing sessions
- explore line, point, tone, shape, and texture in their drawing
- explore the qualities and effects of drawing in pencil.
Both the print and online-only exemplars are listed on the contents page of the printed document, and both are briefly described in the individual rationales for each discipline.
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CD-ROM
The double CD-ROM distributed to New Zealand schools with the print materials replicates the online materials.
The New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars: The Arts on CD-ROM:
CD 1: Dance, Drama
CD 2: Music, The Visual Arts
The CD-ROMs are designed to work in both Macintosh and Windows environments. Full instructions for loading are printed on the CD-ROMs.
Enquiries:
Wickliffe Ltd
Freephone: 0800 660 662
Orders:
Wickliffe Ltd
Freefax: 0800 660 663
Email: orders@thechair.minedu.govt.nz
Item number 30154.
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References
Ministry of Education (2001). The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
The School Curriculum Development Committee for the National Curriculum Council (1990). The Arts 5–16: A Curriculum Framework. Harlow, Essex: Oliver and Boyd.
The School Curriculum Development Committee for the National Curriculum Council (1990). The Arts 5–16: Practice and Innovation. Harlow, Essex: Oliver and Boyd.
Key principles
The first four of these principles were articulated in the materials produced for the National Curriculum Council of Great Britain as part of the Arts in Schools project. The terms "complexity", "control", "depth", and "independence" are those used by the School Curriculum Development Committee, but the explanations of these terms have been adapted for the exemplars. The fifth principle, consciousness, has been added to emphasise students' growing ability to think about their intentions and their work, and to express these understandings.
