Environmental Education and The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum: Draft

Learning the Languages of the Arts | Developing Ideas in the Arts | Communicating and Interpreting Meaning in the Arts | Understanding the Arts in Context

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Learning the Languages of the Arts

Strand aims

In this strand, students:

• Select and use appropriate processes, techniques, media, and technologies;
• Investigate and use the signs, symbols, and conventions of arts disciplines;
• Explore structure by using elements, principles, and devices.

Examples of student activities

Dance

• Learn and share cultural dances based on environmental themes and using dance elements in contrasting ways. (Level 2)
• Practise and rehearse dance on environmental themes in preparation for public performance. (Level 7)
• Analyse, interpret, and recreate a dance sequence based on an environmental issue and previously recorded in written or visual forms. (Level 8)

Drama

• Establish an imaginary space, such as a forest, island, or cave, as the setting for dramatic play. (Level 2)
• Use improvisation, puppetry, or storytelling to explore different attitudes to an environmental issue. (Level 3)
• Direct a short production based on an environmental issue and involving classmates or younger students. (Level 8)

Music

• Identify contrasting sounds of Papat˜ānuku and the environment (high and low, fast and slow, loud and soft, long and short). (Level 1)
• Use a computer application to notate a simple original composition on an environmental issue. (Level 5)
• Set a text about an environmental issue to music. (Level 6)

Visual Arts

• Use paper, card, and materials from Papatūānuku to make structures. (Level 1)
• Design and weave three-dimensional structures from fibres, such as flax, toetoe, or raupō. (Level 7)
• Select and use appropriate three-dimensional materials and techniques to plan and construct an environmental work, e.g., by using materials of Papatūānuku to make a site-specific structure. (Level 7)

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Developing Ideas in the Arts

Strand aims

In this strand, students:

• Source, conceptualise, and initiate ideas for art works;
• Develop, refine, and resolve ideas through art-making processes;
• Support the development of ideas with a growing understanding of forms, genres, and styles.

Examples of student activities

Dance

• Move in response to various environmental stimuli. (Level 1)
• Improvise movement motifs for an environmental theme. (Level 6)
• Develop dance ideas based on environmental images from Māori and Pacific Islands visual arts. (Level 8)

Drama

• Select and develop a series of scenes to examine an environmental issue in the community. (Level 2)
• Develop drama for a performance in an environmental setting. (Level 4)
• Combine performing arts and digital technology in an original multimedia work on an environmental issue. (Level 8)

Music

• Find different ways of making sounds with sound sources from the environment. (Level 1)
• Draw on environmental issues to make a musical statement, e.g., a rap, an advertising jingle. (Level 4)
• Set a text on environmental issues to original music, using advanced effects and performance techniques for expressive purposes e.g., word painting, melismas, hocket, falsetto. (Level 8)

Visual Arts

• Develop individual ideas to include in a group project, such as a class mural on an environmental theme. (Level 2)
• Use flax-weaving processes and procedures to make an object. (Level 4)
• Explore and describe the concept of perspective through a study of the methods of landscape artists. (Level 7)

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Communicating and Interpreting Meaning in the Arts

Strand aims

In this strand, students:

• Share, present, and exhibit or perform art works;
• Respond to, interpret, and evaluate their own and others' art works;
• Investigate how technology and communications media influence intended and perceived meaning.

Examples of student activities

Dance

• Talk about how their own and others' ideas and feelings about their environment can be expressed through movement. (Level 1)
• Choreograph dance on an environmental theme and record it on video. (Level 4)
• Debate how choreographers convey values and attitudes about the environment through the settings of their works. (Level 8)

Drama

• Devise and present drama on environmental issues and explain their choice and use of dramatic elements. (Level 3)
• Plan, rehearse, and present a role or character relating to the environment, using mime or expressive movement. (Level 5)
• Select, combine, and perform a range of excerpts on a contemporary environmental issue or theme. (Level 8)

Music

• Use voices and simple instruments to tell a story about the environment through sound. (Level 1)
• Practise, perform, and record their own and others' compositions on environmental themes. (Level 6)
• Experiment with a range of materials, devices, and technologies in the performance of a composition on an environmental theme. (Level 8)

Visual Arts

• Make art works on an environmental theme in response to the work of a visiting local artist. (Level 1)
• Describe how the characteristics, motifs, and symbols of Māori taonga communicate meaning about the environment. (Level 3)
• Arrange an exhibition of art works on an environmental theme. (Level 7)

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Understanding the Arts in Context

Strand aims

In this strand, students:

• Investigate forms and functions of the arts in relation to social and cultural contexts, past and present;
• Investigate the values attached to art works in a variety of contexts;
• Explore the contribution and significance of the arts in contemporary cultures.

Examples of student activities

Dance

• Explain how traditional dances reflect the geographical settings of different cultures e.g. in their instruments, costumes, formations, and movements. (Level 3)
• Compare and contrast Māori and Pacific Islands dances on environmental themes. (Level 5)
• Complete a comparative study of an environmental issue as explored through dance today and in the past. (Level 8)

Drama

• Demonstrate some of the functions of drama (e.g., to amuse, inform, entertain) on an environmental issue. (Level 2)
• Interview a local actor, director, or playwright about the environmental ideas and knowledge expressed in their work. (Level 4)
• Investigate and describe how New Zealand playwrights or film-makers have recorded and interpreted environmental issues. (Level 8)

Music

• Listen to, discuss, and perform the music of the tangata whenua on environmental issues. (Level 3)
• Examine a selection of contemporary songs on environmental issues and describe their social and cultural contexts and their significance for intended audiences. (Level 6)
• Investigate the use of environmental sounds in a variety of contemporary media, e.g., advertising, muzak, computer games and applications, film and television scores. (Level 7)

Visual Arts

• Talk about objects and images found in their own environment. (Level 1)
• Investigate and describe how particular environmental issues are addressed in certain art works. (Level 7)

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