Creative arts
These detailed units of work offer 2-4 weeks of learning activities and associated resources that can adapted to suit the context of your students.
Stage 4/5 units of work
Part 1 – How has society and culture been influential in the progression of dance over time? (3-4 hours)
In this unit students work in small groups to explore different dance styles or historical periods.
Part 2 – Pioneers of modern dance (3+ hours)
A unit of work where students explore the pioneers of modern dance, through appreciation and practical tasks that are based on the developing modern styles of dance.
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The following document contains both units.
Part 1 – Creating monologues (3-4 hours)
A unit of work that guides students to gain an understanding of how to effectively structure a monologue that creates a theatrical journey that will engage audiences.
Part 2 – Brecht – Political theatre (4-6 hours)
A unit of work that guides students to learn about Bertolt Brecht's notion of Epic theatre. They explore the Verfremdungseffekt and act as practitioners to explore ways of balance between disengagement and distancing.
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The following document contains both units.
Part 1 – How does instrumental music communicate stories without words? (4+ hours)
In this unit students will use the internet to explore programmatic works of composers, through aural, performance and composition activities.
Part 2 – Video game music (4+ hours)
In this unit students will begin to aurally analyse music from different video games in terms of structure, duration, unity and contrast.
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The following document contains both units.
Stage 4 Aboriginal music program
Resource
Part 1 – How does contemporary Australian photographer Tamara Dean comment on the world? (3-4 hours)
In this unit students be asked to account for the ways that Tamara Dean creates artworks that comment on the world, nature and human relationships. This unit is very similar in content to Part 2.
Part 2 – The Practice of Tamara Dean (3+ hours)
A unit of work where students examine works in the series “Endangered” by Tamara Dean and respond to questions based on the subjective, structural and cultural frames. This unit is very similar in content to Part 1.
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The following document contains both units.
What influences the actions and choices of artists who have created portraits? (3-4 hours)
A unit of work that guides students to investigate and analyse the actions and choices of a range of historical artists who have created portraits.
Self-Portraiture (3-4 hours)
A unit of work where students investigate the concept of 'personal identity' through an exploration of the genre of self-portraiture.
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The following document contains both units.
Introduction to the frames
A student-centered online module for Stage 4 Visual arts that introduces students to the frames as a tool for understanding and engaging with different points of view in artmaking and critical and historical studies. Students demonstrate their knowledge by completing a series of reading, writing and artmaking activities that explore historical and contemporary artworks from subjective, cultural, structural and postmodern perspectives.
Resource
Additional resources
More teaching resources including single lesson activities, term long units of work and cross curricular resources are located in our filterable resource library.
You can also find ideas and activities on our curated list of external links.
Distance education resources
Stage 4-5 distance education resources developed to support students working off campus. The Distance education network offers these documents to support teachers delivering off-campus learning. They are not designed for all learning contexts and are not anticipated to address all syllabus outcomes. Curriculum experts are reviewing them and when quality-assured versions are available they will be highlighted.
While the resources support independent student study, they must be used in consultation with their subject teacher.