NSW Department of Education and Training

Professional learning workshops for Dance 2009

Thursday 12 February 2009

We are in the process of planning workshops to support teachers with their implementation of the new core prescription work Cry by Alvin Ailey for the 2010 HSC.

While this work was introduced in the Dance Literacy workshops, which were conducted at the end of last year, the workshop for 2009 will have a dedicated focus on the new work (rather than a literacy focus). The content in the workshop will address:

1. The choreographer - Alvin Ailey & his work
2. The work - compositional analysis of Cry
3. The work - critical analysis of Cry (writing and review)

We are planning to offer the one-day workshop in three locations.

Information and registration details are posted on the Professional Learning website here.

Happy holidays

Friday 19 December 2008

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a lovely Christmas and New Year. I hope that you enjoy a refreshing break and I look forward to catching up with you again next year.

Rach Kirsten

Wednesday 3 December 2008

A huge thank you to Melissa Jacka (St Marys Senior HS) and Chris Richards (Wollongong HSPA) for their inspiring presentations at the recent Dance Literacy workshops.

We conducted two workshops in this series - one relating to the new work Cry for Core Appreciation (this workshop was repeated due to popular demand), and one relating to the new work Ghost Dances for Major Study Appreciation. The feedback from teachers who attended the workshops was fantastic, and selected notes from the workshop sessions will be posted on our site soon.

More workshops relating to the new course prescriptions for the 2010 HSC examination will be conducted in Semester 1 2009.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING WORKSHOPS FOR SEMESTER 2, 2008

Two workshops will be offered in October and November to address changes to core and major study prescriptions and the level of literacy students require to achieve well in Appreciation studies.

Workshop 1: Friday 31 October 2008

This workshop will look at the new work for Core Appreciation - Cry (1971) by Alvin Ailey. The focus of student literacy skills will include:
Talking and listening—analysing and discussing works, interpreting and summarising, communicating in informal and formal situations (these skills will also support viva voce presentations)
Reading and viewing—analysis, interpretation, comparison of texts, choosing appropriate strategies for analysis
Writing—using appropriate language in a range of written texts, drafting and editing extended responses for assessment.

Workshop 2: Wednesday 26 November 2008

This workshop will look at the new seminal work - Ghost Dances (1981) by Christopher Bruce, and new prescribed choreographers - Jiri Kylian and Stephen Page, for Major Study Appreciation. The focus of student literacy skills will include:
Talking and listening—accessing sources (podcasts and vidcasts) to analyse choreographic practice and works, interpreting and summarising, communicating in informal and formal situations (these skills will also support viva voce presentations)
Reading and viewing—higher order thinking skills used in analysis
Writing—structuring responses using high order language and examples.

To register for either of the workshops, visit the Professional Learning Course site here.

Wednesday 28 August 2007

The Online Dance Composition course has given us another opportunity to talk about dance teaching in secondary schools.

Contributions by participants in the course will be archived to the Dance Composition site which is now live. When you go there you will find content and strategies for teaching composition in some of the areas we have discussed so far ( e.g. phrase). Material on this site will build over time.

The site URL is http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/comp/index.html

Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.  ~Ted Shawn, Time, 25 July 1955

Friday 28 July 2006

At last, another communication channel!

The purpose of this page is to update you about new resources and opportunities.

Rachael Kirsten has a new MacBook Pro which has an isight camera (hence photo of me looking impressed, above). You can also take video footage and load directly into imovie. We were talking about how you could use footage to make a dance video. Rachael showed me a site where people go into a booth and move or dance, footage is captured and posted on the web. Curators, such as Bob Lockyer of dance on screen fame present their selections. Check it out at www.move-me.com

New HSC online tutorials

Three more tutorials have gone up on HSC Online in recent weeks - all for Jardi Tancat - focusing on space,dynamics and motifs and phrasing. Click here to go to the Duato tutorials.

Workshops in Semester 2

Here’s an update on professional learning opportunities for dance in Semester 2 2006 (this information has also been faxed to you if you are in the danceED network):

Dance: One-day workshops will be conducted in Terms 3 and 4, 2006 to support the implementation of new HSC prescribed choreographers and works (2006-2008) and HSC composition.

HSC Appreciation: learning and assessment
Date: Friday 1 December 2006
Workshop code 3056
Location: Sydney

This workshop builds on the introduction to the new prescribed works with sessions that further develop teacher knowledge of new works with a focus on sample learning activities, sample assessment tasks and preparing students for examination. This workshop has already been run in Sydney (Holiday Inn, Darling Harbour, June and Penrith Panthers, July).

HSC Composition: learning and assessment
Date: Thursday 7 December 2006
Workshop code 3057
Location: Hunter

Date: Monday 11 December 2006
Workshop code 3058
Location: Sydney

This workshop will provide teachers with the opportunity to investigate standards and practices in HSC composition. Sessions will focus on syllabus content and work samples. Consistency in teacher judgement when assessing composition samples will be addressed.