NSW Department of Education and Training

Monday 8 September 2008

PROPOSED CHANGES TO HSC DANCE EXAMINATION AND SCHOOL ASSESSMENT

Dance teachers and personnel from DET schools are invited to participate in an urgent forum to discuss the Board of Studies proposed changes to the HSC examination and school assessment. The most prominent of the changes is the elimination of the Viva Voce, which may have major implications for Composition and other aspects of the HSC course.

4:00pm – 6:00pm WED 24 SEPTEMBER 2008
Technology room, Curriculum K-12 Directorate
3a Smalls Rd, Ryde.

The purpose of the forum is to form a DET response to the proposed changes.
1. Jan Ayre will review the proposed changes.
2. Deidhre Wauchop will outline some of the implications of the proposed changes.
3. Chris Richards and Gwen Schofield will suggest possible alternatives to the proposed changes.
4. DET teachers will be invited to submit their ideas for inclusion in the response.

If you are unable to travel to Ryde to attend the meeting, you can attend the meeting by video conference. This option requires you to locate a video conference facility and dial-in to the meeting at 3:45pm on the date of the meeting. Detailed instructions will be sent to teachers who RSVP this request.

RSVP ESSENTIAL
PLEASE RSVP YOUR INTENTION TO ATTEND THE FORUM BY EMAIL TO Rach Kirsten at:
rach.kirsten@det.nsw.edu.au
Please indicate if you wish to attend via video conference.

The changes are posted on the BOS website here.

Tuesday 26 August 2008

NEW COURSE PRESCRIPTIONS FOR 2010-2012

The Board of Studies has posted information on the new Dance Stage 6 Course Prescription for 2010-2012. The Course Prescriptions can be downloaded from the Board website here.

Professional learning workshops to address the new course prescriptions will be offered in early 2009.

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. If you would like more information about the course and how to register CLICK HERE .

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.