Narrator

The following podcast is brought to you by the Creative arts curriculum team from Curriculum Secondary Learners, Curriculum and Reform Directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education. The Creative arts curriculum team acknowledges the traditional custodians from here on Dharug country and from all the lands on which you are listening today. We respect the elders past, present, and emerging as we share our creative arts education stories.

Eleisha Taylor [Creative Arts Curriculum Officer, NSW Department of Education]

Welcome to Creative Cast, the official podcast of the New South Wales Department of Education's Creative arts curriculum team. My name is Eleisha Taylor and I'm a Creative Arts Curriculum Officer. Today's topic of discussion is major study appreciation, and I'm lucky to be joined by Tamara Mitchell from Riverside Girls High, who is experienced in teaching major study appreciation. Welcome, Tamara. Thank you for joining me.

Tamara Mitchell [Teacher, Riverside Girls High]

Thank you, Eleisha. Thanks for having me.

Eleisha

Firstly, have you got any recommendations for the listeners today? A current artist or work of interest perhaps?

Tamara

Oh, okay. Well, I guess on the topic of major appreciation, I have been exploring Crystal Pite's work a little bit more and her work with Kidd Pivot. So, I remember seeing ‘Dark Matters’ about 10 years ago and I recently rewatched it and just remember being in awe of it the very first time I saw it. The way she can make the puppetry kind of work and interact with the dancers was so good. So, I guess Dark Matters is something that I've really been enjoying rewatching, and I also touched on ‘Flight Pattern’ for the first time, which is her 2019 work, and I really enjoyed the way that she used the space and the bodies within the space. And it's really topical emotive concept, which she's really good at exploring and bringing to the forefront in different ways. So I guess those would be my 2 recommendations for now.

Eleisha

Thank you. Some great recommendations and an excellent reminder for teachers and students that they can have a look at the works of these artists to get more insight into the context of their works. Thank you for that. So we'll jump into the questions now. Firstly, dance teachers around the state have an understanding of HSC core appreciation. However, many of them would never have had the opportunity to teach major study appreciation. With that in mind, can you explain for the listeners how major study appreciation is different to core appreciation?

Tamara

Sure. So, in major appreciation, students have the opportunity to study a seminal work, a prescribed era and a prescribed artist, as opposed to just studying the 2 core prescribed works. So they're actually delving a little bit deeper into a particular period of dance and also looking at a seminal work. So a work that has really crafted or shaped the dance landscape or changed the direction of dance as we understand it to be at that point in time. So they're still applying their skills with analysis from the social, cultural, historical context, but they're also delving deeper into making critical evaluation and critical judgements and how these works or these artists have changed that landscape or contributed to dance as an art form.

Eleisha

Thank you. Can you characterise a student who would be an appropriate candidate for major study appreciation?

Tamara

So a student who would be a good candidate for major appreciation should be a student who can think critically and is skilled in making judgments. I also find that if they have good skills in research, it's really of benefit to the student. They also would benefit from being able to strongly link ideas together so that they're looking at things like how the era impacted the artist’s style and then how that artist’s style appears in their work and being able to select specific movement examples and linking that all together. So having that 360 view of how the artist decisions are made, I think is really important. So linking those ideas together.

And then they also really need to have clear and concise written communication. They need to be able to describe movement fluently, adapt their analytical skills to suit any question that they can get and really make those discerning judgments about the context and the artists. And I guess my last thought about this is that they also have to be prepared to undertake independent study, not just in the sense that it's a value to immerse themselves in the era and the artist's work, so spending some time watching and learning and delving into that period of time, but I think it's also a practical sense because you are potentially going to be teaching multiple major studies in the one lesson. And so having a student that can work independently is going to be able to allow you and all the rest of the class to be able to focus on their particular major study without having to worry too much about what they're doing and how they're tracking.

Eleisha

Yeah, I think that idea of having an independent learner and that concise ability to write are really key points. Thank you for pointing them out. How do you define the concept of a seminal work or seminal artist for your students?

Tamara

So, when we talk about seminal at Riverside, we usually use 2 words, innovation and influence to define that seminality of a work or individual. So, we talk about things like them having a great influence on the discipline, potentially a work or a practice that contains new ideas, the idea of taking something that already exists and asking meaningful questions of it to change the current dance landscape. So, words like original thought, moving or changing ways of thinking are things that we also have a look at under that umbrella of innovation, and we also might mention that there's going to be degrees of seminality, so you might have someone that completely revolts against the institution.

I know Merce Cunningham often gets put in that bracket as really breaking away from that modernist trend and moving into postmodernism. Or there might be an artist that is within a particular growing movement like some of the artists that come out of the Judson Dance Theatre, but then really capitulates the key ethos’s or values of that movement, like Lucinda Childs really brings it to the forefront. And then we also talk about influence. So, once a student can understand what has changed and how the artist has changed or how a work has changed the past, we want to then look at how they influence the future and what other artists or what impact or long-lasting legacy they leave. So, I guess innovation and influence are the 2 ways that we define seminality.

Eleisha

I love that, innovation and influence. I feel like they're two really key ideas and really strong terms that students can latch onto to understand that concept. With the concept of independent working in mind, how do you manage the classroom environment for major study when you have a student engaging in theoretical and practical work at the same time?

Tamara

Yeah, that one I must say it's not easy. I think it's going to be the biggest challenge to any teacher and dance teachers are already amazing, so any dance teacher that can really balance this is just going above and beyond. It's really exciting to hear more teachers being involved in teaching major appreciation because it can really suit so many students and it really opens up our world of dance and the subject in terms of its accessibility to a variety of different students. I think if I had to answer your question in one word, it definitely comes down to culture. So the culture that you get to create in the classroom. And as part of this, clearly communicating your learning expectations to your students so that every student understands what they need to achieve and how they're going to do that and that will sometimes involve them not always working directly with you.

So to I guess explain that and to think about what that might look like, say you have three practical lessons a week, what we would try to do at my school is you would schedule your week or even fortnight so that you spend time with every major grouping. And beforehand, what I like to do is turn my program into a student friendly version which maps their milestones and their appropriate timeframes for their achievement so that they're knowing what it is they need to do to get to this final product or end result.

And so what they might experience in that week could be time with a teacher workshopping ideas and workshopping their next milestone, and then independent work that stems from that time with the teachers. We have this probably slightly strange metaphor, but we have this metaphor of your major study being a road. And so sometimes when you're travelling along you're going to hit a stoplight or a traffic light and you're going to hit a stop sign and things aren't always going to work. So we have this little term called avenues where you get to go off to the side road and work in parallel to your major study if you get stuck and the teacher's not available to you or you're just not in that creative zone today for whatever reason.

And so for something like major performance, that's going to look like doing some theory work, doing some work on your interviews, doing some research about your concept intent for major appreciation. That can often be looking at particular works or excerpts of works or going back to those basic concepts when you get stuck with any ideas. And I guess what they also might experience in that week is working with their peers. We often do a lot of pair-share ideas. I might randomly pair or group students up even across different majors and they just check in with each other.

At the moment, I'm looking at 13 students in my Year 12 class for next year and I already know there's going to be probably, I reckon 3 different majors that they're all leaning towards. And so having that open environment where they feel comfortable to talk and work with each other is really important. And then obviously from a teacher perspective, you are constantly doing check-ins and progress reports and we try to build them in over the unit, or more so even over the year because we often don't just dedicate consecutive weeks to major, it's something that we work on throughout the entire year. So we're just trying to give students the confidence that while there may be multiple majors in one class, everyone is going to get equal opportunity to create and develop them and to succeed with them.

Eleisha

Sounds like a beautiful collaborative space that you've developed and I love that idea of the student friendly program. I think that type of thing could also really support teachers in finding those milestones for their own formative assessment and feedback as well. With that in mind, are there any specific teaching strategies that you have found that best support student learning for major study appreciation?

Tamara

In terms of knowledge and understanding of the major appreciation syllabus and content, it obviously comes down to knowing the student and knowing how they're going to work, but what I find generally works for most students is explicitly teaching that foundational knowledge of the era and the artist. So I find that the biggest gap in student knowledge is usually around the history of international dance and the artistic movements that we associate with them. So a lot of them might not fully understand what modernism or postmodernism means, or they've only encountered it in English or history or visual arts, so they don't actually understand what it looks like in dance.

And so I find that when you start to break the students into their major groupings, major appreciation really I guess benefits from you spending a lot of teacher directed time with them at the beginning so that they can really understand and get that foundational knowledge. And I always try and pair this with visuals so that they can actually see, because then that helps them when they go to study some of the works from these artists or from this era, they can start to make those connections visually with what is the same, what is different, what is changing. And so if they can understand that state of the dance landscape as it was, then they can look at what's been changed and what's been manipulated and what's been innovated on.

I also find that discussion points are really important, particularly for that formative assessment and for that check-in. I don't always need my students to be writing responses, especially initially, I want to actually hear from them that they can understand. So we might often have a few key focus questions that they're working towards as part of their milestones and the way that they demonstrate their knowledge is usually through, I guess more of an interview style check-in.

And in terms of skills in regard to their writing really, we do look at those explicit writing activities, focusing on that deep evaluation or critical judgement. Feedback obviously is really important here, and we do start initially with a focus on language, so choosing the right words or examples because they really have such a short time in the exam. So, 20 minutes for questions 2 and 3 each, so 2 lots of 20 minutes to really write a deep critical judgement is a challenge. So the more specific and the more economic they can be with their word choice, the better.

And then also what we find is that using examples well has always been a struggle. So the more they can actually pull ideas and movement examples from the works or from the choreographers and the artists, the better they tend to do in their final exam. So we are really kind of looking at it from almost a source analysis point of view. What is their source, their sources, those sequences of movement and what does it then tell us conceptually about the artist? So we work on the source linking to the concept quite a bit as they move into the unit.

Eleisha

So, are there things that you could do throughout the dance course to set a student up for success in major study appreciation?

Tamara

Absolutely, and I think what we've found in my particular school setting is that we try for early identification of possible major options, and we feel like it's important to get the students thinking and talking about the major early on so that when they're doing the preliminary course, they're actively self-assessing how they're going and how they're finding something. If they're finding compositions, something that they're really enjoying and is something that seems free flowing in terms of their ideas and their creativity as opposed to something like performance or appreciation, then they're thinking, "Oh, this could be my major." And then they're thinking or looking at the students ahead of them doing these majors and that sharing mentoring thing is something that we do. So we try and get someone who's done a certain major to come and talk to the students about what is involved.

I think there's a lot of misconceptions about certain majors about how much they need to do and really how organised they need to be for some of them. So if we get a sense of what students are leaning towards early, we can start putting structures in place so that when they start Year 12, they can immediately start forming ideas and thinking about how they're going to succeed with their major. And I also think having that open discussion allows the students to know that other people are interested in certain majors, particularly with major appreciation, and I feel like that helps eliminate the, ‘But I chose dance, I should maybe just dance.’ And that mentality can be crippling to some students and by having that open discussion and by seeing other students be interested in it or having the opportunities to talk to other students that do it, students realise that, ‘Well, I should be choosing the thing that I'm the best at.’

And I think that's what I really love about the major component of HSC dance is that they get that choice. And I know it puts a lot back on teachers, and I think a lot of other subjects are always surprised to find out how much freedom they have with their major works and how much then work that then puts back on the teacher. But I really just think that's such a gift to have a syllabus that does that for our students and really caters for their skills. So that strength-based approach is really nice, and I think knowing that early on and having that open dialogue with the students and they can have that open dialogue with each other really helps us there.

And I think just in terms of setting them up for success, I guess echoing what I said before about I personally feel like it's more beneficial to spend more time with the students earlier on in their major study. So really getting them to look at the history of dance and this particular current prescribed text are very North American focused. So really getting them to understand the history of dance in America and that evolution really provides that contextual relevance for their learning about the rest of the artists and the era.

Then looking at how you're going to timetable your year I think is really important, and making sure that those students have enough time to gain that contextual understanding before they start making their critical evaluation and before they start looking at the work itself. I have a lot of people always ask me whether they should start with the era or the work, and I unfortunately don't have a good answer for them. I think that really comes down to the students. You'll know when you are doing your core appreciation and whether it's going to be an overload on them doing yet another analysis.

Sometimes I often try to start with era or artist just to break up that focus on a work, and I find by the time I get to looking at the work, we've really gotten quite deep into the core appreciation text. So I guess they've warmed up their analytical skills with these and then they can really translate them to this work and making more critical and deeper evaluations and judgements there. So I guess any suggestion would be to start that way and to access the era and the artist first to break up the analysis aspect.

Eleisha – I have to agree with you that I really love the major study option in differentiating the content quite naturally for some of our students, and it's such a great way for them to explore something that they're really good at, but also really passionate about. I thought it was really nice as well that through this early identification of the major study work in the preliminary course, that it creates this value of self-assessment and constant reflection from the students on their work and how they're going and how they're tracking.

So I'm going to take this time to recommend that if you have found this Creative Cast episode insightful, you may also wish to listen to the episode, Where To From Here? Assessment in Dance, where teacher Kirsty McRae breaks down her progression of learning for teaching students how to write about dance. You can also check out the curriculum resources, Writing about performance in dance and drama and Writing about dance in Stage 6. Tamara, thank you. Setting aside some time in your busy schedule is greatly appreciated.

Tamara

Thank you for having me.

Eleisha

Until next time.

Narrator

This podcast was brought to you by the Creative arts curriculum team of Curriculum Secondary Learners, Curriculum and Reform Directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education. Get involved in the conversation by joining our statewide staff room through the link in the show notes or email our Creative Arts Curriculum Advisor, Cathryn Horvat at creativearts7-12@det.nsw.edu.au. The music for this podcast was composed by Jack Ryan from Molong Central School.

[End of transcript]

Jackie King

The following podcast is brought to you by the creative arts curriculum team from secondary learners educational standards directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education.

As we commence this podcast today, let us acknowledge the traditional custodians of all the lands on which this podcast will be played around New South Wales. Their art, storytelling, music and dance along with all First Nations People hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal Australia. Let us acknowledge with honour and respect our elders, past, present and future, especially those Aboriginal people in our presence today, who have and still do guide us with their wisdom.

Ravenna Gregory

Welcome to the Creative Cast podcast series. My name's Ravenna Gregory and I'm a creative arts curriculum officer with the New South Wales Department of Education. This episode, we're going to be talking about ways of navigating the often intense highs and lows of the HSC group devising process and my guests are two drama teachers from opposite ends of the state.

Now in her 18th year of teaching, Simone Museth taught at Ashfield Boys and Lithgow High before moving to her current role as drama teacher and relieving head teacher TAS at Byron Bay High School. Simone is a passionate director of school theatre productions with particular strengths and interest in directing contemporary physical theatre with a minimalist design approach. She is also a singer, a musician who has fronted a variety of Sydney based bands and has run concerts and shows in the alternative music scene for over 15 years.

Bro Reveleigh is a drama and English teacher at Smith's Hill High School in Wollongong. He is currently completing a master of education at the University of Sydney, researching the potential use of Augusto Boal forum theatre in teacher collaboration and professional development. He is excited to read up more about critical pedagogy and the role that it can play in refocusing education on valuing community. He also likes a crumbly blue cheese Welcome Simone and Bro.

Simone Museth

Thanks

Bro Reveleigh

Thanks for having us.

Ravenna

So bro, can you start off by telling us about your favourite blue cheese please? Sorry, can you just share a little bit about your journey as a drama teacher and maybe a little bit about what is the place of drama at Smith Hill High.

Bro

I started my career, and still, standing on the shoulders of giants. So, my drama teacher who kind of taught me a lot of what I know as a drama teacher retired, Sharne Sjostedt, and I was lucky enough to, in no way could I ever replace her, but I was lucky enough to kind of pick up the baton and keep running with it and keep being silly in the classroom. So, I have been operating in a very well established culture of drama at the school and my colleague Brian Cutler who runs fantastic school productions and writes them himself. Yeah, it's a very exciting place to work for someone that's as enthusiastic about our subject as we all are.

Ravenna

Thanks. So, Sharne was your drama teacher?

Bro

Yes

Ravenna

And then you became the drama teacher in that school. Amazing, that's the kind of story that, you know, as drama teachers that keeps us going through the group devising process. I heard already about Brian Cutler and the amazing work that he does in writing productions down in Wollongong. Got quite a name for himself there.

Bro

Yeah, he works fantastically in that area, across like all aspects of the production, so really showing the students how it comes, what's that old adage, from the page to the stage.

Ravenna

yeah, okay, thank you. And Simone, you've got a long career as a drama teacher, can you tell us a little bit I guess about some of the highlights and maybe challenges about teaching drama at Byron Bay High?

Simone

There's a lot of highlights working in such a creative and vibrant community as Byron Bay. The community is a very supportive school community and beyond that the entire community is very focused on the arts, music, theatre, visual arts and obviously a lot of fantastic cultural production has come out of this community. So, what I find working with the students here is that they are really actively creative. So, they spend a lot of their spare time, their lunch times working on artworks in the art classrooms, working in the music studios and developing their pieces, they're all in bands, and then they love dance and drama. We don't have dance running at the school this year, it's something that they're really trying to build, but when there has been dance. Obviously as a drama teacher I see the performing Arts centre is always full at lunch times, full of students working on their pieces. So, I find that the students here are more driven in the arts than any school I've ever worked out in terms of their passion and then of course that translates through to talent because we all know how much hard work and passion drives that developing talent and that developing confidence. I would say that whilst we have that strong community backing and that strong cultural leaning towards the arts in this community, there's a lot happening in this community and the students are very involved in a lot of different things. So, I guess one of those challenges is juggling all of those commitments that students have and juggling all of those extracurricular opportunities that the school offers them. So I find, teaching drama, that can be a real challenge is just juggling the spasmodic attendance that can occur around lots of different commitments and of course being collaborative and particularly in terms of the GP, which we're talking to today, just trying to keep those students moving forward when, you know, it might be a week or two weeks where they don't have a full group and it's usually just because these students are so active.

Ravenna

So just on that then, I think that's a really sort of nice segway into talking a little bit more about the group performance and certainly one of the biggest challenges and one that teachers are probably right now grappling with or have just made their way through and they're dealing with the aftermath of the fallout is the formation of the groups for the group devised performance. And you talked a little bit about that, that idea of the competing kind of priorities and competing interests that students have. And I guess every school I have worked in, I've taken a different approach to forming groups dependent on the needs and the culture of that particular school and that group of students. It will be really interesting to hear from both you and Bro about how you go about that group formation or how you've just been through that group formation, its term two, week two as we speak, Monday. And so yeah, really interested to hear about that.

Simone

I do have a pretty well tested strategy here. However, the one year that my group got into on stage, I didn't use this strategy, which is interesting. So, generally the strategy that I use is that I like the students to have some input. However, I don't let them create the groups themselves. So, what I do is I hand out a small piece of paper to each of them and I ask them to write down the names of four people, no less, but definitely more, if they like four people that they would really ideally like to work with from the class and they shouldn't be putting them in any priority order either because then you are really setting yourself up for a difficult, sleepless night. What you're doing is saying, who are the four students you would really like to work with? Obviously not all the groups are going to have five, but I like to have a big number to work with from there. I try to make everybody happy with being placed with at least one person on their list. Sometimes it'll work out that they’re with two. Often, you'll find the students have talked to each other and write each other down. That's not very helpful because there's always going to be students who miss out in that sort of structure, so giving them some input, then you obviously looking at that and tweaking it to find a bit of an equitable spread and that's the important one. So, making sure that there are really strong students working students who might benefit from their mentoring and guidance. I don't like creating super groups, I think that's a real problem and it's not equitable.

And another thing I will say is got to consider that sometimes and this is what happened in 2019, sometimes the class will have decided already who is working with whom and that didn't happen when they presented to me with their formations, there were twins, I had to make, obviously, we're not going to have two identical twins in the same group, looking at attendance issues and trying to spread them through. So, you do have to let them have some sense of autonomy and if they feel that they've done that as a group of 14, which they had, go for it. But other than that, the best strategy is for you to form the groups based on some suggestions from them

Ravenna

A part of my sense of humour that loves the idea of putting identical twins in a group and differentiating them only through a different colour for the markers, but don't do that at home, people, don't do that at home. So, thank you, Sim. Bro, what do you do it at Smith’s Hill in terms of that formation of groups?

Bro

I'm sitting here furiously nodding as Sim’s talking. It's pretty much identical to what Sim said. I think some things I picked up on there that we absolutely encourage as well is the students need to write down names of people they would like to work with or can work with. The longer that list can be, the better. And something we're very conscious of is at the start of the year 11 course, we teach at the academically selective school, so the students are very cognisant of what's happening at the end of the HSC course, even at the start of your 11, so we say, if there's anyone in this class that you can't see yourself working with at that time, then you need to come and have a chat with us because it's within the spirit of the syllabus and the spirit of the community of the syllabus. You need to be able to put your personal apprehensions aside and start to build those interpersonal skills, which is again, I'm probably jumping ahead a little bit here, but it's something that's really valuable about the GP experience.

Ravenna

I love that way of framing it, really important. And I also think that experimenting with different groups throughout year 11 is so important too. I often will say that by the end of that year 11 course, please have worked with everybody in this course or in this class so that you know what the challenges are. And sometimes there's some lovely unexpected creative partnerships that come out of that.

Bro

Absolutely. We definitely encourage that in year 11 as well, that they try and work with everyone in the class in formal and informal group work. So, they kind of discover new relationships and that collegial approach is that they have with each other in that group work, so they're not just sticking with people that they know within the class. So, it really opens up some opportunities. I don't know whether you found this Sim as well, but sometimes when there has been a little bit of discussion before the GP process starts the term of the HSC course, some students will write down the names of their friends, but that's not necessarily reciprocated. You'll get some lists that have kind of mixed it up based on previous groups that have worked well together. So, for the students there's a huge range of things that impact their choices. But at the end of the day, I think the same, assume it's a conversation, but ultimately, we're putting the groups together, trying to weigh the best interests of the students with their preferences for working together.

Ravenna

On that, that the best interests of the students working together, how do you structure the facilitation of the GP? Do you have a way of structuring? And I'm aware as I'm asking this, that that shifts every year, but sort of thinking about how do you approach the open ended sort of freedom of the group devised performance in order to create those restraints that create a constructive creative environment?

Bro

Yeah, I think you've hit the nail on the head there with it is very class dependent, particularly in terms of the dynamics and size of the class. But typically, the last few years I've been teaching HSC course, we're coming off the back of the approaches to acting topic and I'm lucky in my particular context, and it's a deliberate choice on my part in terms of the design of the course, that they're dying to try out some of the activities from Boal, some of the movement exercises from Lecoq that they didn't get a chance to cover in that eight weeks or so that were doing the content in term. So, bring that back into the GP process to actually start looking at how to build shapes, image, theatre, all those sort of rich, really useful, starters for the GP process. So, it's about generating as much of that material up front as possible, not sitting around hard scripting anything, playbuilding it, getting it up, testing the material as quickly as you can so that you can start to filter through it, you can start to say no to things. I try and as like a rule of thumb for my students because we work off like individualist milestone goals for each group, just like in terms of conversation they kind of keep track of that in their log books. But in terms of milestoning with each group, they're trying to come up with at least twice as much material as the 8 to 12 minute mark. And then filtering through trimming back, having a discussion about what sort of dramatic form or theatrical style they're thinking about that gives them more criteria to kind of have to think about what their performance purpose is, what their relationship to the audience is and how you might define or frame. That's all those lovely moving parts that we juggle as drama teachers, particularly within the GP task itself. It's really about a milestoning process that suits the needs of each group, particularly in terms of size and direction. And then kind of coming off the back of that approaches to acting topic, which I think is fantastic, particularly in terms of the practitioners that have been selected for that list. So, I know we're ending the cycle of the current prescriptions, but I'd give that a plug to anyone just to go and have a look at some of those activities, particularly Boal. I think Boal is fantastic as my bio might suggest.

Ravenna

So that beautiful connection between Lecoq and Boal and you see it as well, when I've taught black comedy, of that influence creeping into so many of the group performances. That's something for teachers to think about, I think. Sim do you have any particular ways for facilitating the HSC, any steps or timelines that you can talk about?

Simone

So being a taurian, I am very structured. Obviously, there's that beautiful combination of discipline and anarchy involved in this. I totally agree with you Bro. I think that teaching approaches to acting is just the most beautiful pathway to beginning the GP. I too find that I never cover everything I want to cover in that unit and it's a great thing because all of those fantastic training activities that really loan themselves to group work and chorus work, you're able to use those in the development of the group performance very effectively. So, I have a process called the nucleus development that I use. And the first thing I do before we start the nucleus development is we create or I guess really re established group culture or class culture. I'm really big on class culture and having students really define what that is and how we relate to each other and giving really positive comments to each other, finding those positives, writing them down. A lot of self affirmation and group affirmation. And from there we give them a toolkit and the toolkit is really important. It's just a hard copy booklet. But for me it has everything they're going to need that term. And yes, there are milestones in a little calendar there, but there are lists, the ingredients you might need for a GP, a list of dramatic techniques that could be used, which is incredibly long but not exhaustive. A list of comedy strategies goes in there, a list of approaches to rehearsal and feedback goes in there. And I even put a page in there for questions for log reflections as well. So, once they have that, we start this nucleus process, which is, they have mind mapped every single topic on that list with connotations and associations. And they will pick their favourite mind map and they'll pick some of their favourite connotations from that list and they'll connect them or pair them with some of the ingredients in the toolkit or some of the dramatic techniques listed in the toolkit or dramatic techniques that aren't there, ones that they've come up with themselves. And from there we start this sort of moving image creation. Now, once you have those three moving images, we might start with three and then we link those together, we have this fairly random but beautiful moving image that is littered with techniques and ideas that then they get feedback on and that feedback might be these characters seem to be emerging. These are the themes that seem to be emerging, wow, that's really comedy or that feels like it's a darker mood and it's just that investigation, feedback and play, really it's play. I mean, obviously we do a lot of improv warmups before we do this. And so, once they have that little nucleus, which could be anything from 10 seconds to a minute long, we then start a 2nd nucleus. We let go of it, we start a second one and we do it in the same way with a different topic from the list, with a different mind map and a different set of connotations and associations and build that one. But when I do the second one, I often get them to have conversations and lists in their logbook beforehand of what are your interests? What are the things that you'd like to explore? What are your talents? Can you sing, can you dance? Do you play football? Because I've even seen people use ball skills in performance beautifully. Can you do any of these things? Can you think of some interests you have? Can you think of some pop culture sayings and pop culture references to litter this one with? Right. So, they then create this nucleus, but they actually backward map in a way from what the group is interested in and find the topic list item with a mind map that really suits what they're looking to do. Does that make sense?

Ravenna

So amazing. Amazing.

Simone

And that is often the one they go with because it's richer. But I will say this, the group who did Story of a Hat in 2020, the 2019 class actually picked images from both nucleus or nuclei, I guess to put together because one was a pirate ship, moving pirate ship and I think another was the Wild West. And obviously they found ways to put that in a sort of absurdist style and mix genres.

Ravenna

I love the fact that this is such a structured approach in some ways, but then obviously has that incredible freedom because it's driven by the students and their interests and their creativity, which I guess is the GP really in a nutshell, isn't it.

Simone

the third time they do this, they may do it a third time, they're doing it on their own. So, I guide them through those first two and then I go, if you don't like them, start again. Yeah, and that's fine.

Ravenna

You talked about milestones earlier, Bro, can you tell us a little bit about how you manage the school based assessment of the GP? I'm really interested in the different ways that schools approach this. You talked a lot about kind of formative feedback cycles throughout and that seems to be the approach to GP. But can you tell us about that kind of, more formalist school based assessment?

Bro

Yeah, I think anyone that's moved through the course is going to be familiar with a sort of rapid verbal formative feedback cycles that we're engaged in the drama classroom all the time. We're testing material for its aesthetic value, its engagement, but also its underlying purpose, and its relation to dramatic form. So, there's lots and lots of different things that we're trying to focus on as we guide the students towards the pointy end of the term. In terms of the way that we map it out logistically, with this current cohort, I sat down with year 12, at the start of the HSC course and we discussed what they would prefer in terms of how the assessment was structured. So, I gave him the option of whether the logbook was just purely verification of the process or if you'd like it to be included in the internal assessment. And they liked the idea of this being included in the internal assessment because some of them were thinking about their confidence in terms of performance. We have a few people who haven't done drama before the senior course, so they liked the idea of being able to kind of sure up their internal assessment by putting effort into the formation research ideas, and reflection that is included in the logbook. And that happened for the IP as well. So, at this stage we're assessing it as a GP logbook submission. That will happen in the last week of this term as a way of thinking about early term three when we're going to have like a trial performance night for their IP submissions. But they'll also have an opportunity to perform the group performance informally and just get some feedback that isn't assessed as part of the internal exam schedule that gives them multiple iterations, like formal iterations of performance in order to kind of act on broad audience feedback.

Ravenna

I love that you've negotiated that with the year group to find out what they are going to be invested in and that's a lovely idea of them taking ownership of that when they perform it. They're receiving formative feedback rather than an accessible mark, is that correct?

Bro

So they'll receive a mark and feedback as part of the formal assessment schedule at the end of this term when they submit the logbook as well. And then we'll have a performance night before our whole school trials about week three of next term, where they will be submitting and performing IPs and they'll also perform their GPs, but that won't be formally assessed. That's just another opportunity to present their performance, test it with a different audience show, a little bit more refinement in terms of previous feedback. So, what it does, which I think is really valuable, is on top of the formative feedback we give them verbally and in written forms across the term because I think it's important to give them feedback in multiple forms so that they have that to refer to when they're reflecting in their logbooks. And even, I'm sure Sim probably does this as well, give them a scaffold to kind of minute verbal conversations. I think that's really important as well. You're giving important, valuable feedback and they're buzzing and they're excited that they've just performed something and then it's either worked really well or they're a bit dejected because it hasn't quite worked the way they wanted it to and then you tell them something and then five minutes later, like, mm what did you say again? So, like if they’ve minuted it, at least then they can kind of stick it into their book. They can reflect on it. They can act on it next lesson. So, on top of all of those formative forms, having the feedback for the internal assessment of the GP at the end of this term knowing that they're going to get performed again for their friends and family and for panel of markers from other schools. Because we get our trials, it's fairly standard practice to have other drama markets if you can or other teachers come in to give a range of different feedback on performance nights if they know that they're going to have that week, three term, three next term, then suddenly the instead of a summit of comment for their GP. In terms of assessment, it becomes a formative comment. So, it's an iterative process that I think is really valuable in the development of the G.P.

Ravenna

Yeah, it's wonderful such a swift sort of cultural change for students in seeing the value in that as well. That’s great Bro, thank you. Sim, do you have a way of assessing the school based or doing a school based assessment of the GP? That's different to that? It seems to be very different in lots of schools.

Simone

It's similar. I mean I obviously assess it during the trial HSC period as a finished work and I actually get them to hand their logbook in at that date. And the logbook is part of the holistic GP mark for me. But it's formative. I mean, I used to assess it at the end of term two or towards the end of term two as a work in progress. I don't do that anymore. I like to give them regular, and with increasing regularity, I guess these performance goals. Right next lesson, you're all performing this much of your piece and giving them those milestones and giving them that peer feedback and teacher feedback regularly and with increasing frequency. That formative assessment is really what drives them. And I think relieving that pressure of a summative work in progress assessment for the GP works for my students and giving them also that live performance experience in between the trial and then with the audience is also really great for them.

Ravenna

One of the approaches that I've taken recently is building the audience as well. So, the first showing is for the teacher, the second showing is for their class, the third is for their cohort, right? And the fourth is kind of for that school community and obviously the finished product is for that HSC. I think that we've talked, you've both talked about ways of kind of scaffolding the challenges that exist, but we haven't really talked that much about group dynamics yet, which for me, I think, has been one of the consistently most challenging parts of the group performance, but also one of the most wonderful. So, for you Sim, what is the biggest challenge of the GP process and how do you deal with it? Can you, can you whittle it down to one?

Simone

I think so, I think the biggest challenge where I work is that desire of the students to sit and chat and talk and discuss ideas.

Bro

Here, here.

Simone

And that procrastination and that wanting to get it right. And I think it's changing the culture that is changing, and partially that's me being really cruel to them and telling them they can't sit. So really it is right from the very beginning, encourage them to stand to move as they're speaking and as they're discussing ideas. And this year it's been working really well. The students have, the only time the students have sat down is when they've been looking at their mind maps and picking their phrases to work with and all of the discussion happens whilst they're moving. And I think that that really is the biggest roadblock is students, particularly creative students with brilliant minds as they often do have in wonderful ideas, just having those discussions, they're never going to know until they're up experimenting and improvising with ideas what they want to work.

Ravenna

Great. A very common one, isn't it? Having them sitting around in circles rehashing an idea. I think part of that also that challenges, overcome through your approach to group formation, which is not putting all the people who are going to just sit and think and not get up and do in the same group together. Hopefully, Bro I heard you're here, here, cheered during Sim’s biggest challenge. But do you have another one that you'd like to share or is it exactly the same?

Bro

No, I think Sim’s absolutely right. You worry for groups that are very excited and they want to kind of negotiate that political element to the group. So, there's a lot of chatting that kind of involves because it's a very social scenario or setting like or it can be mistaken for that is maybe a better way of phrasing that. But I think I would put in a mention for I do spend a little bit of time at the start of the term, building off explicit expectations for group work and responsibilities of group members versus rights. Or another way I kind of phrase, it is negotiating preferences and needs, so just to kind of establish, I think Sim mentioned it before, that idea of making sure that it's an ongoing culture in your classroom that all students need to be included. There needs to be a place in the group performance for students, life gets in the way sometimes and we need to facilitate that. So sometimes someone is going to be sick and their health has to take precedent to that. So you need to, like on the one hand, you need to keep the progress of the GP moving, you need to be making some progress in terms of the play building or decisions that you're making with that person's preferences and role in the group in mind so that you can also include them when they come back and then help them jump back into where they were before and have input into where the process is up to. For the current cohort, we spent a lot of time talking about how to have those conversations with group members. So, one of the things that I put together was just a few little kind of scenarios that have commonly popped up, like someone's got an excursion on a week for drama class and they really want to go to that. How do you have that conversation with your group?

Is it ok for them to go on that excursion? Scenarios without any clear cut answers. And then just getting the students to actually talk through and practice what they would say and suggest what they would say to kind of negotiate those interpersonal situations and give them a bit of practice before they actually arise in the GP process.

Ravenna

And the learning that's coming out of that is just invaluable as in its every team that they're ever going to have to work in in the future. It's what we love about that group performance, no matter how challenging.

Bro

Absolutely.

Ravenna

We’ve talked about the challenge and the advantage at the same time there Bro. The role of the drama teacher as facilitator of the group performance as opposed to the director as opposed to the creator. But the facilitator, the guide for students, I guess that's something that early on in my career was really, that balance was really hard to negotiate and to know what that looks like. And I guess really I’d like to finish up that discussion, Bro, with asking you what's your number one tip for finding that difference between facilitation and direction?

Bro

I think you kind of alluded to it there. I think a good facilitator of a GP will leave room for the group to make mistakes, to pursue lots of different choices or avenues and discover for themselves that some of those avenues aren't the right way to go or make the choice in terms of what their actual purpose is rather than you making those choices for them. Because I think that's a very clear way to define the line and that's easier said than done, knowing how quickly that term can whiz by. So, I guess if I had to phrase it, another way is to kind of build off what I was saying before, encouraging students to generate a lot more material early on than they need because it gives them a chance to say no to things. And again, maybe a mistake’s too harsh a word. They need to be able to generate things and love those things. But at the end of the day, still say within the group, look, this particular scene that we put together just really doesn't fit into what we're going towards. And I like Sim’s idea of the nuclei, the idea that there's an organic development of particular ideas and images that are coming together in that early material generation. That gives groups a bit of a direction. I think being drama teachers, we all have our different metaphors for those. I kind of use like climbing a pyramid idea and the pyramid gets a little bit smaller in terms of surface area, the higher up you go. So, we're kind of narrowing down to our dramatic form or theatrical style or purpose. Yeah, that's definitely one that I would think is crucial to the GP development is get students on their feet early generating as much material as possible so that they have options. They don't feel trapped with a particular idea or so you don't feel like you have to keep pushing them along and kind of crossing that line.

Ravenna

Yeah. And asking them questions then when they're making those choices, helping them to make those choices, is that facilitation, isn't it? And Sim, what's your big tip for facilitation versus direction?

Simone

Yeah, I spent a lot of time nodding as well, Bro, you're right on it, I totally agree with everything you said and what you just said Ravenna about asking questions was my first point. So, in feedback sessions it's really difficult sometimes, particularly when you've got something phenomenal happening in front of you not to go, I love that, keep that, you know, but it's more about asking them questions and asking them to articulate why they feel something is working or why not? So not so much suggestions but questions. I guess like anything, anyone that you want to see achieve a goal and push themselves to achieve their best, it's like having a mentor teacher as well, you know, you ask them, how do you feel that lesson, what do you think worked? Why do you think that worked? And it's the same with students. I think the best thing you can do is invite them to really drive everything through that analysis of what they're doing. And also to ask them, as Bro said, talking about the word purpose, to think about what they're doing on stage and does it serve their purpose or intention, bringing them back to that? How does it serve the intention or the idea of the mood or the meaning of this piece? And that's a really good way to get them to whittle off those things that are probably taking them away from coherency and solid structure. So, I think those sorts of approaches, yeah, really, really allow them to refine what they're doing more quickly and more effectively than if you were to tell them what to do anyway, which obviously we don't do. But I also think that peer feedback is a really, really underestimated, valuable component of how students sort of negotiate and sought and eliminate aspects of the group performance as well.

Ravenna

Yeah, wonderful. I was going to use that word, intention is so important to me and I think if we teach them about artistic and creative and directorial intention in the year 11 course and before that, then that becomes much clearer for them and much easier to say goodbye to the things that you desperately cling too. But you know, they're not serving your intention. Let's finish off today, I was thinking about this podcast and I thought last year without the group performance obviously was a really challenging year for everybody. I mean more counts than that. But the impact of not being involved in that group performance in 2020 had further reaching affects than I even imagined. And I really noticed that that lack of that collaborative creativity fed through to second guessing themselves in individual performance and individual projects and a whole raft of things. And it really solidified for me the importance of the group performance as part of this course. And I guess we've talked I think about many of the advantages, but I'm really interested in advocating for the group performance. What is it that makes this such a valuable part of the course for you, Bro?

Bro

It's kind of all the things we've touched on. But at the end of the day, it's one of the few instances at the highest level of our curriculum where students get to practice and develop interpersonal skills in a problem solving situation, like it's an aesthetic problem, but it's also a problem of expression and when I say problem, I mean I'm problematizing it kind of in the Paulo Freire sense of we're coming together and thinking about something that is of import to us and we need to express that and become literate in it. So, I think for me, definitely often the creative arts are kind of lumped into this purely aesthetic, everyone should be just aspiring to a performance only kind of mode of thinking that it's just like the window dressing of the broader curriculum. But I think that's a completely unfair assessment of the creative arts because at the end of the day it takes all that interdisciplinary knowledge, all that interdisciplinary thinking. And it offers students a chance to collaborate and express their thinking and their ideas and in the development of the GP actually refined those thinking and ideas. And I if you ask anyone what they would like to see what you even ask the generation themselves and what they would like to equip themselves with in terms of skills and what they think they're going to need in terms of ability and thinking for the future, it's exactly those sorts of things. They need to be able to understand how to work together to solve problems collaboratively, diplomatically but inclusively as well to make sure that everyone's voice is included in everyone's perspective is included.

Ravenna

And Sim?

Simone

How beautifully and articulately worded that was, I totally agree with every word. I guess just confirming that, and I think it really keeps students invested in what they're doing when somebody else's or other people's lives and goals and ambitions and successes and experiences are at stake too. So, I feel that it drives students, and even those who are perhaps less motivated in other subjects I find often are more motivated in drama, because of that real investment they have in the group and knowing that it's not just them that their lack of enthusiasm or lack of motivation or commitment will impact upon. I think, connecting this to Boal, the idea that we can achieve so much more than we ever thought possible together and so much more than we could alone in any situation really in the world, than considering some of the issues that face the world today, it's drama, The drama classroom is really a microcosm of the way the world should be operating, which is that people are working together to serve each other's interests and thinking creatively and critically. And it really developed every skill necessary for life, the group performance, not just for the workplace. I mean obviously, we know we're going to be living in a world where people do need to be able to communicate effectively, collaborate effectively, be critical creative thinkers, those four c’s of the 21st century education focus, but I think really it's also about developing empathy and that's something that very few other subjects I think can boast, that they do so beautifully. Is that sense of connection and empathy to others in the world and that's something that cannot be underestimated.

Ravenna

Simone and bro, it's been such a pleasure chatting to you both today and thanks for sharing your collective wisdom about the complexities and challenges and rewards of the group devised performance and how you negotiate that with your students. And it is an incredibly important and unique component of our course and I know that teachers listening will gain enormously from your expertise and experience. So thank you both.

Bro

Thank you.

Jackie

This podcast was brought to you by the creative arts curriculum team of secondary learners, educational standards directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education. Get involved in the conversation by joining our statewide staff room through the link in the show notes or email our Creative arts curriculum advisor, Cathryn Horvat at creativearts7-12@det.nsw.edu.au The music for this podcast was composed by Alex Manton and audio production by Jason King.

[end of transcript]

Jackie King

The following podcast is brought to you by the creative arts curriculum team from secondary learners educational standards directorate of the New south Wales Department of Education. As we commence this podcast today, let us acknowledge the traditional custodians of all the lands on which this podcast will be played around New South Wales. Their art, storytelling, music and dance along with all First Nations People hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal Australia. Let us acknowledge with honour and respect our elders, past, present and future, especially those Aboriginal people in our presence today who have and still do guide us with their wisdom.

Alex Manton

Welcome to the Creative Cast podcast series. My name is Alex Manton and I am a creative arts curriculum officer for the New South Wales Department of Education. The area of discussion today is based on how best to support our stage six students, particularly our HSC students in musicology and aural. Today we'll be exploring how two highly experienced music teachers for stage six music one and music two prepare their students for the HSC aural and musicology paper. Our first music teacher is Jess Van Ree, who was a former teacher Liverpool Girls High School in South Sydney. Jess has been teaching music for 16 years in both the public and private sectors. She's taught in a variety of school demographics and she's passionate about music classroom and providing a music education that is accessible to all students. Our second music teacher today is Patrick Wong from James Ruse Agricultural School, who has been teaching at the school since 2006. Patrick studied music education at Sydney University and holds a bachelor of music honours in piano performance. He is particularly passionate about creating performance opportunities for H. P. G. E. students. Welcome Jess and Patrick.

Firstly, can you share with us a little bit about your school and the students that choose to do music for their HSC? We might start with you Jess.

Jess Van Ree

I guess over the years it's been a number of different students that have chosen music for the HSC, but I think every school has a variety. You always have that student that's done AMEB lessons since they were tiny. And then the ones that have just joined your music class because they know Youtube and can tinker on a little bit of all the different instruments. And then you have the ones that only do classroom music but might have a music lessons. So, I've had a little bit of all those types of students in my class. So a little bit of everyone.

Alex

And how about you Patrick?

Patrick Wong

Well, my school is academically selective where I'm teaching. However, our students do come from a diverse range of backgrounds with also varying levels of music education. We've got students that have come with very little background in primary music education and then students that come and have completed performance to a high grade, a high standard and a very experienced themselves as a musician. So, for me, it's about differentiating the curriculum to try to suit all levels and abilities. The students that particularly choose our elective and stage six courses tend to be capable and experienced musicians. They have studied music for a long time and they enjoy it and they're passionate about learning music. So, I'm really grateful for that opportunity and it's about extending and challenging our students who do pick the Stage six HSC Courses. We do accelerate. So, students complete a stage five in the 100 hours. And then they start preliminary music in year 10 and they complete the HSC music in year 11. Then those who are willing and wanting to do extension, complete that separately just on its own in year 12.

Alex

That's really interesting, Patrick. So, do the majority of your students do, they're HSC in year 1? How do you manage that in the classroom? Like do you have some students that don't and do it traditionally over the two years?

Patrick

We used to but not anymore. We find accelerating one year ahead and staggering the courses, because most of our students that do tend to do music two are experienced performers and they have a background in training in music. So, we find that it suits them, especially in the school like ours which caters towards the more the high achieving end of the spectrum.

Alex

Fantastic! So, Jess, in music one, how do you teach the skills required to be able to tackle the music one paper successfully in the exam? Do you have any teaching strategies?

Jess

It depends on the kids doesn't it? You know? And it also depends some days you have kids in your classroom who just want to learn and other days you have kids who are really good learners that don't want to learn. It just depends. So, I think the key to doing well in the HSC aural paper is consistency and practicing listening activities naturally. You know I think it's about actively engaging students in the learning. So, they come to the classroom and they always said “Miss are we're doing prac today?” and I’m like “we're doing music today” because music needs to be about prac and theoretical course components combined and integrated. And so, if you can start to bridge that gap right from the very beginning then you see change in the classroom. And so that's my biggest tip to try to integrate it. Now that doesn't always work, but we can try and it's not something that changes overnight. It's like a cultural change across the school that needs to happen. For some students I think it's about not being afraid of writing because there might be really good musos who play epic electric guitar solos, but when it comes to picking up a pen, they're afraid of doing it and so therefore don't for that fear of failure. So, it's overcoming that bridge. And I think one of the biggest things is about seeing that those 30 marks in the aural paper are vital to success in the HSC exam, overall, that it's not just about the other four components that you're choosing, that is really important too. And in my experience, the students that have done well in that, have done well overall with the other things combined. So those are the things that I think are super important.

Alex

How do you integrate practical activities and literacy? How do you do it? And what do you do about those students who are afraid to put pen to paper? How do you get them to do that?

Jess

Starts small. Hopefully you've started this in stage four and stage five so by the time they've come to stage six they know what your teaching style is and your way of doing it. Which was the whole point of this pilot program that I did with the Ukulele in music literacy. Just that you mentioned at the start, it was about active engagement in music learning with literacy included. So now in terms of just stage 6 it's starting small, so something as simple as doing a regular practice lesson and then stopping and talking about structure, stopping and talking about texture and then drawing up on the whiteboard or smart board whatever you have, drawing that up, so it's a visual so people can see, grab your phones out, take a picture and put this in your notes. And so, the kids haven't actually picked up a pen in any way yet. And so, what happens is naturally the terminology starts to flow out of what they're playing. And then we pick up pens and papers.

Alex

And how do you go from that list of basic observations to then creating more complex musical observations and a more thorough response in the paper. What's the next step?

Jess

So I use a sentence which is called my epically amazing way of answering the paper.

Alex

I love to get it Jess.

Jess

Did you get it right? So, a lot of staff across the state uses this. And my sentence is: in section, the instrument, plays whatever the concept is. And I make them write that for every single point. So, we're writing in point form from the very start. First, we're identifying the structure. We draw a structure table at the top, and then we write this sentence for every single point. And when I first started out in year 11, I mark it wrong if they don't write in that format. So, I'm structuring and scaffolding my responses right from the very beginning, and then what happens over time, they start to understand the concepts more and identifying features in the aural excerpts. And then that in section the instrument plays that little detail there becomes more explicit, more specific and more detailed. So, we're not saying in the introduction, the saxophone plays the melody, that's where we started. Now, we're saying in the introduction the saxophone plays the melody, it's playing and then we are expanding upon that after that.

Alex

That's a fantastic literacy tool. I think that teachers are really going to appreciate hearing that.

Jess

Yeah. And you know what? You could even use that on stage four or five, like build it from then.

Alex

Yeah, that's great. How about you, Patrick? How do you teach the skills required to be able to tackle the music two paper successfully? I mean, we know the music two paper is very diverse in the way that it's presented. You've got melodic dictation, you have an extended response, you've got the short answer questions. Would you like to break it down a little bit and we can talk about each component briefly?

Patrick

I’ll do my best. And personally, I agree with everything that both of you just said. I think an integrated approach in the classroom is the best. I tend not to have separate composition and performance lessons unless I really need to get something done. So, it's usually students will play a piece and we will discuss to some analysis all within one lesson. I think that's the best. With regards to the paper, I think the markers are looking for good answers. They're not looking for perfect answers. So, what I would do is to get the students to mind map and organise their ideas even if it's a brainstorm, if it could be a shopping list for what they want, or how to address the question. I use a couple of approaches to answering different questions. If it's a short answer and it's asking about a specific concept and I get the students to think about what specific feature of the concept they want to write about and then apply it to the music that is being played or the score that is being put in front of them. So, it's more like a they make a claim about what they want to say with regards to what concepts supported with analysis and then make the link. So, it's more like a claim support link. analogy that I used with them. I actually got this from the Harvard Project zero on thinking routines. At school, two years ago, we started a whole staff initiative and they asked us teachers to come on to the pilots of the project. And so, I signed up and I think these strategies used by teachers all over the world, not just myself. I found this really helped to scaffold the students’ thinking in regards answering questions with the paper. So that technique I just used is called claims support questions.

Alex

Great. And is that how you also approach the question four, the extended response? Is that a little bit different?

Patrick

It's a little bit different because it's 10 marks. So, I do something similar to Jess, but I use an anagram so I use HITMODE. So, it's similar. It's similar to just structuring your answers. So, each word stands for something. So, the H would stand for you highlight the keywords in the question. The I would be how you would like to interpret the question, whether it is a specific conceptual question or general question, the T stands for your topic sentence. So, they've always got to have a topic sentence to address the essay question for me at the beginning. The M would be your musical mind map. So how are you going to answer and structure those 10 marks? I think structure is really important for a 10 mark essay question. I usually get the students to have 3 to 4 good specific points of what they want to answer. If it's 2 concepts say about pitch and rhythm, I would say please have two specific points about pitch and two specific points about rhythm. If it's a general one, then I asked the students to think about what are their most important concepts they want to answer for what a question for. And so that that represents M and then the O stands for organization of your ideas. I usually ask the students to rank their responses. If it's for four points they want to write or three points, I ask the students to write the most important points first and then the second and the third. So it's about organizing your answers. The D stands for musical detail. So that comes in the analysis and then finally the E would be your ending. So what links can you make just to finish your answer the question for. So, I found by just having that system, if they have a mind blank then they're just going to write HITMODE on the side of your page, and just make sure you ticked off everything. And I found between the trials and a lot of practice in the HSC, I found with the rap data in myself last year, we managed to get most of them into the A box into the nine or 10 out of 10, which I was pleased about.

Alex

That's great. Patrick. And how do you go about them selecting excerpts to discuss in question four?

Patrick

Well, I try with the works to have a variety of genres. So I would usually teach one chamber work, one orchestral work, a few solo works. I find shorter pieces a lot more effective because then you're not writing across 30 minutes of the symphony. So, as I become more experienced, I've tried to choose more accessible shorter pieces. And what I found is helpful in extending the breadth of those students repertoire is to have a comparative pieces, whether it's a similar genre or similar start for them to write a comparative essay on, as you know, the last couple of years that there has, there has been a move towards the comparative type of essay, rather than discuss this in the two pieces set the study or whatever. I find that works well. So usually I would do 1 for the mandatory topic music of last 25 years and then compare it with maybe a similar style or similar genre, similar instrumentation with another period of time. So, for example, when we did Lior's Compassion song cycle I compared it with the Rachmaninoff Vocalise. It's both being orchestral songs and ones, you know, Hebrew and Jewish and the other one is Russian lieder, basically. And I found students were able to make links so then we practice the creative and we practiced a comparative essay on it. And then I found that really helped.

Alex

That's a great idea, Patrick, I really like that idea of the comparative analysis.

Patrick

It doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's always informed by something or other. I found that was a really good way to teach across topics concurrently. And it just shows that music doesn't exist on its own. There's always links whether it's contextual or musical.

Alex

What are some of the creative ways that you approach revision of the concepts of music to optimize learning and engagement for your students at this critical point in the HSC course? So they're heading towards term two, they really start to do some past papers towards the end of this term. So how do you how do you revise the concepts when they've been doing them for so long? What do you do Jess?

Jess

Again, it really depends on the type of learners that you have. I think some of the more academic students are not interested in playing games and doing revision activities. They just really want to practice the past papers and hand them in and get feedback and look at the market criteria, match it to it, that kind of thing. So, I tend to mix it up depending on the types of learners that I have in my class at the time. So, some of them are high flyers who are getting, you know, six out of six for each question one or eight out of eight. So, when the top A box across, I find that those students really just want to practice past papers and keep handing them in. And I find that those students, they're writing style is solid, their terminology is really accurate, they're writing well, they're identifying well, so that's the best method for them. For the other students that are either on the lower end or the middle end of the class, they need a lot more variety. So, I try to use a little bit of both types. Sometimes the more academic learners like to do a bit more game orientation in the classroom just because they want to break, which is good. So, I like to do things like rainbow editing, which is like what you were just talking about Alex, where you’re looking for something specific, you're not just marking the whole response, you're looking for something specific. So that's a really good one to do, things like mini whiteboards and textures and just playing over and over different audio examples. And they have to identify the melodic instrumental, identify the harmonic instrumental that features in the music, or identifying instrumentation, so which woodwind instrument is from the woodwind family, just to be more accurate in the classifications. That's a good one.

Things like post it notes or little cards where you're only writing one point per card. So, some students get a little bit waffly in their sentences. And so, I find going back to that main sentence with the four Ws or three Ws, however you scaffold it, but only writing one point and then we're putting those cards altogether. So sometimes we do it in a time challenge. So, if your card goes up on the table at the front first and someone else writes the same point as you, then your card gets bumped, like you have to only have one card that says that point. So, we're identifying all different features in the piece about pitch, but not everyone can write about the saxophone in the introduction. It has to be other things that are happening and that just bulks out the answer a bit more than a collection. That’s as a class.

I like to do a lot of quick quizzes. So, google forms or even key notes that we're doing in the class together. We're just practicing the terminology. Which concept does this belong to particularly for tone colour finding words, descriptive words that describe the types of music. So those ones are good. Just so you're not getting those really low-level answers of it sounds green. No, it doesn't sound green and it doesn't sound like you're on a beach. No that's how you feel, but you know. So moving beyond some of those things as well obviously just practice papers. I've done crazy things in the past with Playdough and 3D Diagramming of texture you know but it depends on the learners and was going to interest them. I think it's about consistency. You just have to do it right from the beginning of that HSC course in prelim. If you haven't had them prior but ideally in stage four and five you'd be doing it too. From that very first day in prelim, we're starting with the concepts and we are just building and building and building all the time we're practicing. I like to focus mostly on the six concepts at the beginning of prelim and then add in tension, variety, interest and balance as more higher levels of thinking skills a little bit later on. So, we've consolidated that first and I found that to be very successful and helpful. I just want feedback. So whatever way you can get that to happen quickly and efficiently and time efficiently for you as the marker is the best way.

Alex

I love all of your creative ideas for music one concepts. That's fantastic. I might steal some of them myself.

Jess

Some of them actually come from literacy projects at primary school literacy projects and then just adapted.

Alex

So yeah, that's great for engagement really. I do a similar thing called concept stations. So, we'll listen to an excerpt and I'll get a big A3 piece of paper for each concept and lay them out around the room on tables and every student finds a concept station, they get one listening and they have to write down their ideas and then they all rotate. But again, they're not allowed to write the same thing as anyone else. They have to add to that point or come up with a new point. And my students loved that because if they weren't really comfortable with the concept, it kind of didn't matter whether they got it right at that moment, they just moved on to the next one, but they, as a class, really came up with everything that was in the excerpt by the end of it and then we put that into an online form and shared it with everyone. So, they all had a copy and it was like a full analysis of every concept.

Jess

I think ultimately it's about building confidence in writing, so it's not on music theory, it's about, Oh yeah, I know something about pitch or I know something about duration, I could add to that and the more that happens, the more confident they become in it and then they start to do it of their own accord and eventually they're writing a full page.

Alex

That's right, that's right. How about you, Patrick, how do you revise with your students?

Patrick

I've started doing something similar with flash cards, and I have them in a hexagonal shape so they actually can piece them together. You know, kind of like a bee hive, so each part of the concept that links to something else has to connect with that particular work. And because I find our students are super competitive, they all want to win. So, they've all got to come up with connections and once they make that link between the concept and that feature of the concept. So, for example, say a rhythm and ostinato, they've got to back it up with an example from the score, from the music, which then I would get the class to decide whether it's valid or not. And if it gets voted that they don't get that point.

Alex

That sounds fun, Patrick.

Patrick

That's a good little game to play people. People um vision of any pieces I find. And yeah, it really engages them to connect with the music and to challenge themselves and each other. Because I find our students very much like to be spoon fed, just give us the answer and will regurgitate it back to you. But gone are those days where you do that. It's more about teaching them how to think critically to answer, respond to different questions and to make up their own conclusions about the music.

Alex

And so lastly, do you have any additional top tips for teachers to share with their students of how to achieve that A box criteria in the aural and musicology responses? Is there anything either of you would like to add?

Jess

I think it's just about promoting being specific in what you're writing. Does this point actually answer the question and is it in detail? If the answer is no, then you don't get a point for it. And I think it's going back to that every single time. So, anything that's generalist is going to bump you down those boxes and put your right into that C box category, because it's only sometimes reflecting what the marking criteria is asking. So yeah, I think it's about being specific and it's about being factual.

Patrick

I think listen widely as possible but analyse selectively. From what I've seen lately, the papers tend to have more generalist questions with concepts so it might be discuss or describe these concepts, but they're not looking for generalist answers. They're looking for specific answers. So I think teaching the students to address specific parts of the concept is really important and then always backing it up with the music. I'm finding our students are very good at talking about the music and they're talking around the music. But a lot of them frankly don't talk in the music itself or of the music itself. And sometimes it's just a matter of telling them, you know, the answer is always in the score. Just look at the score or look and listen to the recording. You always find it there if you search for it and to not go on rants or waffles that don't address the question. That's really important. And always support your analysis with an example or quote from the score. And that's what will get you the marks. They're looking for good answers. Not perfect answers.

Alex

That's a great point, Patrick. And it's interesting. I always get excited about the next HSC paper that comes out and what the questions are going to be, because there have been changes in both papers over recent years. Like for example, in the music one, I was having a look at the past papers and there hasn't been a direct comparative analysis for over five years, which is interesting yet there's been some challenging questions in relation to technology, you know, how does technology affect this particular concept, which is great that students are being challenged to think a little bit differently. And Patrick, you mentioned earlier about how the question four has changed a little bit as well. So, it'll be interesting to see what this year holds.

Patrick

I think that question four is good in that it would separate because it's a comparative question. It does differentiate them from how much they know to what depth they know. I think there's been a push towards more depth of the answer than breadth of answers. So, they want to go deep so study less works. But I'd go deeper into each work that you study. That is the feeling I'm getting from just the way the courses has been taught and just the general push in music, not only music education by the education overall. And just teaching the students that have the skills, after all those skills and analyse selectively and to write about specifics rather than as you want As you both said this general answers which would only get you into the C box.

Alex

Well jess and Patrick, thank you so much for joining me today and talking about our HSC music students and how best to support them in musicology and aural. You've shared some really great ideas that I'm sure teachers will take on board and implement in their own classroom. So thanks again.

Jackie

This podcast was brought to you by the creative arts curriculum team of secondary learners, educational standards directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education.

Get involved in the conversation by joining our statewide staff room through the link in the show notes or email our Creative Arts curriculum advisor, Cathryn Horvat at creativearts7-12@det.nsw.edu.au. The music for this podcast was composed by Alex Manton and audio production by Jason King.

[end of transcript]

Jackie King

The following podcast is brought to you by the creative arts curriculum team from secondary learners educational standards directorate of the New south Wales Department of Education. As we commence this podcast today, let us acknowledge the traditional custodians of all the lands on which this podcast will be played around New South Wales. Their art, storytelling, music and dance along with all First Nations People hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal Australia. Let us acknowledge with honour and respect our elders, past, present and future, especially those Aboriginal people in our presence today who have and still do guide us with their wisdom.

Welcome to the Creative Cast podcast series. My name is Jackie King and I'm a Creative Arts project advisor with the New South Wales Department of Education. Today we have a special podcast for you where we have our visual arts advisor, Kathrine Kyriacou speaking with curriculum officers, Alex Manton and Ravenna Gregory about the high leverage strategies which are delivered in the HSC Professional learning. Please welcome Kathrine, Alex and Ravenna.

Thank you for joining us today. I'm going to start with you Kathrine. So, you've been running this HSC professional learning for some time now. Can you please tell us a little bit about the professional learning program?

Kathrine Kyriacou

Yeah, I can. It's a pleasure to be able to talk about it. So, I've been a part of it since the beginning of 2020 and it's a program that aims to support teachers to collectively improve student achievement. And the focus really is that we're doing that regardless of their socioeconomic status. And there is a focus on closing the equity gap through this program. It's presented by the Quality Teaching Practice unit, but it's co designed by expert HSC teachers. Sometimes we hear about them referred to in the media as the best in class by curriculum experts and educators. And also, what's pretty exciting is that there are education partners on board as well. Each new term, we have new content, new resources that we share with stage six teachers to help them deepen their practice. So last term there were eight subjects doing the pl and the subjects at this stage are being selected because they have high HSC candidature. But the program is growing. The thing that's exciting, I was mentioning before about having a research partner, we're working with Western Sydney University and Emeritus Professor Wayne Sawyer to look at his research into success in the HSC. So, it's a huge project and to be a part of

Jackie

Fantastic. I actually sat in on one of your professional learning sessions last term and found it very inspiring. So today we're going to talk about the high leverage strategies, which is something that you talk about in the professional learning. Can you please give us a little bit of background on high leverage strategies?

Kathrine

Yeah, I can look. The high leverage strategies have come out of the research of Emeritus Professor Wayne Sawyer and he and his team conducted quite a lot of research some time ago that really is specific to New South Wales and specific to the HSC, where they looked at some of the strategies that very successful teachers were using and brought that together. And those are the strategies that we share. All of that research is ongoing and being currently updated with all the teachers who are currently involved so that those are the kinds of things that we share and that we're hoping to share with you a little bit today and we share it through a full day of live online PL.

Jackie

Fantastic. All right, well let's get straight into strategy one, darts. Kathy, can you tell us a little bit more about darts please?

Kathrine

I sure can. Some teachers, maybe if you've taught English might be familiar with darts because it's something that English teachers use and refer to regularly and if people listening were to google darts, they would find a range of information on it. Darts stands for directed activities related to texts and it's something that sounds reasonably easy to explain. But for stage six students, it's a strategy that when used effectively can make a huge difference to students’ engagement with and understanding of written subject content. So, darts is actually about coming up with and planning for ways that your class is going to deeply and actively engage with the meaning of texts that really is the focus. There's a whole range of strategies you could use, but a really easy one for visual arts, and a lot of teachers might be using without having the label for it, is marking the text in visual arts. Teachers often might say to classes that they'd like them to use four different coloured highlighters to mark up some writing by an art critic for example, and they might say to the class, I want your red highlighter to look for where he comments, makes comments using the cultural frame and I want your blue highlighter to be where the critic is really making subjective statement. It sounds like a pretty straightforward strategy. It is, but it's actually getting students to engage with the content that's in front of them and to navigate it and make decisions about it. So that is a very familiar easy darts strategy. Another dart strategy might be categorizing or labelling texts or even trying to come up with a theme for some text that they've read. So for example, again, it's easy to talk about the conceptual framework or the frames in visual arts, students could be given slips of paper with a sentence or two about a range of artworks and then even if you want them to be active and you wanted to use some games, which we're going to talk about later, you might actually give them a pile and you could put them in teams, they're going to read those strips of information and then they're going to categorize them by, you know, running across the room and throwing the bit of paper that is about the world into the basket that you've labelled the world and running across the room and putting the one that really focuses on the artist into the basket that focuses on the artist. I know sometimes with our stage six classes we may be overlooked some of those more active or engaged ideas when working with text, but they're really powerful when you use them purposefully. Something that other art teachers really like to do that I love to do is to get your class to look at some writing and then map it or diagram it or use a table or a chart to break up the information. So there's some simple darts strategies.

Jackie

I love some of those ideas and that last one where we map it or something like that. We did a podcast last year with Jessica McCarthy on sketchnoting, and I just think that fits so nicely into visual arts. Ravenna and Alex, we've got you both here today too. Could you give us Alex some examples on how we might use darts in music?

Alex Manton

Sure, I guess in music it's important to note where do our students in stage six actually engage with texts because most of our content is done through listening and performing and composing and obviously we do have musicology as part of that, but they don't tend to work with a lot of text in music one in particular. Obviously, music two if they're choosing to do elective essays or musicology essays when they've got to write 3000 words, so they're very much going to engage with the text but most of what they do is based on their own analysis. However, it's really important that the text that the students do engage with relevant to their discussion and that they're using their research to support their musical evidence and their observations. So, one similar way that Kathy mentioned just then, that we do in music as well is that highlighting of text. I like to use the term Rainbow editing where they write the who, what, where and why and they allocate a colour for each of those sorts of observations on what is happening in the music. What section is it happening in? And so forth? So that's a really cool way for students to understand whether what they've written contains all the information that they need to include. Sometimes I'll give the students a model or response that is cut up and they have to listen to the music and then put that text back together in correct chronological order, which engages their listening skills as well as their reading skills and learning how to interpret that text. Another way, I guess, is how you would interpret it into a viva in music one or into an essay in music two and extension is the student's ability to be able to transfer text. So, the viva and the essays require the students to gather information, determine whether the text that they're reading is valid, generate and develop their ideas further. Consider their evidence and how it links to that text and then form their opinions. So, I guess that's all part of their critical thinking skills and being able to marry what they're listening skills with the text or that those musicology skills. One last way, which is effective in terms of revising the concepts of music. When the students are getting to their trial exams is having two pieces of music that is played and the students in front of them have statements, observations that happen in those two pieces of music, but they have to work out which statement matches up with which musical excerpts. And it's great if you pick two pieces that use the same instrumentation because they have to listen more carefully and read and decipher the information that you've given them more carefully to then be able to match it up with the correct aural excerpts. So that's another way that we can incorporate darts.

Jackie

Some lovely examples there, Alex, thank you, and Ravenna, we've got you here as well today to talk about how we might use darts in drama.

Ravenna Gregory

Thanks Jackie. Yeah, I mean lots of parallels, I think with what both Kathrine and Alex were saying about the way that these strategies are occurring in visual arts and music and the one I think that we're all using or that I use routinely as text marking in terms of that darts strategy. And I guess when Alex was talking about in music, not necessarily engaging with a lot of texts, in drama we do engage with a lot of text. Students do engage with a lot of texts that are written by others. But I guess the strategy that I can think about is engaging with their own text through that idea of peer assessment and self-assessment and what's described as text marking by darts, I guess for me, was always sort of codifying responses. And one of the things that I've always gotten students to do is use the marking criteria. Using the marking criteria, identify where in a written response that marking criteria is being met and doing that in different colours, doing that in their own exam responses or doing it for other for peers exam responses is really nice and I guess I have kind of extended on that by using that in the Director's folio. So not very many drama students do the Director's folio, it's probably one of the most challenging of the HSC individual projects that students can choose to do, but it's really nice to get them to sort of use highlighting to make sure, kind of colour coding a system to make sure, that they are really clearly expressing a concept or vision throughout their folio because it's 3500 words and they can lose track of where that's happening and that the analysis and synthesis of research is occurring, and where the production experiences or they can do that as well with the requirements of the projects are making sure that everything there is being hit in that 3500 word project. I think as well, one of the other darts activities that I routinely like using drama is predicting and I guess moving beyond the obvious things of plot and character prediction. I think the way that drama uses prediction is often through examining subtext and intention of characters. So, what's really going on below the surface here and what could this mean through that kind of exploration of text beyond the kind of what's on the page. And then I like to use as well maybe reading or doing a moved reading of the first moment of a play in stage six that you might be studying and getting the students to make predictions about the style and form of that play just based on that opening moment. So, what is the evidence, what conventions, what techniques are we seeing in this opening that might let us know what the form of this play or the style of this play is going to be and also about its context. And so that's a really good one. And then I think as well, transformation is one that stood out for me in the darts strategies. So, the transformation of a play script into a performance essay. I have found really, really useful with students. So, the idea that what would traditionally be a paragraph becomes a scene with the supporting evidence being the transformation of scenes from multiple plays as well. So, for example, in the compulsory Australian HSC topic, taking multiple plays and thinking about transforming the context and issues of those plays into a thesis and then further exploring how transitional devices can also express a thesis. So, there's kind of complex transformation of texts happening in that activity.

Jackie

Some lovely ideas shared there amongst the three of you. Thank you for that. And I think some students would come along and see a chunk of text and it can be so overwhelming for some students. So, to have some directed activities to break those down and actually some purpose to highlighting, not just grabbing out that highlighter and highlighting random words but having some different colours and making some sense of it I think is some really great ideas shared there. Strategy two, we've got is about building understanding and interpretation. So, Kathy can you take us through strategy to please?

Kathrine

Sure. Yeah. Look interpretation I think is probably an important strategy for all of the arts forms. It's really very important in visual arts because when you interpret you are actually searching for meaning and you're constructing meaning, you're engaging in that act of explanation. And one of the things that highly effective teachers do is really set up their lessons so that problem solving and thinking and applying knowledge rather than just copying it out or reproducing knowledge. The interpretive act is really a big focus in the way that they design their lesson and in what central to their lesson. So, when I'm thinking about that, in terms of visual art, I guess the thing that most teachers, art teachers, would know and understand is that our syllabus is set up with interrelated, so connected interpretive, frameworks and they're actually called that in the syllabus and they are designed to support students to make meaning of source material. In our case it might be artworks in a way that becomes increasingly more complex. So, for us, the frames provide four lenses through which we can view art making and art criticism and art history and their ways that students can really frame up their own interpretations of things. So, when we're talking about Stage six, in section one of the HSC exam students are tested on their ability to interpret works. They’re given unseen plates, a range of source material and that might include an artwork, it might include an image of the artist working in their studio constructing artwork, and it might include a really limited little quote by the artist and then they are asked to construct an account of the way that the artist might have made choices and the actions that they have undertaken. Their processes, their ideas, the concepts that are informing artwork just based on source material that is in front of them. That's all about interpretation. And I guess what I would say is that as teachers using that approach to constructing meaning in your class is incredibly powerful, not just saving it for exams or for test. You know, the lesson once a fortnight where you might have your HSC focused lesson, but actually thinking about the way you teach art criticism and art history as more being about allowing students to develop understanding and meaning rather than spoon feeding them information or getting them to read something that neatly sums up a time period or an art movement or an artist perspective. Another really lovely way to do that might be to give students, you know, a whole range of statements by an artist, sometimes they are contradictory at the beginning of a case study, for example, and then getting them in groups and getting them to try and write about, you know, what values they're starting to see being unpacked by that artist and what connections they're making and maybe connecting that to prior learning that they've done, or to movements that they know about, so that they're actually constructing some meaning and you're building that into the lesson. And it's a focus of the lesson is that really valuing that they are creating meaning in the classroom. I guess that's what interpretation is all about as a strategy.

Jackie

I think it's really great when they are concluding their own meaning from something as well. Ravenna, in drama I'm sure students are interpreting a lot and developing their own meaning for different things. Are you able to talk about this strategy or how you might use this strategy and drama?

Ravenna

I mean, I feel like the interpretation of text is throughout the stage six of course for drama, but also the interpretation of staged moments. You know, it's all about that experience of what do we see on stage, what do we feel because of that as an audience, how does an audience interpret that moment when it's done this way as opposed to when it's done this way. So that idea of directorial intention and its impact as well is really evident throughout the course. And I guess one of the ways of exploring that a little bit further is obviously through the play building and that's the core content for the course, is that group devised element generating and exploring ideas through play building, but then deciding on which one of those interpretations to use, through that selection structuring process. That's the most the place that I find that it's actually most actively happening in drama, even though you might think that it's about that interpretation of script, it's actually in the group devising that you see the mechanics of interpretation. And I think the lovely thing about that is it's through that feedback cycle as well, students have to grapple with I've interpreted this way and I think the audience will interpret it that way as well, but then the reality that often they don't and I have to do things differently. I think that's the really nice thing about that group devised process and then I have to refine and rehearse in order to make sure that intention is realized. And I think, I’ll do a little plug at the moment for one of the resources that we have up on our website, the group devising using research is a stimulus resource. The nice thing about that is that you have multiple interpretations by a cohort, so if you've got more than one group in your year 11 class, you'd have multiple interpretations of the same phrase. And I think that's a really interesting thing for students to see for them to go back and go, well, I interpreted it this way, but how nice is it to see these other students interpreting it in that way. So, I think a lot of these strategies for me, they're sort of, you know, are the bread and butter of the drama classroom, but it's really lovely to make that explicit so that students hopefully can understand that idea of interpretation. What does that mean to interpret into some of the other areas of study as well? But yeah, I think making that explicit is the key strategy that I would kind of encourage and have used.

Jackie

I love that you've given the group devising resource a plug their Ravenna. But as you were talking, I was thinking about our other year 11 unit of work that we talked about just recently, the text and intention unit and how the students are constantly interpreting the practitioner’s practice, for want of a better word, and putting that into movement as well. I think it's obviously very clear in drama that interpretation is happening all the time. Alex, in music, how would you say interpretation is used in music?

Alex

Interpretation can be applied more broadly in music. We’re continually asking students to interpret the music itself and what they're listening to. And often that will also be scores as well, particularly music two and extension where they have to interpret the score. A score is a type of musical literacy, so to speak. In the music two paper in question four, our students are also often given a quote for question for where they need to apply or interpret that quote to their ten mark essay. And so, I guess that's another way that students in music are applying the interpretation skills and sort of unpack that quote and support the quote with musical evidence that's generated from the music that they're presented with. I suppose as well, we often see kids in performance interpreting a cover version, interpreting a piece of music in their own way to create a cover version or an adaption of an existing work, which I think requires similar critical thinking skills and problem solving skills to be able to do that.

Kathrine

I totally agree. The Creative Act itself, we've talked about this a lot visual arts as well, you know when stand in front of a landscape for example and you bring together all of the knowledge skills and understanding you have about representing the land and about what other artists have done and then put your paintbrush onto the canvas. You are interpreting, art making, I'm sure music making and drama, they're all interpretive acts.

Jackie

I love that. And Alex, you've talked about my favourite thing in music and reinterpreting a song in your own way that it's my favourite thing. If I can listen to an album of arrangements of songs and they're just a little bit interesting, then that is my all time favourite.

Alex

And I think that that's what we should be encouraging at HSC students to do when they're picking their performance pieces. I'm sure the examiners would love to see highly creative interpretations that are successful and that they're not just copying the original performance.

Jackie

The last strategy that we're going to talk about today, and I think this is going to be the most fun strategy that we're going to talk about today is building understanding through games, simulations and stories. And, you know, all of these things, my favourite thing about teaching is building understanding in games, to build engagement, simulations and of course storytelling. So, Kathy can you share some of those ideas?

Kathrine

This is pretty straightforward, but you know, again, it's really amazed me working with some wonderful teachers over the last year and a half that really successful teachers incorporate games and simulations and stories and value it as much as, you know, perhaps the rest of us do, and maybe even more. It's a strategy that we're actually unpacking with the visual arts team in HSC PL this term and I would love to just tell you some of the amazing things that art teachers do. But you know, one of the teachers is Carol McGilvery from Kincumber High School and we've had her on this podcast before and what she shares about how she teaches art criticism and art history is just so engaging and beautiful. I thought what I would focus on just for the podcast today is a little bit about storytelling because again, I think it's one of those elements that as a teacher sometimes we can overlook. But I know that for me, if I've ever gone and heard artists speak or you know, if I've watched documentaries or engaged with an artist practice, it's very often the personal story or the emotive moment or some point that is quite impactful. That means that I personally go and research them further and read everything about them and listen to extra things. And I know that that's the point where we want our year 12 visual arts students, for example, to be. We want them to be, you know, interested to know more about the artists that we're sharing in case studies. And so, I guess I just wanted to emphasise with this strategy today that storytelling is a really vital part of any effective teachers art.

To be honest, I look forward to those moments when I'm teaching, where I get to share that little juicy tidbit about an artist and their lives. There's a reason why Frida Kahlo is so enduringly popular. I will say I've never taught her, but you know, students want to know the gory details of her life and what's happened to her. They love if you can feed them some information, for example, about Cezanne and him being an outsider and not accepted by the impressionists. Of course, everyone knows about Van Gough and his ear before they know anything else about his art, but it means that people remember that and come back to that. I know when I'm talking about the contemporary Aboriginal artist Tony Albert's work by revealing his personal family connection to the Hyde Park Memorial, my students become actively politically motivated and engaged to read and learn more about that. So, I guess all of these strategies are interrelated and there's so much more we could say about each of them. But when it comes to games and stories and simulations, I guess, I would say that sometimes they are the moments that really capture students hearts and minds and they really let your students create connection with the content. And we know we started to talk about games earlier when we were talking about the frames or the conceptual framework. Games also have that effect. And I think teachers need to think about them as serious learning even though it's fun. So, I'm happy to hear what music and drama might. I know that drama is going to have a million things to say.

Jackie

Yeah, let's leave drama to last because we've got lots of game ideas for drama. I love that you're talking about stories and you did delve into stories there Kathy, because as a part of the Aboriginal Pedagogy and the eight ways of learning, storytelling is one of those elements and it's so important for engaging students and it does, it just turns their minds on and perks up their interests sometimes, if they can relate to a story that's being

Kathrine

I'm just going to add to that and I'm going to just say that for the teacher, what that then means is that you actually have a responsibility to go and read widely and know more and be ready with your content and know the moment and actually, you know, to use some of those drama games to know the moment when you're going to drop that story because you need to move those kids forward in their seats and get them listening right. So, all of that feeds into it into your own practice as a teacher, I think.

Jackie

Absolutely Alex, we're going to throw to you for stories, simulations, and games in music. What can you share?

Alex

Kathy, I was having a bit of a giggle with what you said about all of the artists and you know, just the interesting things about their lives because it's similar in music and it's tricky though because it tends to be what the kids most remember. You know that J. S. Bach had 20 Children and that Beethoven was deaf. You know, they always remember that stuff or even the latest one that I came across was Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, which was actually a theatre work, their performances were postponed due to the pandemic of the spanish flu, which makes that very relevant. That's actually included in our year 11, Music for Small Ensembles resource, that's on our website.

Kathrine

Look, they always remember that stuff, but it does engage them all.

Alex

I was thinking about a couple of games and one of them that I like to play with my students a lot is when they're doing their concepts of music revisions. So, we have our six concepts of music and you write one concept on an A3 piece of paper and place them around the room like concept stations. And each student finds the station to sit at and you play the excerpt of music once and they need to just write down everything that they can hear in the music related to the concept. And then they all switch tables and the next person needs to read what the last student wrote and either add to it or add a new point based on the next playing. And so, you play it six times. And by the end of the class you've come up with a whole concept analysis of that work. Generates fantastic content and is a great way to revise the concepts of music. The other game which I stole from someone that I haven't actually played yet with my own students but it's like a concept contest where you play the music and you give each of the kids some post it notes and they need to write down a musical observation that they can hear, and they have to run it up to the board and place it on the board. And if they're the first to place that particular observation on the board, then they get a point. But if it's the same as an observation that's already been placed, they don't get the point. And by the end, you know, the winner is whoever got the most points. So, find a way to revise those concepts where when they really over it, by the time they should seek comes around.

Jackie

I love that, so getting them to run up to the board. Maybe give them six different coloured post it notes too so they can classify their observations into the concepts as well. So Ravenna, drama and games.

Ravenna

Games and play are central to the drama courses throughout K-12. And I guess at the same time as we're calling this games, I guess a lot of drama teachers that I've spoken to just recently have been kind of moving to calling them exercises to give them more gravitas and to make them more of a serious thing. But it's a funny thing to hear that actually, a high leverage strategy is to call them games. But I think, like the idea of story is so sort of key to drama and that, you know, that coherent dramatic structure is the thing that we keep coming back to in drama, doesn't make this coherent statement. And that statement, even when it's not narrative is about communicating a story, you know, communicating, I keep coming back to intention, but that's what is behind the story, you know, what's the intention of the story. And it's obviously there in all of the warm ups that we do to kind of funnel that energy to harness the collaborative powers that we see in groups, all of that kind of stuff. To build group dynamic to improv is playing games, you know, all of those things are clearly there. But, I guess, in stage six, what you want students to be doing is using those games with a purpose and using that play with a purpose. And that purpose is usually about the actor audience relationship and how either play in the devising process or in the rehearsal process or in the generating kind of process is going to help you to manipulate tension. Ultimately, that's what you're wanting to be able to do, whether that's in a written project or in a performance. And I guess the first thing I thought about is the Approaches to Acting topic which Jacques Lecoq. One of his key kind of concepts is leisure, which is play, and it's through play, to the point of boredom is where creativity, when it's played, to the point of boredom its beyond that boredom that creativity lies. And I think that's a really lovely story to tell students as well about giving significance to play and games and seeing that as a creative process in that same approaches to acting. One of the practitioners is Augusta Boal and I have a colleague who always starts his introduction to Augusto Boal with the story the fable of Xua-xua, which Boal uses himself in his book. And that story is an ancient fable about the discovery of theatre as the art of looking at ourselves as spect-actors. And I think that's a really lovely kind of link for students to interpret. So, all of these high leverage strategy are coming together. They interpret the purpose of Augusto Boal approach to theatre through this story. You know, you don't even have to explain to them what this guy was all about because the inclusion of this story, the reading of this story, the sharing of it is what helps them to interpret. And I guess one of the other things I thought about is that we're asking students to tell their own stories through the individual project rationale as well. We're asking them to tell us the story of the work, to explain the intention through story. And the one that I really thought about that I think is a little bit outside of the box that I haven't used myself, but I loved seeing my colleague use this. My colleague gamified the revision of the two topic areas in HSC drama by creating this really elaborate point scoring system for embedding topic conventions and techniques and key information in multiple kind of mini group devising challenges. And there was a time limit. And, you know, whoever could have the most of these conventions embedded in their group performances by the end of however long would win a prize. And that's that lovely thing of play and stimulation and games all coming together in that in what could have been a really inactive way to revise and instead became this really fun active and hopefully impactful strategy.

Jackie

I love how you and Alex have both talked about gamifying revision because revision can be like so dry and so boring just going over things that they've already learned. So, to gamify and make it a competition, I think is just a fantastic sort of way to engage students in revision. Ravenna, we've got something going on in the statewide staff room this term in regards to games and drama games. And I know you just said that drama teachers would prefer to call them exercises and activities. And I have heard that, that has actually featured in this podcast before about not calling them drama games, but can you talk a little bit about our drama game share?

Ravenna

Yes, I guess that's an attempt in statewide staff room to kind of go, well, there's this the importance of games in readying students for learning in drama. And so whether it's to lift their energy or whether it's to get them accepting offers and collaborating effectively or whether it's to get them focused or whatever it is, we've created a couple of ways that teachers can share their favourite games or the games that they think are most useful and they can do that either through filling out a form which then will be fed into this kind of collaborative collection that's constantly evolving of games to be used or they can do it by recording a game through flipgrid.

Jackie

Yeah, fantastic. Today has been such a fantastic discussion about pedagogy really, about finding different ways to engage our students and lift them to the next level. Kathy, can I get you to sort of finish this off?

Kathrine

I can talk about this stuff all day. It's so inspiring to hear people talk about what they're doing in their classroom and what works well in their classroom. Look, it's been a pleasure, thank you for giving me the chance. And I guess I would say too, I'm really glad we got to share some of these ideas with creative arts, and we're happy to continue the conversation in the statewide staffroom if people want to talk about what's going on in their lessons and what works well. I know our whole team are very happy to have conversations in subject channels about that, that's what we love. And I guess I'd also say to visual art educators, it's an amazing opportunity to tap into some, I'm going to say extraordinary, extraordinary professional learning that has run over a year and a half now where you get a whole day online with colleagues from across the state to talk about just these kinds of things and I just say welcome. Google HSC professional learning visual arts or find it in the statewide staff room, there's a link there. Please come and join us and keep this conversation about what you do in your room that's effective going.

Jackie

Thank you so much for joining us today, everyone and a reminder to New South Wales Department of Education Teachers to join the statewide staff room and continue the conversation. This podcast was brought to you by the creative arts curriculum team of secondary learners, Educational Standards directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education. Get involved in the conversation by joining our statewide staff room through the link in the show notes or email our Creative Arts Curriculum Advisor, Cathryn Horvat at creativearts7-12@det.nsw.edu.au. The music for this podcast was composed by Alex Manton and audio production by Jason King.

[end of transcript]

Jackie King

The following podcast is brought to you by the creative arts curriculum team from secondary learners educational standards directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education. As we commence this podcast today, let us acknowledge the traditional custodians of all the lands on which this podcast will be played around New South Wales. Their art, storytelling, music and dance along with all First Nations People hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal Australia. Let us acknowledge with honour and respect our elders, past, present and future, especially those Aboriginal people in our presence today who have and still do guide us with their wisdom.

Alex Papasavvas

Welcome to the Creative Cast podcast series. I'm Alex Papasavvas and I'm a Creative Arts Curriculum Officer with the New South Wales Department of Education. Our topic for today's episode is Stage Six and the HSC and I'll be speaking with two highly experienced visual arts teachers about case studies, what artists they teach about, the way they organise content and the specific strategies they use in their programming and in the classroom to support student success in the critical and historical studies component of the visual arts course.

I'm joined now by Brian Shand from Coonabarabran High School in rural New South Wales. Brian, thanks for joining us today. Could you tell me a little bit about your background in teaching to start us off?

Brian Shand

Hi Alex. So, I'm currently Head Teacher Administration at Coonabarabran High School and that's halfway between Dubbo and Tamworth and I studied my teaching career here in 2002.

Alex

Tell me a bit more about Coonabarabran High School? What's it like teaching visual arts in a smaller rural setting?

Brian

So visual arts is a long-established part of our school culture. We offer mandatory Stage Four and elective Stage Five visual arts, as well as visual arts and photography courses in Stage Six. We're a comprehensive high school with an Aboriginal student population of 22% and our senior visual arts and photography classes, they catered to a broad range of students, some who studied art media in year nine and ten, as well as students who have only studied art in the mandatory course. So, one of the unique features of our school is the broad range of subjects we offered for senior year students and as a result our senior classes are normally smaller, which provides more focus, more one on one time with our seniors. And the majority of the HSC students I've taught over the years have achieved their highest marks in visual arts. So, the value adding plays a really important role in student success, saying that our school is located in a low socio-economic area and the students I teach come with a diverse range of needs.

Alex

Yeah, good. So, our topic for this episode is about Stage Six and the HSC. We know that case studies are a really big part of the visual arts course in Year 12. Could you give us a quick rundown of the case studies that you've got on offer this year?

Brian

So Alex we cover a mix of contemporary and historical artists in the Senior Case Studies, which tends to reflect our journey through the syllabus content areas, postmodern artists such as Anne Zahalka, James Angus, feminist artists Jenny Holzer Barbara Kruger, and Guerilla Girls as well as focusing on photographic architectural and sculptural practice and as well as that, I'm always showing students a variety of artists that relates to their art making and bodies of work. Daniel Agdag, Del Kathryn Barton, Lee Bul, Gregory Crewdson, Alexia Sinclair as well as of course, the Greatest Hits Modern Artists.

Alex

Yeah. And I'm sure there's a lot of very familiar names in there for teachers listening from their own case studies. I know that a lot of the artists you just mentioned feature in my teaching in Year 12 as well. I'd love to hear a bit more about how you approach developing that case study offering. I know you've got some pretty interesting ideas here. Were you able to give you some more detailed account of a particularly successful case study and how it came about?

Brian

Thanks Alex. So, it's funny looking back over 20 years odd of teaching visual arts case studies and if anything, I'm focused on art writing at a more explicit level now and I'm crafting my case studies to build students writing and interpretation skills. I'm always looking for new approaches to teaching art. So, over the last few years, I've actually focused on developing my case studies around responding to section one HSC questions of the old, the unseen plate. And this came about actually by looking at HSC rap data. So, when NESA finally broke down the HSC visual arts results by question, I was able to map out my student's strengths and weaknesses for each question and the data I got back from my rap analysis showed my students did quite well in section two long responses, but it's section one was inconsistent, especially for a 12 mark type question that required more elaboration in the student's response. So, in the past I've been showing students section one questions leading up to the trials and as part of the HSC revision, but for the last few years I’ve focused on explicitly teaching case studies through the section one format. So, the type of explicit teaching is called split screen teaching where students are learning the process and the skills of writing and learning case study content at the same time comes out of Claxton’s work. It's like meta learning. I start this process really early at the beginning of year 11, where I focus on writing reports and exam responses for visual arts alongside the teaching of case studies. And so, by the end of year 11 students understand paragraph and report writing structure and that meta language of art as well as being introduced to content of the frames, practice and the conceptual framework.

Also, I'm going to add here, I've been attending the department's HSC professional learning, on high leverage strategies, which is excellent by the way, and I've been lucky enough to work collaboratively with the visual arts team as a community of engagement member. So, some of the strategies I'd like to talk about have direct links to the high leverage strategies, including building understanding, darts, questioning, whole class discussion, and teacher created resources.

So, section one. This section one sort of program focus really starts at term four at the beginning of the year 12 course. And we normally have a week of prac and a week of theory in year 11 and 12. So we've got nine 55-minute periods in a fortnight cycle. And so, the students are given a section one question at the beginning of each week in our theory week with the questions becoming increasingly more demanding over the term. And so, the students have attempted the initial section one question, which is a five marker, and then we actually go in and build understanding about the demands of the question. So, I give the students a copy of the marking criteria as well as an analysis of the question and three example student responses which, look I've written, they’re example responses and each response represents a different part of the marking criteria. So, 1-2 marks, then 3-4 and then a five mark response. And the students read each response. And then we're looking at the marking criteria. We have a whole class discussion around the discriminating features of each one and this is a really good activity because it shows the students what an exemplar looks like as well as responses that are strong. The students are by now writing about mid level anyway, so they're comparing their own responses to the examples. Then we unpack the question as well as the format of a seection one question. And so. I use the mnemonic to help with this. Hey slick. Think quick. So the acronym Quick stands for question image citation, which gets the students thinking about the components of a section one question and so to then unpack the question, the queue in quick, the acronym slick stands for syllabus link information concepts and keywords. Now we're doing the high leverage strategy called darts, which is directed activity related to text, where the students engage at this deeper level with the example responses. And this time the highlighters come out and I'm getting students to use separate colour to highlight the questions components identified through slick. So syllabus link information concepts keywords. Then we do the same for each response only this time the acronym we're using is slim where the concepts and key words change to meaning. So, the better the better responses here, they’re even in the highlighted colour, highlighter sort of yellow and pink at all. At the same time where the lower mark responses, they've kind of got only one colour, such as like information copied from the source material, they've just been quoting and this shows the students visually how each response is either balanced or it's just ignoring those syllabus links and meaning. And so straight away you're getting students saying “Ah yep, that's a really good response, that's the five marks,” or “that's all yellow, that's one or two marks for a particular reason.” And so, this ability to be able to unpack the question at an example level becomes really important and we focus on one question a week. So, one section, one question a week in our theory lessons and I've sequenced each question to become more sophisticated in its cognitive demand and at the same time I'm reducing the level of scaffolding provided to assist the students in answering the question. So, I'm moving from this modelled, to guided, and then of course, independent learning over the course of the term. And, of course, all throughout this process, students are learning syllabus content, they're learning artists practice through the frames. We might start off with the postmodern frame because they've already had experience in year 11 with the postmodern frame. So, in section one, it's still the same syllabus content, but they're just learning now within section one. And so, also we're focused on architecture as well and site specific works. So, we're sort of covering a couple of case studies throughout the term. And what I found since teaching section one explicitly is that students’ responses have improved, but more importantly, their ability to elaborate in those longer 12 mark responses has also improved. Which was really the point that we got from the rap data in the first place. And so, they can actually conceptualize practice more clearly and that explicit thinking is more apparent in both their class discussion and written responses.

And so, this whole process I’ve really found value and I think the value has been shown within my current students and where they're up to and I mean you just work at these things and fine tune them over time. So yes, so hopefully, you know, this is something that I'd like to continue and see how it develops.

Alex

Yeah, I think that sounds like such an interesting way of approaching the teaching of that content. So when you are presenting content explicitly as these are the artists that we're looking at, this is the theme for this case study. You're always taking it back to that format of five mark and eight or 12 mark or so question like here's an image and a citation, a little bit of a reading, go off and then we'll come back and unpack all of those responses and code them out very explicitly.

Brian

Yes. So, it's this idea of the thinking about what is this question asking? What's the demands of this question which I can understand myself is I'm actually showing that thinking very explicitly. So, I've got a sheet for the first example that would have this is the syllabus link, the postmodern frame, this is the information, plate one and the source material. This is the concept, challenges traditional ideas of art, and these are the keywords, discuss how. And so you actually talk about that. But then you're saying, well, how does that translate into a written response as well? And so, step by step by step showing this is actually what this question is all about. And this is what you actually have to provide in your response to answer it correctly. You're teaching them. But you're also saying things like well in a five mark, you don't want to get into as much depth as you do for 12 or 14 marker. And how do you get that depth? Well you're pulling out maybe three or four concepts in a 12 market where a five marker is only just maybe one or maybe two key concepts and you're discussing them quite broadly.

Alex

This is so interesting.

Brian

Yeah. Look it's something that I've been working on for a few years and then I've done the high leverage strategies as well.

Alex

Which really is excellent professional learning.

Brian

Well, the thing is that it's the templates there within that high leverage strategies document. And so, I was going, I'm kind of doing this, but wow, this makes so much more sense. And so, this idea of you're doing both at the same time through split screen teaching, which is process plus content, but at the same time you're actually saying this is really what we need to provide, but this is what the markers are looking for and have you included this and this and this. But you're doing it in a way that all of those things happen at once. So it's not just, well, here's the case study. Here's some questions. Okay, give me a 500-word response, see you in a week, it's really working together and then we do this as a whole class group discussion quite early. And then actually, because it was term four, I gave them questions to do over the holidays. Now look, some did them, some didn't, but when we came back and we did our half yearly exam in term one, their responses were 110% improved because they've actually had this ongoing practice of doing section one, they've still got all the skills of section two that they've kind of learned throughout year 11. And now we're moving back in terms two and three we’ll move back to that more traditional case study that's going to build for a section two response. But they've understood as well how to unpack a section two questions by using slicks. So, you know, I mean, you can't do this, I don't think at the start of year 11, you have to really build those basics about, you know, this is what we're looking for in a typical art response. But that first term for year 12 time to move in, I found has become a natural progression.

Alex

And it's good timing as well, isn't it? Because you can say the HSC course has begun, we need to start thinking about bodies of work. We need to start thinking about the exam more seriously. This is when go time really happens in the course.

Brian

Look definitely, you know, as we know the section one is a bit of a discriminator in terms of students and how their ability to understand the syllabus content.

Alex

I sometimes thought of it that section two might assess more how the students know and then section one is more assessing how well they are able to use those skills to analyse artworks.

Brian

Definitely. And so, I think you have to get to a particular point within the stage six course of study where the students are beginning to learn how to do that and they might not be quite there yet. But you then actually have to explicitly teach the skills and I think it's a very difficult thing to be able to walk in and see an image that you've never seen before and say, well, what does it mean? You're actually, you're now saying, well, here's the syllabus content we can choose, you know, but it's understanding and drawing out those concepts from the question has been posed to students and being able to get them to link back to other case studies that they've learned about within the course of studies. So yeah, it's really interesting, really different to focus on teaching case studies but through a section one kind of response, but at the same time it really builds all that that broader knowledge of case studies that we're trying to teach students.

Alex

So yeah, this has been so interesting Brian, it's been a real pleasure chatting to you, thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience with our listeners today. I'm sure that people are really going to benefit from hearing your ideas and perspectives. I think it's a really innovative and interesting way to approach the course and thanks so much for joining me today.

Brian

Thanks Alex, been a pleasure.

Alex

My next guest is Mel Cassin from Bosley Park High School. Thank you so much for joining us today, Mel.

Mel Cassin

Hello and thanks for having me Alex.

Alex

Could you tell us a little bit about your school background and what the culture visual arts is like there?

Mel

Yeah, absolutely. Bosley Park High School is a large coeducational high school in Southwest Sydney. It has approximately 1400 students at the school, 82% of the student population come from a language background or dialect other than English and around 10% of our students are from a refugee background. In the past, the school has been recognized for its broad curriculum, including programs that support the development of talent and high potential in a range of areas and that was including visual arts as well as robotics, accelerated maths, performing arts, dance, music and drama. And we also have a selective, talented football program at the school for both girls and boys.

Alex

Could you tell us a little bit more about your visual arts department?

Mel

Yeah, absolutely. So, the visual arts department is a standalone visual arts department, not a CAPA faculty, which is exciting because it's such a big school. It in comprises of seven art teachers and that includes your highly experienced and new scheme teachers and each teacher has knowledge, skills and expertise in various art making practices. And many of the of the staff are practicing artists themselves and that sees that knowledge and passion transfer into their classroom practice which really further enriches learning for our students. Which is really nice.

Alex

You must have a lot of classes running with seven teachers in the department.

Mel

Yeah, we do. We have mandatory periods for stage four are ran in year seven but we are fortunate enough to run year eight electives at our school as well and we offer elective visual arts and we also do some cross curricular elective courses. One with English and we run a photojournalism course which is really exciting and we run a design course that's cross curricular course with industrial arts and encompasses aspects of graphic design as well as product design. In Stage five we have visual design, visual arts and photo media ran at the school and we currently have two visual arts classes in year 9, one visual design and one PDM. And in year 10 I think that's almost mirrored. We have two visual arts one visual design and one PDM. And in stage six currently we have one year 11 visual arts class and one P. V. D. And the same in year 12, one visual arts class in one PVD. So, it is quite a large faculty.

Alex

So in your HSC classes this year, what case studies are you looking at?

Mel

Yeah. So, look the HSC case studies that I've developed at our school, I've developed a real systematic approach to unpacking the case studies. Because when I analysed my data I really identified the weakness in student results were in the written component and in particular students’ ability to deeply interpret works. So, this was a little bit of a driver for me to revisit the case studies and implement some specific strategies inside them as well to really target lift in that area. So, case study one which is titled the artists who express an informed point of view, which is the discriminating feature of visual arts. And we look in particular at artists from the Archibald. So, we're looking at Australian artists and there's a focus on Brett Whiteley, Del Kathryn Barton, and Abdul Abdullah, in that particular case study and in case study two, it's titled Art outside the gallery. And this really explores contemporary artists that create public sculpture or site-specific work that really challenge audience’s perception of what art is and we focus on artists Theo Jansen, Andy Goldsworthy, Damien Hirst, and Ron Mueck. And for case study three, it's titled artist as a political and social commentator and we look at a focus on Asian artists. And we look at Ai Weiwei, we also look at Mariko Mori and Yasumasa Morimura, and for case study four its titled Identity. And there is a focus there on contemporary Aboriginal artists and we look at Lin Onus, Blak Douglas, Karla Dickens, and Jonathan Jones as well. And Case study five is called the role of the art critic. And we generally tend to complete this after the trial exam to keep students on task and focused right to the end. And we look at the rise of modernism in the 20th century and in particular, Robert Hughes's interpretation of this through the Shock of the New series. And then in contrast to that, we then analyse the role of contemporary art in the 21st century and the demands that it has on audiences through the new Shock of the New documentaries and that sort of that takes us right through to the exam, quite comprehensive.

Alex

So, could you give us a bit more of a detailed account of you’re process and how you approach that development of the case studies?

Mel

As I mentioned earlier, I have developed a systematic approach to unpacking and delivering the case studies with year 12. When I analysed the data, I saw the weakness and the need was in this area. So, I immediately set to work to develop and implement a series of strategies to really target lift in this area. And the first thing I do is I start with a purposely selected quality documentary and I think I do this because it engages learners of all abilities. And I think that this really helps with the storytelling for students to reveal the intention of the artist practice. And I find that this is the hook for my students and this is where I get to buy in from them. And following that documentary we’ll engage in class discussion after viewing the documentary and the students will share their new knowledge that they've just learned to the class and we construct notes based on these findings. And this is the high-level strategy of note making, which is very different to note taking. And I find that I don't really ever write notes on the board for students to copy. I just don't think my students learn from that.

Alex

Do you think you could quickly explain that difference between note taking and note making for people that might not be familiar with the high leverage strategies?

Mel

Yes. A note taking will generally be where teachers will write a series of notes on the board and asked the students to copy it down and they don't really unpack or discuss the information. It's much more purposeful for students to develop their own notes and that's where the note making comes in. So, on the back of the class discussion, once we've watched the documentaries and were involved in a class discussion, the students are then equipped to write their own independent notes. And sometimes we do that collectively in small groups or even as a class. It could be a class discussion and we developed a series of notes together. That is a culmination of all of their findings. And I think that's where I found my students learn best where they're sharing their interpretations of class. And we developed a series of notes as a class. And it's almost like the next step after how they've actually interpreted the information from the documentary and how they're then going to use those notes to then help them with the following activities that will come afterwards.

So, after I do that, I developed my own faculty developed case study booklets. And these tend to include articles, reviews, you know, quality sources of information on the artists and I embed specific questions that relate to the three content areas of the frames, conceptual framework and practice into these booklets. So, the students are consistently making reference to them. And I think it's really important that they're consistently building an understanding of those three content areas and, you know, the interrelated nature that they're intended to be, which is outlined in our syllabus quite clearly, we tend to engage in that case study booklet as a class. We will read through the notes, will engage in darts related activities, like marking the text and annotating as we go. And the students are then drawing information out of those booklets relating to the three content areas and I think again, that's building their understanding of those and it's assisting them to answer with short or long answer questions down the track.

Alex

And when you annotate or mark up pieces of writing, are you asking students to consider maybe perspectives from the frames or language from the framework?

Mel

So generally what they're doing is they're highlighting the text in reference to the questions I have posed, the questions that I posed throughout the booklet will be in reference to one of the three content areas, questions that ranged from lower order to higher order questions and that caters for all the students because I have high support and high challenge students in my class. So, I think that level of questioning helps challenge them, but the questions are focused on the three content areas and we are looking at drawing information out of the source consistently through those activities related activities.

Alex

Do you find it helps to be quite explicit about the content areas, particularly in the HSC course where we might expect students to have a little bit more of that meta understanding of the syllabus and the fact that they're going to have to go off and apply that language in the exam, choose questions based on practice, frames or conceptual framework?

Mel

Absolutely. In year 11 we spend a significant amount of time unpacking and developing an understanding on those three content areas separately. And then we're looking at starting to inter relate those and overlap them. And you can see evidence of that in students’ writing because they've developed such a strong foundation understanding of them in year 11, when they're going into year 12 straight away, they're starting to interrelate and interweave those three content areas and they're quite then equipped to answer any question whether it's a practice or conceptual framework or frames question, they're equipped to do that, but they understand the impact of inter relating those three content areas will then result in really high interpretations, which is what we're looking for at the top of the scale, so to speak. Another thing that I do is I have developed my own faculty developed scaffolds that actually do focus on the three content areas, and I've developed these scaffolds to suit the needs of my students and I think that they've really greatly assisted with the building of their understanding of them, but also their interpretation skills and I, again, I try to get students to even work in groups in this area too, Alex, where we're using the scaffold almost as a draft for a short response question. And if we're, for example, our focus is on the conceptual framework and I've got the students divided up into four groups where one group is allocated each aspect of the conceptual framework. We have an artist and artwork and audience and a world group and they're completing that scaffold and compiling information in just that one area, and then again, we collectively share those interpretations to the whole class. So, we're building the scaffold collectively as a class. And I think that that's where the students are learning best from one another, and I think that's really powerful, definitely in my context anyway. And at the end of that, as I said, they've created a draft response for a short question that I could then pose to them and they could then be really well equipped to answer that short answer question independently because they've watched the documentaries, they've got notes from the note making discussions, they've completed the case study booklet questions and then they have the faculty developed scaffold that they've completed. So, they're really confident at that point to answer a question. And that actually follows the high leverage strategy of whole class discussion, group work and independent student activity. So that that's what works really well in my context.

Alex

I like the idea of going backwards and forwards between getting the students to come to an individual understanding, but then that co creation of a class set of notes and sharing and having students, you know, re teach and explain that content to each other as a reinforcing strategy, but also as just an active classroom, right, with your engaged students sharing information with each other. Sounds ideal.

Mel

Yeah, it works well and I think it's the repetition of the process because we do that for each artist for each of the case studies. So, as I mentioned earlier in the case studies, there's generally three artists in a case study, if not more. So, the students are doing that process three times. So, it does sound repetitious, but it really works. And each time we're focusing on a different content area. So, if we go back to say case study one, which was the artists that expressing informed point of view, my focus for Whiteley is on practice. My focus for Del Kathryn Barton is on frames and my focus for Abdul Abdullah is conceptual framework. That way the students have developed an interrelated understanding of those three artists through the three content areas and then they can finally, you know, ultimately, at the end of that, they can complete an extended response question at the end of that case study and bring all of those artists into discussion.

Alex

Yeah. And from what you told me, it sounds like your final case study has this big art history focus, maybe an overview where you're looking at critical and historical writing, maybe about a lot of different artists. And I wonder do you find that having this case study at the end of your sequence where they've already developed all those skills, it leaves your students a little bit better equipped to tackle what might be a little bit heavier content?

Mel

Correct. I think that the artist that I sort of picked for the four case studies prior to these are artists that I think one, well, they align with all of the content areas and if we look at each particular case study, there's a little bit of a focus through the different aspects of the conceptual framework. You know, when you look at the Case Study one where the artists are really creating artwork for the Archibald, they're really looking at a portrait which tells the story, so it's really about the artwork. And then when you look at the social issues in case study two, it's really about the world, and when we look at outside the gallery, it's really about the audience. And then when we look at the identity case study with the Indigenous artists, it's about the artists and their cultural understanding and background being conveyed through their art. So, I think that that's sort of something that I have purposefully done, but at that fifth case study which generally the students are pretty exhausted at that time. I think that that particular case study is almost a formation of really what they've spent time understanding through the whole visual arts education, not just in year 12 or in stage six, it's just really almost a recap of what was happening, the Modernism period and what a contemporary artists, what's driving their practice and how that's really changed the way audience interact with art and the way we see art. So it's almost like a little bit of overview for me, and I think the way that I set it up with viewing their documentaries and answering specific questions, it's just more achievable and attainable in that space, when the students have an extensive amount of knowledge, they've put it into practice into the trial, and it's just really consolidating a lot of their findings and really just doing a bit of a recap on a lot of things that they've learned over the years. So sometimes I have thought whether that case study would be better at the beginning, but it seems to be working better at the end.

Alex

Well, it's been a real pleasure chatting to you today and thank you so much for sharing, particularly some insight into the high leverage strategies in your visual art classroom and I hope our teachers will really benefit from hearing your ideas and perspectives.

Mel

Thanks for having me Alex and letting me share some of the practices from my classroom. I've really enjoyed it. Thanks so much.

Alex

Thank you for tuning into Creative Cast and we'll see you next time.

Jackie

This podcast was brought to you by the creative arts curriculum team of secondary learners, Educational Standards directorate of the New South Wales Department of Education. Get involved in the conversation by joining our statewide staff room through the link in the show notes or email our Creative Arts Curriculum Advisor, Cathryn Horvat at creativearts7-12@det.nsw.edu.au. The music for this podcast was composed by Alex Manton and audio production by Jason King

[end of transcript]