Curriculum advice for remote and flexible learning - Music, Dance and Drama

​Implementing the Victorian Curriculum F–10

The following information outlines curriculum area advice to schools to support remote learning and continuity for students in F–10 Music, Dance and Drama. This advice should be read in conjunction with broader advice provided to schools regarding the Victorian Curriculum F–10 on the VCAA and Victorian Curriculum F–10 websites.

Delivering F–10 Music, Dance and Drama remotely and flexibly

Keep in mind

  • Schools can review and adapt their teaching and learning programs for Music, Dance and Drama to enable the curriculum to be delivered at home via remote learning.
  • Teachers are best placed to make teaching and learning adjustments, and assessment adjustments, that are appropriate to their own circumstances. Teachers need to take into account their access to remote learning tools (such as online learning platforms), access to materials, technologies, equipment and instruments, and the strengths and limitations of their student cohort.

Ideas and connections

  • Schools and teachers can select teaching and learning activities that integrate Music, Dance and Drama with another learning area and/or capability to enhance the efficiency of curriculum delivery.
  • Teachers can select teaching and learning activities based on the curriculum focus of Making and Responding in Music, Dance or Drama, which could include performances, practical activities, explorations, experimentations and investigations that are able to be undertaken with materials, technologies, equipment and instruments readily available in students' homes.
  • Teachers may provide templates that scaffold students' practical activities and performances at home, focusing on Making and Responding through experiences that include observing, viewing, listening, performing, playing, analysing, evaluating and documenting their experiences and the development of created works.
  • Schools may consider if there is an alternative approach or strategy that could be used to deliver curriculum content, in place of what was originally planned, for example, demonstrations, simulations and modelling of experiences, processes and approaches.

Useful resources

In addition to VCAA resources for Music, Dance and Drama, teachers may consider the following resources:

Assessment and achievement standards

  • Schools should assess student learning, including evidence from performances and practical activities, against the relevant aspects of the achievement standards in the Victorian Curriculum F–10.
  • Depending on the resources available at home and the aspect of the achievement standard being assessed,  students may record their experiences by photographing, recording or creating an electronic record to evaluate their own arts making and to respond to the arts work of others.
  • Teachers can select and use a variety of assessment types to provide timely feedback to students and to monitor learning progress. Schools can review the range of assessment tasks to achieve a balance between short inquiry-based activities that focus student attention on particular skills and understanding and more open-ended, rich assessment tasks that can be completed over a longer period of time at home.
  • On the resumption of face-to-face learning, schools may need to undertake a variety of assessments to determine students' actual progression of learning, considering the original teaching and learning program and making the necessary adjustments to this program as required. 

For more information

Margaret Arnold, Music, Dance and Drama Curriculum Manager

Phone (03) 9032 1681 or email the Music, Dance and Drama Curriculum Manager