Unit 3, Outcome 1
On completion of this unit, the student should be able to interpret a script across the stages of the production process through collaborative work undertaken in two production roles.
Introducing the task
There are two components to this task: practical and analytical. Together, they assess students’ understanding of how to collaboratively develop an interpretation of a script for an audience through the production process and application of skills specific to two production roles, and through an evaluative reflection.
Students collaboratively explore a playscript or excerpts, covering all three production stages.
Designing the task
It is important to select a script that fits the students' age and school context and which also supports thorough study of varied theatrical possibilities. Additional elements to consider include:
- number of students in class
- time available
- chosen audience
- financial and material resources accessible to students.
When selecting a script for interpretation, the length of the performance needs to be carefully considered. The production process (planning, development and presentation) needs to be achievable within a realistic timeline. Additionally, the majority of work undertaken across the three stages needs to occur during regular timetabled classes. It is therefore acceptable for script excerpts or short plays to be considered for this outcome. When selecting a play that is under license, it is important that the school has contacted the rights holder(s) and obtained permission to perform the work.
When selecting a script, consider the following questions:
- Does the script help students understand key historical or cultural developments ?
- What opportunities does the script offer for each student to undertake two production roles?
- What dramaturgical opportunities does the script provide?
- Are there enough students in the group to play all the roles in the script, or can additional performers be included if needed?
- Are there opportunities for exploring diverse content or characterisation in this script?
- What design opportunities does the script offer?
- Are performance rights available (if required)?
- Can rehearsals and performance of the script be completed within the given timeframe?
- What resources are available for staging?
- What challenges does the script pose, and how will they be addressed?
- Is it possible for students to be involved in selecting the script?
Task conditions
This task is worth 60 marks.
The practical production process is worth 45 marks (Task 1).
The analysis and evaluation (oral, written, visual or multimedia) is worth 15 marks (Task 2).
The two components of this task should be completed across multiple sessions.
The tasks must be a part of the regular teaching and learning program and must not unduly add to the workload associated with that program. They must be completed mainly in class and within a limited and identified timeframe.
Students should be made aware of how each activity contributes to their final mark and expectations/deadlines of each task should be published prior to the commencement of the task.
The choice of activities and their duration will vary depending on the time allocated to this outcome.
The two components of this task should allow the students to:
- demonstrate knowledge of the production process required to facilitate the realisation of an interpretation of the script for an audience
- contribute effectively to two production roles, in collaboration with others, to create an intended meaning for audiences, using the elements of theatre composition
- underpin their work with relevant dramaturgy
- use theatre technologies where appropriate
- demonstrate collaborative sensitivity
- document ongoing contributions
- analyse and evaluate these contributions and refine work accordingly
- use relevant theatre terminology and expressions (in written and oral communication) to facilitate the realisation of the production aims.
Task 1 involves ongoing assessment with the outcome of an interpretation of a script being presented in performance to an audience. Practical production exercises are set for each stage of the production process. Teachers need to be able to track the developmental and collaborative contributions that a student makes to the interpretation of the script across the three stages of the production process and in two production roles.
Task 2 must be realised in two different formats selected from oral, written, visual, and/or multimedia. It must enable the students to analyse and evaluate their own ongoing developmental contributions across all three stages of the production process. Students must be directed to support their responses with appropriate documentation.
A practical way to monitor each student’s progress and knowledge is to introduce analytical and evaluative tasks throughout the production process in the form of carefully scheduled production meetings and performance reviews. In this way, teachers can review students’ documentation and provide timely and relevant feedback and guidance on areas of work that students need to complete in subsequent stages of the production process.
The following stages are used for this assessment:
- Planning (e.g. role description, dramaturgical research and analysis, script analysis, initial production meetings, preliminary sketches, preliminary designs, rehearsal strategies)
- Development (e.g. final designs, sourcing materials, production meetings, scheduled rehearsal time)
- Presentation (e.g. any activity undertaken from ‘bump in’ to ‘bump out’ including dress rehearsals, technical rehearsals, actual performances)
- Analysis and evaluation (e.g. written notes, rehearsal and performance footage, reference to folio/digital journal).
Marking the task
Teachers should use the VCAA performance descriptors to guide their rubric and/or making scheme.
The marking scheme used to assess a student’s level of performance should reflect the relevant aspects of the performance descriptors and be explained to students before they commence the task.
It is important for teachers to keep detailed notes about observations of students throughout the process. Teachers should be made aware of student communication as a production team. It is important to provide students with ongoing feedback throughout this outcome, with specific feedback related to each stage of the production process.
Authentication
Students should complete the majority of the preparation for this task in class to minimise authentication issues. Teachers can use regular check-ins and production meetings to monitor authentication of student work.
Unit 3, Outcome 2
On completion of this unit, the student should be able to outline concepts and ideas for an interpretation of excerpts from a script and explain how these could be realised in a theatre production.
Introducing the task
This outcome assesses the students’ ability to hypothetically apply the knowledge and skills they have developed to an unseen play. Students describe the activities undertaken across the production stages working in production roles, apply supplied dramaturgy to inform their interpretation, explain how the elements of theatre composition can be used in their interpretation, the use of context and style to inform their interpretations, how theatre technologies can be applied across the production stages and the consideration of safe, ethical, inclusive and sustainable practices.
Designing the task
The assessment for Outcome 2 builds on the knowledge and skills that students developed in Outcome 1. The play selected must be different from scripts studied in Areas of Study 1 and 3. For this task, students are generally provided with the following:
- script excerpt(s)
- dramaturgical information (including but not limited to: plot of the play, location(s), character(s), context of the play, background of playwright(s), production aim(s))
- stimulus material
- questions to respond to in the form of an essay, a written report or structured questions.
There are no requirements for students to adopt the same production roles as the ones they undertook in Outcome 1.
The script selected for students should be developmentally appropriate and go through a selection process with similar rigour to that of Outcome 1. To provide accurate dramaturgical information and to consider the quality of ideas presented in responses, the teacher should be familiar with the play.
Task conditions
The task is worth 15 marks.
Students complete this task individually. The time allocation for this assessment task should take into consideration the total available marks.
Marking the task
Teachers should use the VCAA performance descriptors to guide their rubric and/or making scheme.
The marking scheme used to assess a student's level of performance should reflect the relevant aspects of the VCAA performance descriptors and be explained to students before they commence the task.
The structured questions given to students should cover a range of command terms and teachers should be guided by the Unit 3, Outcome 2 Key knowledge and Key skills in the study design.
Unit 3, Outcome 3
On completion of this unit, the student should be able to analyse and evaluate the interpretation of a written script from the prescribed VCE Theatre Studies Playlist in production to an audience.
Introducing the task
This task requires students to analyse and evaluate a production from the VCE Theatre Studies Playlist. Students must read and study the script, discuss in class aspects of the play and consider how these may be applied in performance. Once the production has been viewed, students engage in a number of key activities to explore the interpretation of the play and discuss how the script was staged. They then respond in writing as an analytical essay or to structured questions.
Designing the task
Teachers select a play from the VCE Theatre Studies Playlist, published annually by the VCAA. Students then attend a performance of the play. When selecting the play teachers should refer to the ‘Safety and wellbeing’ section of the study design. For this task, teachers have the option of setting an analytical essay or responses to structured questions.
Questions presented to students for assessment should cover a majority of the Key skills and Key knowledge from the VCE Theatre Studies Study Design, Unit 3, Outcome 3. When designing questions, teachers should include a variety of command terms and offer a range of lower-, middle- and higher-order thinking questions.
This play must be different to the one studied for Unit 4, Outcome 3. It is important to note that this assessment is different to the one for Unit 4, Outcome 3. For further information, consult with the teaching and learning samples and review the Key skills and Key knowledge for the outcome. For this outcome, students must read and study the script.
Task conditions
The task is worth 25 marks.
Students complete this task individually. The time allocation for this assessment task should take into consideration the total available marks.
Marking the task
Teachers should use the VCAA Performance Descriptor to guide their rubric and/or making scheme.
The marking scheme used to assess a student’s level of performance should reflect the relevant aspects of the VCAA. performance descriptors and be explained to students before they commence the task.
Authentication
Students should complete this task under timed conditions to ensure authentication.
Unit 4, Outcome 1
On completion of this unit, the student should be able to describe and justify an interpretation of a monologue and its prescribed scene within the world of the play.
Introducing the task
In Unit 4, Outcome 1, students document and report on dramaturgical decisions that could inform an interpretation of a monologue and its prescribed scene. They conduct dramaturgy as the basis for decisions that will inform their interpretation.
There are two components to this task: practical and analytical. Together, they assess students’ ability to justify and interpret a monologue and its prescribed scene within the world of the lay.
Designing the task
For this task, students select one of the prescribed monologues from the VCE Monologue Examination for the year in which they are enrolled.
For the first component of the assessment (Task 1) students respond in a written format (essay, report or structured questions). They address the initial dramaturgical research that they conducted into one of the monologues, as well as the ideas they considered.
For the second component of the assessment (Task 2) students address the possibilities, intentions and vision for their interpretation in the form of an oral presentation.
Preparing for the task
When students engage in the planning stage of the production process, they undertake research activities that explore their chosen monologue before they begin to develop a personal interpretation of the monologue. They record their progress in journals (electronic or hardcopy).
Task conditions
The task is worth a total of 30 marks. Task 1: 20 marks, Task 2: 10 marks.
Students complete this task individually. Teachers can decide if Task 1 is completed under timed conditions or if students can complete this task across a series of lessons, inclusive of self-directed learning time.
Marking the task
Teachers should use the VCAA performance descriptors to guide their rubric and/or making scheme.
The marking scheme used to assess a student’s level of performance should reflect the relevant aspects of the VCAA performance descriptors and be explained to students before they commence the task.
Task 1 and Task 2 should be marked independently of each other.
Authentication
Since Task 1 may be completed outside of class time and since the oral presentation may also be developed in students’ personal time, teachers should actively monitor students’ work to ensure the final assessment submitted can be accurately authenticated.
Unit 4, Outcome 3
On completion of this unit, the students should be able to analyse and evaluate the acting, direction and design in a performance of a production from the prescribed VCE Theatre Studies Playlist.
Introducing the task
For this task, students study a play in performance and analyse and evaluate the acting, direction and design. Students consider the interrelationship between relevant production roles and how these creatives interpreted a play in performance. In doing so, they consider how theatre style(s) and relevant convention(s) were applied through production roles. Additionally, when completing an essay or responses to structured questions, students comment on how production roles contributed to intended meanings throughout the play.
Designing the task
Teachers select a play from the VCE Theatre Studies Playlist, published annually by the VCAA. Students then attend a performance of the play. When selecting the play teachers should refer to the ‘Safety and wellbeing’ section of the study design. For this task, teachers have the option of setting an analytical essay or responses to structured questions.
Questions presented to students for assessment should cover majority of the Key skills and Key knowledge from the
VCE Theatre Studies Study Design, Unit 4, Outcome 3. When designing questions, teachers should include a variety of command terms and offer a range of lower-, middle- and higher-order thinking questions.
This play must be different to the one studied for Unit 3, Outcome 3. It is important to note that this assessment is different to the one for Unit 3, Outcome 3. For further information, consult with the teaching and learning samples and review the Key skills and Key knowledge for the outcome. For this outcome, students are not required to read and study the script.
Task conditions
The task is worth 20 marks.
Students complete this task individually. The time allocation for this assessment task should take into consideration the total available marks.
Marking the task
Teachers should use the VCAA Performance Descriptor to guide their rubric and/or making scheme.
The marking scheme used to assess a student’s level of performance should reflect the relevant aspects of the performance descriptors and be explained to students before they commence the task.
Authentication
Students should complete this task under timed conditions to ensure authentication.
Performance descriptors
The VCAA performance descriptors are advice only and provide a guide to developing an assessment tool when assessing the outcomes of each area of study. The performance descriptors can be adapted and customised by teachers in consideration of their context and cohort, and to complement existing assessment procedures in line with the
VCE Administrative Handbook and the
VCE assessment principles.
VCE performance descriptors can assist teachers in:
- moderating student work,
- making consistent assessment,
- helping determine student point of readiness (zone of proximal development), and
- providing more detailed information for reporting purposes.
Using VCE performance descriptors can assist students by providing them with informed, detailed feedback and by showing them what improvement looks like.
Teachers can also explore the VCE performance descriptors with their students, unpacking the levels of expected performance so students have a clear understanding of what can be possible in terms of development and achievement.
When developing SAC tasks, teachers are advised to adapt the VCAA VCE performance descriptors to relate to the SAC task used and their school context. Teachers should use their professional judgment when deciding how to adapt the rubrics, considering the
VCE assessment Principles, the requirements of the relevant study design, the relevant outcome, key knowledge, key skills and assessment tasks, and the student cohort.
Teachers may consider using the following guidelines when adapting the VCE Performance descriptors and/or developing an assessment tool:
- Develop the SAC task and assessment rubric simultaneously.
- Assess the outcome through a representative sample of key knowledge and key skills. Not all key knowledge and key skills will be formally assessed in a SAC task – some key knowledge and key skills are observable in classroom engagement and learning – but all criteria in any assessment tool must be drawn directly from the study design.
- Select the components of the VCE Performance descriptors that are most appropriate and most relevant for the selected outcome and SAC task.
- Attempt to capture the skill level of a range of students within the cohort: the lowest expected quality of performance should be something most or all students can do, and the highest expected quality of performance should be something that extends the most able students. Similarly, ensure that the range of qualities identified in the rubric shows the lower and the upper range of what an individual student could show in terms of the outcome, key knowledge and the key skills.
- Where necessary, add specific key knowledge and/or key skills to provide context to the expected qualities of performance.
- Where necessary, remove expected qualities of performance that may not be relevant to the selected outcome and developed SAC task.
- Show a clear gradation across the expected qualities of performance, indicating progression from one quality to the next.
- Use consistent language from the study design outcome, key knowledge and key skills.
- Ensure command terms reflect the cognitive demands of the outcome. Refer to the
glossary of command terms for a list of terms commonly used across the Victorian Curriculum F–10, VCE study designs and VCE examinations.