Dance - Moderator's Newsletter
April 2011
Contents
- Upcoming in 2011
- Best Practice Workshops
- New Resources and Exemplars
- TKI Resources
- Identification of Students in video evidence
- Choreographic Intentions – Moderator requirements
- Standards with multiple assessment events
Upcoming in 2011
Best Practice Workshops
Best Practice workshops for dance will again be held this year on the following dates:
May 27 - Christchurch
June 7 – Auckland Central
The past best practice workshops for dance were well received, with teachers particularly enjoying the opportunity to view actual student exemplars from a range of the dance internal standards. All new exemplars will be used this year and there will be an opportunity to look at the newly aligned Level 1 Standards.
The workshops aim to:
- increase teacher understanding of interpretation of internally assessed standards
- clarify grade boundaries
- provide greater confidence in making assessment decisions.
Information for how to sign up to one of these workshops can be found on the NZQA website.
New Resources and Exemplars
The NZQA dance subject page has links to new documents and resources that are currently available. The National Moderators report for 2010 is available, as well as exemplars of student work for the new level 1 internal standard 90860 Dance 1.4 (Demonstrate understanding of the elements of dance). A link to the assessment resources for this new standard is also there. Keep your eye on this page as more exemplars and resources will continue to be added this year including the resources and exemplars for the new level 2 standard Dance 2.5 (Demonstrate understanding of a range of choreographic processes).
TKI Assessment Resources
If using a TKI assessment resource please ensure that you are using the latest version of these OR that you have updated them sufficiently. Some older versions are still around and being used. These older tasks may still be valid in terms of providing an opportunity to meet the requirements of the standard but the assessment schedules do not have adequate information in them to show the qualitative differences between Achieved, Merit and Excellence. The latest versions of the resources on the TKI website have assessment schedules that meet the national standard.
However in most cases, these resources should be modified to reflect local assessment conditions (e.g. venues) and/or an altered genre or context (i.e. the stimulus for a choreography task is different from that of the task). These changes must be reflected in the wording of the task.
These points may also apply to some older tasks accessed from other sources such as Arts Online which may require some updating or adapting.
Video Evidence of student work
It is essential that enough information is provided to the moderator to clearly identify students especially in group dances (e.g. clothing, features, positioning diagrams, or a combination of all of these) especially in footage that is quite distant and/or unclear.
It may be best to video group dance works at a final rehearsal without stage lighting or costuming (if the costume is uniform to all dancers) to assist in the identification of students. The NZQA student identification forms can also assist the moderation process by providing specific details about the individual students that are included in the submission. A template of this form, the moderation cover sheet and the visual evidence cover sheet can be sourced from your schools Principal's Nominee.
The video process does tend to loose the subtleties e.g. expression. Although there is no obligation to include teacher marks sheets or feedback given by the teacher to the students outlining why a particular grade was awarded, this is especially useful to help the moderator support the teacher in the awarding of grades on the boundaries of each level. This can also provide the moderator with valuable insight to aspects of the performances which may have been unclear on the DVD evidence.
Choreographic Intentions
The choreographic idea or intention of a dance should be included where possible both for choreography and the performance standards so the moderator has some understanding of the ideas students are interpreting. However, this does not have to be lengthy portfolio work. Whilst this kind of work may be a useful teaching tool the resulting work is not required for moderation as long as some indication of choreographic intent or idea is stated. For example a sentence from the teacher may be sufficient. The only standard for which more in depth portfolio work is required is 90594 and this can be in a written, visual and/or oral form.
Standards with multiple assessment events (i.e. 90858 and 90002)
Please remember, for standards where multiple assessment events are required (i.e. 90858 and 90002), the student evidence and teacher grade for only one of the required sequences needs to be submitted for moderation purposes. The written materials for the task should show an understanding that the grade is awarded after at least two briefs have been achieved.