Revised National Curriculum Statement Grades R-9 (Schools) - Grade Seven

Learning Area: Arts and Culture

Learning Outcome 1:  Creating, Interpreting and Presenting

The learner will be able to create, interpret and present work in each of the art forms.

Organising prinicple: The learner will be able to develop the skills and knowledge to create and present artworks that explore human rights in South Africa.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Dance
  • In preparing the body, applies safe dance practice and healthy use of the body, for example:
    • warming up and cooling down;
    • good postural and joint alignment;
    • released/soft use of joints;
    • safe landing from elevation (jumping);
    • stretching with safety.
  • Improvises to explore choreographic design concepts:
    • space - direction, levels, symmetry, asymmetry;
    • time - duration, pace, pulse, phrasing;
    • force - yielding to and resisting gravity, active and passive movement.
  • Creates and presents dance sequences that focus on and challenge, amongst others, human rights issues such as social and cultural attitudes towards dance, and attitudes towards gender and disability in dance.
• Drama
  • Follows a teacher-directed warm-up routine.
  • Uses exploration of human rights issues in South Africa as a basis for group improvisations that:
    • show understanding of basic dramatic structure (who, what, where, when);
    • show characters drawn from observation, imitation and imagination;
    • incorporate some dramatic elements such as grouping, shape and climax to communicate meaning and feeling.
• Music
  • Forms rhythmic sentences combining and mixing different drumming techniques and percussion patterns.
  • Improvises and creates music phrases using concepts such as mood, form and contrast.
  • Reads and sings or plays the scales and simple melodies in G Major.
  • Composes music, songs or jingles about human rights issues or to accompany a performance or presentation about human rights.
• Visual Arts
  • Creates art, craft or design works commenting on human rights issues, and which demonstrate:
    • an ability to experiment at an elementary level with a wide range of materials, techniques, tools and skills;
    • the ability to identify and use symbols and patterns.
  • With guidance, selects, prepares and mounts own art-works from their individual portfolio for class presentation.

Learning Outcome 2:  Reflecting

The learner will be able to reflect critically and creatively on artistic and cultural processes, products and styles in past and present contexts.

Organising principle: The learner will be able to reflect on local examples of natural and cultural heritage.

Assessment standards

We will know this when the learner:

• Composite
  • Finds out about a South African artist of the past or present, from any art form, and reports to the class.
  • Explains the need for conservation of a country’s indigenous knowledge systems, heritage artefacts in museums, galleries, theatres, cultural sites and natural heritage sites.
• Dance
  • Researches a traditional dance in the community from people, books or videos and presents it to the class.
  • Displays observation skills by describing components of dances seen in South Africa, their similarities and differences in terms of movement style, purpose, and use of dancers, costumes and music.
• Drama
  • Recognises and identifies elements of drama (e.g. processions, chants) in forms of cultural and social expression over time (e.g. opening ceremonies, rock concerts, gladiators, state events, sport).
• Music
  • Classifies African instruments in terms of ideophones, chordophones, membranophones, aerophones, and Western instruments according to strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion.
  • Discusses any of the following types of instrument in terms of the shape, materials used, type of sound, how it is played, what makes the sound:
    • drums - made of wood, gourds or clay - to show the different membranes that are made of cow, goat or donkey hides;
    • percussion instruments - rattles, bells, clap stick, slit gongs, mbira, xylophones, kalimba, likembe, lamallaphone;
    • stringed instruments - musical bows, lutes, lyres, harps, zithers, kora, xalam;
    • wind instruments - flutes made from bamboo, reeds, wood, clay and bones;
    • trumpets made of animal horns and wood;
    • clarinets from the Savannah region made of guinea-corn or sorghum stems;
    • flugelhorn, saxophones and guitars.
• Visual Arts
  • Gathers information from field trips, excursions, interviews or other sources to analyse the contribution of art, craft and design to everyday life and to South Africa’s heritage.

Learning Outcome 3:  Participating and Collaborating

The learner will be able to demonstrate personal and interpersonal skills through individual and group participation in Arts and Culture activities.

Organising principle: The learner will be able to engage collaboratively in Arts and Culture activities to develop good social relations and explore ways of promoting nation-building.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Composite
  • Transforms personal experiences into forms of expression.
  • Uses art activities to express individual and collective identities.
• Dance
  • Demonstrates trust-building partner skills through activities such as:
    • creating visually effective contrasting and complimentary shapes;
    • inventing ways to counterbalance weight with a partner.
• Drama
  • Works sensitively in a group to explore and develop scenes around personal and social issues, experimenting with alternative solutions to problems.
  • Demonstrates ability to listen attentively, respond to cues, speak and move in harmony in a group-dramatised choral verse or dramatised prose item.
• Music
  • Sings and/or plays South African songs from various cultures with appropriate rhythm, tempo and dynamics.
  • Creates suitable melodic or non-melodic accompaniment for any South African folk song, anthem or melody.
• Visual Arts
  • Discusses, plans and shares resources with others in producing a collective artwork or presentation to promote nation-building in South Africa.

Learning Outcome 4:  Expressing and Communicating

The learner will be able to analyse and use multiple forms of communication and expression in Arts and Culture.

Organising principle: The learner will be able to explore, express and communicate the role of heritage in South African Arts, past and present.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Dance
  • Investigates and presents the purpose and function of different forms of traditional, classical and indigenous dance available in South Africa that reflect aspects of national heritage.
• Drama
  • Researches and presents an example of indigenous performance, such as praise poetry or folk tales.
• Music
  • Investigates and explains the purpose, function and role of different instruments used in indigenous, traditional or Western forms of music in South Africa.
• Visual Arts
  • Investigates and presents the origins, purpose and role of signs, national or traditional symbols, statues, heritage sites, body adornment, artworks, dress or architecture.