Year 3

The Arts Support Materials

Assessment Principle 4

Assessments should be designed to meet their specific purposes

Dance snapshot: Extended sequence

The Arts/Dance/Making/Skills

Content Description

Exploration of, and experimentation with, four (4) elements of dance (BEST)

  • Body:
  • body parts (gestures)
  • body zones (front, back, sideways)
  • body bases (feet, knees, hands)
  • Energy:
  • controlling and combining different movement qualities (smooth to jagged, floppy to stiff)
  • Space:
  • levels (medium, low, high)
  • direction (forward, backward, diagonal)
  • personal space and general space
  • dimensions (big, small, narrow, wide)
  • shape (straight, curved, angular, twisted, closed, circular, symmetry to asymmetry, angular to curved)
  • pathways (in the air with the arms, under, over, on the floor)
  • Time:
  • tempo (fast, slow, slowing down, speeding up)
  • rhythm (regular, irregular)

to create dance sequences

Combinations of fundamental movement skills that develop body awareness, control, balance, strength, coordination and accuracy

Nature of the assessment

Classroom task

Purposes of the assessment

To monitor the skill level of individual students.

Stage in the Teaching sequence

Middle – formative assessment

Assessment task

As part of the warm-up, the teacher choreographed an extended sequence of no more than one minute in length, which drew on the skills described in the Year 3 syllabus. The choreography was set at a difficultly level that enabled students to demonstrate their movement skills using body awareness, control, balance, strength, coordination and accuracy.

Students learnt the extended sequence as part of the warm-up at the beginning of the dance lesson and practised it over several sessions.

Assessment process

Students performed the extended sequence and the teacher filmed the warm-up sessions so she could analyse their performances more closely to complete the skills checklist.

Using the information

The teacher used the information to evaluate students’ skill levels, identifying what they had mastered and the skills they still needed to learn. This enabled her to determine appropriate teaching points for the whole class, as well as individuals.

As the students all performed the same choreographed extended sequence, the teacher was better placed to assess their skill level. She believed that if students had created their own dances, they may not have had the same opportunity to show the level of their skill capability.