Visual Arts places great value on the development of students’ intellectual and practical autonomy, reflective action, critical judgement and understanding of art in artmaking and in critical and historical studies of art. Visual Arts plays an important role in the social, cultural and spiritual lives of students. It offers a wide range of opportunities for students to develop their own interests, to be self-motivated and active learners who can take responsibility for and continue their own learning in school and post-school settings. Visual Arts fosters interest and enjoyment in the making and studying of art. Visual Arts builds understanding of the role of art, in all forms of media, in contemporary and historical cultures and visual worlds. In contemporary societies many kinds of knowledge are increasingly managed through imagery and visual codes and much of students’ knowledge is acquired in this way. Visual Arts empowers students to engage in visual forms of communication. The subject of Visual Arts serves to facilitate an interpretation and organisation of such information

MAKING THINKING VISIBLE

SEE / THINK / WONDER

• What do you see? • What do you think about that? • What does it make you wonder?

A routine for exploring works of art and other interesting things

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? This routine encourages students to make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations. It helps stimulate curiosity and sets the stage for inquiry.

Application: When and where can it be used? Use this routine when you want students to think carefully about why something looks the way it does or is the way it is. Use the routine at the beginning of a new unit to motivate student interest or try it with an object that connects to a topic during the unit of study. Consider using the routine with an interesting object near the end of a unit to encourage students to further apply their new knowledge and ideas. Launch: What are some tips for starting and using this routine? Ask students to make an observation about an object – it could be an artwork, image, artifact or topic – and follow up with what they think might be going on or what they think this observation might be. Encourage students to back up their interpretation with reasons.

TEEL PARAGRAPHS

What is a TEEL paragraph?

You may notice that your child refers to TEEL paragraphs when discussing their writing, or you may see a reference to them in your child's report, assessment criteria or feedback.

One of our key focus areas in improving student outcomes is the development of your child's writing skills, particularly their ability to write at length and in depth. TEEL is a process that helps them to develop this skill by writing structured paragraphs that link to form an argument.

TEEL is an acronym for the following:

Topic sentence – introduces the paragraph

• States the main idea of the paragraph
• Uses key words from the topic

Explanation – what do you mean by that?

• Explains what you mean by the topic sentence
• Gives more detail about the idea

Example/Evidence – what makes you say that?

• Proof/evidence from the text(quotes) and/or facts, statistics
• Supports the argument you have made

Link – Why is all that important?

• Explains how the example links to the main idea
• Closes the argument
• May link to the next paragraph

LEARNING INTENTIONS AND SUCCESS CRITERIA