Illinois Learning Standards

Stage F - Fine Arts—Drama


25A —

Students who meet the standard understand the sensory elements, organizational principles, and expressive qualities of the arts.
  1. Describe ways an actor uses voice (i.e., pitch, rate, volume) and body (i.e., posture, gestures, facial expressions) to communicate character and setting.
  2. Explain the choice of support tools/design elements (props, costumes, lights, sound, make-up, sets) used to support a drama.
  3. Combine vocal qualities with physical pace and rhythm to make a character unique or distinct from others.
  4. Identify different types of narrative conventions used in a drama (e.g., narrator as character, narrator as story teller, narrator as omnipotent observer).
  5. Analyze a drama for the types of conflict it contains (man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. nature, man vs. supernatural, man vs. society).
  6. Describe plot techniques used to enhance a drama (e.g., choice of time and place, use of minor characters, introduction of new information, use of musical lyrics).
  7. Compare improvisation and scripted drama.
  8. Construct a scenario with a definite beginning, middle, and ending.
  9. Analyze how physical shape and level, along with the physical relationship of characters to each other, communicate ideas and emotions to an audience.

25B —

Students who meet the standard understand the similarities, distinctions, and connections in and among the arts.
  1. Analyze how the artistic components (i.e., elements, principles, expressive ideas; tools, processes, technologies; creative processes) are combined within a work of art.

26A —

Students who meet the standard understand processes, traditional tools, and modern technologies used in the arts.
  1. Analyze how the primary tools (mind, body, voice) impact an actor's skills.
  2. Compare the use of support tools (i.e., costumes, sets, lights, props, sounds, make-up) in a variety of dramas.
  3. Compare directing to acting and improvising.
  4. Describe the acting process (e.g., memorizing, determining and enacting character's wants, listening, maintaining concentration).
  5. Explain how group dynamics affect a theatrical work or classroom drama.
  6. Discuss the impact brainstorming, evaluating, and imagining have on a drama.

26B —

Students who meet the standard can apply skills and knowledge necessary to create and perform in one or more of the arts.
  1. Incorporate vocal techniques of volume and clarity and physical techniques of poise, posture, facial expression, and eye contact to create a character.
  2. Alter the environment to indicate a setting.
  3. Invent a character based on personal experience or research.
  4. Demonstrate shape, line, level, use of space, and concentration in an ensemble drama.
  5. Collaborate and negotiate with a group to create a drama.
  6. Adapt a story into a performed drama.
  7. Use observations to create a drama.

27A —

Students who meet the standard can analyze how the arts function in history, society and everyday life.
  1. Demonstrate good audience behavior and evaluate the behavior of self and others.
  2. Describe how audience behavior changes a product or performance.
  3. Compare and contrast how the arts function in two different types of ceremonies (e.g., parades, weddings, graduations, sporting events).
  4. Give examples in which various arts are used to persuade and promote ideas.
  5. List technology used in the arts (e.g., cameras, synthesizers, computers, printing press).
  6. Categorize types of artists with their art and art related products or performances (e.g., designers create packages, composers write advertising jingles, architects design buildings.

27B —

Students who meet the standard understand how the arts shape and reflect history, society and everyday life.
  1. Investigate how the arts reflect different cultures, times, and places.
  2. Compare how different art forms express aspects of the same culture, time, or place.
  3. Compare and contrast the contribution of individual artists on movements, trends, or periods.

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