Introduction

The Visual Arts and Media Arts unit, Looking Beyond the Landscape, has been created for
the intention of Year 4 and is designed as an online e-book for the students to work through
at their own pace.

This website consists of four main tabs; the introduction/justification, student section,
teacher section and references.

Within the student tab, the students will be able to easily access the e-book for the arts
unit. Within the e-book, the students will be working through multiple activities and
completing art challenges, which are all scaffolded and will be working towards their
assessment tasks.

The activities take form of the formative assessment in order for the teacher to see how the
children are going with their arts learning. On the other hand, the art challenges are the
summative assessment tasks which the students will be assessed on.

Furthermore, within the teacher tab, the teacher has access to the handbook which consists
of the relevant curriculum links, the learning sequence and the assessment details, in
relation to the student package.

Within the visual arts and media arts package, there are cross curriculum links that have
been intentionally added in. These are literacy, intercultural perspectives, critical and
creative thinking, and information communication technology (ICT). Also, the unit ties in
with some HASS and Science content descriptors as well.









Justification

The Arts have the capacity to engage, inspire and enrich all students (ACARA, 2016) and
goal two of the Melbourne Declaration states that all young Australians should become
confident and creative individuals (MCEETYA, 2008). Taking into consideration the fact
that The Arts possesses the ability to empower children to communication ideas
(Stephens, 2006, no page) and also encourages creative expression (Dinham, 2016), one can
suggest the importance of The Arts within the national curriculum. Stephen (2006, no page)
provides a corroboration of this idea when they state that the arts [are] fundamental to
learning and on equal footing with other rigorous courses of study. In terms of the Looking
Beyond the Landscape unit, the incorporation of the human impact on the environment is
further supported by Mead (2008) who recognises that there is a need for students and the
general public to address the major issues that are occurring with the environment and
sustainability in current times. It has also been highlighted that learning in and through the
Arts involves the developmentin other learning areas (ACARA, 2016) , the main ones
being English and History and Social Sciences (HASS). As well as being an important
contribution to the success in alternative subject areas, the Arts also allows students to
learn about cultural, social and historical aspects (Stephens, 2006). Therefore, the Arts is
seen to be a valuable addition to the national curriculum which compliments the other
subject areas and encourages creative and critical thinking from all students.