Illinois Learning Standards
Stage J - Fine Arts—Drama
Students who meet the standard understand the sensory
elements, organizational principles, and expressive qualities
of the arts.
- Compare movement and use of voice among characters.
- Analyze the actor's use of relaxation, reaction, timing,
pause, focus, pacing, spatial relationships, diction, accent,
and dialect in rehearsals.
- Assess design and execution of set, light, costume, make-up,
and sound design to communicate an idea.
- Analyze how focus is achieved on stage, on camera, and
- Analyze how actors create relationships and amplify conflict
or dramatic action.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of a dramatic ensemble performed
on stage or in film.
- Analyze a script's use of dramatic structure and conventions.
- Analyze how a director's choices (e.g., casting) support
a script's genre or style.
- Analyze how a designer's choices support tension, conflict,
and create visual and aural variety.
- Evaluate a production's individuality, originality, and
- Evaluate the collaboration used in a production.
- Evaluate the intrinsic or extrinsic choices of a director's
- Suggest and justify alternative artistic choices and predict
their effects on a production.
- Evaluate how performance "moments" in acting,
scripting, and designing create an emotional impact.
- Compare the social context in which the work was prepared
to the one in which it is observed.
Students who meet the standard understand the similarities,
distinctions, and connections in and among the arts.
- Critique the dominant artistic components (i.e., elements,
principles, expressive ideas; processes, technologies; creative
processes) using appropriate vocabulary in all the arts.
- Evaluate the use of similar and distinctive artistic components
across art forms.
- Analyze how different art forms combine to create an interdisciplinary
work (e.g., ballet, musical theatre, opera, cinematography,
Students who meet the standard understand processes,
traditional tools, and modern technologies used in the arts.
- Describe and critique the proficiency exhibited in the
use of media, traditional tools, and technologies.
- Compare how camera acting and stage acting are similar
- Describe how video and film have altered the temporal
nature of theatre.
- Analyze a complex work of art (acting, scripting, designing,
directing) that demonstrates a conceptual rationale (researching,
planning, practicing, evaluating, revising) and proficiency
in advanced techniques, tools, and technologies.
- Analyze how film and TV editing have influenced the tools
and processes of actors, the director, and the designers.
- Describe how the rehearsal and performance processes are
altered by technology.
- Evaluate how the choices of media, tools, and technologies
influence and support the communication of artists' ideas.
- Predict the future of theatre relative to technology.
Students who meet the standard can apply skills
and knowledge necessary to create and perform in one or more
of the arts.
- Use research to conceptualize and design a scene or play.
- Analyze text for physical, social, and psychological dimensions
of the characters.
- Demonstrate rehearsal techniques (e.g., memorization,
pacing, polishing work, vocal and physical encoding) used
to prepare characterization for an audience.
- Develop a director's notebook.
- Direct a scene or play (e.g., blocking, staging, characterization).
- Select and use elements of spectacle/technology that will
support the performance.
- Create and perform a complex work of art (e.g., acting,
scripting, designing, directing) using advanced techniques
- Refine a performance based on review.
Students who meet the standard can analyze how the
arts function in history, society and everyday life.
- Evaluate the function of the arts in historical, societal,
economic, and personal contexts (e.g. careers, aesthetics,
commentary or criticism, predictor of or catalyst for change,
tools for learning, economic contribution, therapy, propaganda/
advertising, making the invisible visible, cross disciplinary
- Evaluate the ways the arts are used to inform and persuade
through traditional and contemporary art forms.
- Examine the purposes and effects of various media (e.g.
film, print, multimedia presentations) in terms of informing,
entertaining, and persuading the public.
- Hypothesize how the arts will function in the future as
a result of changes in traditional and contemporary media.
Students who meet the standard understand how the
arts shape and reflect history, society and everyday life.
- Analyze the impact of political actions, current events,
and natural phenomena (e.g., wars, civil unrest, disasters,
economic prosperity, discovery, technology, legislation)
on the development and production of art.
- Cite examples of where the arts shaped aspects of a culture
(e.g., Dionysian theatre festival, Renaissance church art
and music, cinema and the Depression). Analyze how historical
and cultural contexts influence arts processes and products
(e.g., Reformation, patronage system, invention of microphone,
camera, and printing press, WPA).
Return to Fine Arts Classroom
Assessments and Performance Descriptors