(a) Introduction.
  (1) The fine arts incorporate the study of dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts to offer unique experiences and empower students to explore realities, relationships, and ideas. These disciplines engage and motivate all students through active learning, critical thinking, and innovative problem solving. The fine arts develop cognitive functioning and increase student academic achievement, higher-order thinking, communication, and collaboration skills, making the fine arts applicable to college readiness, career opportunities, workplace environments, social skills, and everyday life. Students develop aesthetic and cultural awareness through exploration, leading to creative expression. Creativity, encouraged through the study of the fine arts, is essential to nurture and develop the whole child.
  (2) Four basic strands--foundations: inquiry and understanding; creative expression; historical and cultural relevance; and critical evaluation and response--provide broad, unifying structures for organizing knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire. Through the foundations: inquiry and understanding strand, students develop a perception of self, human relationships, and the world using elements of drama and conventions of theatre. Through the creative expression strand, students communicate in a dramatic form, engage in artistic thinking, build positive self-concepts, relate interpersonally, and integrate knowledge with other content areas in a relevant manner. Through the historical and cultural relevance strand, students increase their understanding of heritage and traditions in theatre and the diversity of world cultures as expressed in theatre. Through the critical evaluation and response strand, students engage in inquiry and dialogue, accept constructive criticism, revise personal views to promote creative and critical thinking, and develop the ability to appreciate and evaluate live theatre.
  (3) Statements that contain the word "including" reference content that must be mastered, while those containing the phrase "such as" are intended as possible illustrative examples.
(b) Knowledge and skills.
  (1) Foundations: inquiry and understanding. The student develops concepts about self, human relationships, and the environment using elements of drama and conventions of theatre. The student is expected to:
    (A) integrate sensory and emotional responses in dramatic play;
    (B) develop body awareness and spatial perception using rhythmic and expressive movement;
    (C) respond to sound, music, images, language, and literature with voice and movement and participate in dramatic play using actions, sounds, and dialogue;
    (D) express emotions and ideas using interpretive movements, sounds, and dialogue;
    (E) imitate and synthesize life experiences in dramatic play;
    (F) use common objects to represent the setting, enhance characterization, and clarify actions; and
    (G) define and demonstrate correct use of basic theatrical terms such as dialogue, character, scene, prop, costumes, setting, and theme.
  (2) Creative expression: performance. The student interprets characters using the voice and body expressively and creates dramatizations. The student is expected to:
    (A) demonstrate safe use of the voice and body;
    (B) describe characters, their relationships, and their surroundings;
    (C) develop characters and assume roles in short improvised scenes using imagination, personal experiences, heritage, literature, and history;
    (D) dramatize literary selections in unison, pairs, or groups, demonstrating a logical connection of events and describing the characters, their relationships, and their surroundings; and
    (E) create simple stories collaboratively through imaginative play, improvisations, and story dramatizations, demonstrating a logical connection of events and describing the characters, their relationships, and their surroundings.
  (3) Creative expression: production. The student applies design, directing, and theatre production concepts and skills. The student is expected to:
    (A) describe the appropriate use of props, costumes, sound, and visual elements that define character, environment, action, and theme;
    (B) alter space to create suitable performance environments for playmaking;
    (C) plan brief dramatizations collaboratively; and
    (D) interact cooperatively with others in brief dramatizations.
  (4) Historical and cultural relevance. The student relates theatre to history, society, and culture. The student is expected to:
    (A) explain theatre as a reflection of life in particular times, places, cultures, and oral traditions specific to Texas;
    (B) identify the role of live theatre, film, television, and electronic media in American society; and
    (C) compare theatre artists and their contributions to theatre and society.
  (5) Critical evaluation and response. The student responds to and evaluates theatre and theatrical performances. The student is expected to:
    (A) apply appropriate audience behavior at formal and informal performances;
    (B) compare visual, aural, oral, and kinetic aspects of informal playmaking with formal theatre; and
    (C) discuss how movement, music, or visual elements enhance ideas and emotions depicted in theatre.

Source Note: The provisions of this §117.116 adopted to be effective July 28, 2013, 38 TexReg 4575