NCAS.A.4National Core Arts StandardsArtsPerforming/Presenting/ProducingGrades 6-12
NCAS.A.4: Choosing, Analyzing and Interpreting Work for a Program or Exhibit
In plain English: NCAS.A.4 is National Core Arts Standards anchor standard 4, in the Performing/Presenting/Producing process, which asks students to select, analyze and interpret artistic work for presentation. In grades 6-12 that means choosing works for a concert, exhibit, showcase or screening, studying how each one fits the purpose and the space, and deciding what each should communicate.
Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.
NCAS.A.4 asks students to select, analyze and interpret artistic work for presentation. It is the first anchor in the Performing/Presenting/Producing process, where the question shifts from "How do I make this?" to "What do we share, and what should it say?" A choir director choosing a set list, a student curator choosing six drawings for a wall, a dance class choosing phrases for a showcase and a media arts class choosing clips for a screening are all doing anchor 4.
This lesson works in any art form. Students practice the three verbs on a candidate set of six public-domain works (a print, a painting, two pieces of music, a scene and a dance), described in words on this page, then apply them to work from their own art form. All presentations stay in the classroom; nothing is recorded or posted.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Select a set of works for a stated purpose, audience, time and space, and justify each choice with criteria rather than preference alone
Analyze a work's size, length, structure, materials, sound or movement to judge what it needs in a particular presentation
Interpret a work in one clear sentence supported by details, and explain what the presentation should bring out as a result
Sequence selected works so that the order supports the idea of the program
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Finishing a work and explaining the choices made in it NCAS.A.3
Citing specific details as evidence for a claim CCRA.R.1
Basic vocabulary in at least one art form, for example color and composition, tempo and dynamics, levels and pathways, blocking, or shot and cut
"A school band knows nine pieces and has a 20-minute lunchtime concert for families on the theme 'Home.' Write three questions the band should answer before it chooses which pieces to play."
Collect questions on the board and sort them into four columns: purpose (What should the concert say about home?), audience (Who is coming? How old are they?), time and space (How many minutes? Indoors or out?) and the works themselves (Which pieces are strongest? Which fit the theme?). Point out that only the last column is about the music. Selecting for presentation starts with the other three.
Direct Instruction15 minutes
Terms for the lesson.
Presentation: any time artistic work is shared with an audience, such as a concert, an exhibit, a dance showcase, a play reading or a screening.
Select: choose which works go in, and which stay out, for a stated purpose, audience, time and space.
Analyze for presentation: look closely at a work's parts (its size, length, structure, materials, sound or movement) to judge what it needs and how it will work in this room, for these people.
Interpret for presentation: decide what the work means, or could mean, and therefore what the presentation should bring out.
Program (or exhibit plan): the chosen works, their order and the short notes that go with them.
Constraint: a fixed limit the plan must respect, such as minutes, wall width, number of performers or equipment.
One process, three names. The National Core Arts Standards group anchors 4, 5 and 6 into one artistic process with a different name in each art form. The framework defines them this way:
Performing (dance, music, theatre): "Realizing artistic ideas and work through interpretation and presentation."
Presenting (visual arts): "Interpreting and sharing artistic work."
Producing (media arts): "Realizing and presenting artistic ideas and work."
Anchor 4 is the first step of that process: before anyone rehearses or hangs anything, someone decides what goes in and what it should say.
The candidate set. The six cards below describe real works made before 1930, now in the public domain, across five art forms. The descriptions were written for this page; the facts in them come from museum records and published histories. Read them aloud, one card per student volunteer. The card number is the paragraph number.
1Card 1. Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa, also called The Great Wave (about 1830-32). A woodblock print in ink and color on paper, about 26 by 38 cm, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. A huge wave rises on the left and curls over at the top into claws of white foam. Three long, narrow boats, each with a crew of rowers holding their oars, slide through the troughs below it. Far off, small and still, sits Mount Fuji, drawn in blue with white highlights much like the wave in the foreground. Deep blues dominate. The print is small: it rewards a viewer who stands close.
2Card 2. Winslow Homer, The Gulf Stream (1899, reworked by 1906). An oil painting on canvas, about 71 by 125 cm. A Black sailor lies across the deck of a small boat whose mast has snapped. Sharks circle in the dark green water around him, a waterspout twists on the horizon to the right, and a ship is barely visible far away at the upper left. The sailor does not look at any of these dangers. The painting is large enough to be read from across a room.
3Card 3. George Frideric Handel, Water Music (first performed July 17, 1717). A set of short orchestral movements, often published as three suites. It was first played for King George I during a royal trip on the River Thames in London, by about 50 musicians on a second barge near the king's. Many movements are bright and dance-like, with horns and trumpets that carry outdoors. Its mood is festive and calm: water as a place for a celebration, not a danger.
4Card 4. Claude Debussy, La mer (first performed in Paris in October 1905). An orchestral work that Debussy called "three symphonic sketches," in three movements lasting about 23 or 24 minutes in all. The sound shifts constantly: swells, glints of high instruments, sudden surges. Debussy avoided a story; the music suggests light, waves and wind rather than describing events. The first audience did not receive it well.
5Card 5. William Shakespeare, The Tempest (probably written 1610-1611), the opening scene. A short scene on a ship caught in a storm at sea. Sailors shout orders and struggle with the ropes while noble passengers get in their way and argue with them. The scene is loud, fast and confused, and it ends with the passengers believing the ship is sinking. It can be read aloud by a few voices in under five minutes.
6Card 6. Loie Fuller, Serpentine Dance (by 1891). A solo dance in which the dancer swirls yards of loose silk around her body. Colored lights of Fuller's own design, using tinted gels on turning lamps, change the color of the silk as it moves. The dance tells no story. The cloth seems to become waves, petals or flames, and the dancer's body almost disappears inside it.
SVHS (descriptions of six pre-1930 public-domain works), Candidate set: six works about water and storms. Original passage written for this page.
Select within a constraint
A group has a 12-minute program on water and storms. Card 4 says Debussy's La mer lasts "about 23 or 24 minutes in all." Can the group select it?
Result: Not as a whole: the full work is about twice the length of the entire program. The group has three honest options: present one short passage and say so, present the card and talk about the work without playing it, or leave it out. Selecting is not only choosing what you like; it starts with what fits.
Analyze how a work fits the space
Card 1 says the Hokusai print is "about 26 by 38 cm" and that it "rewards a viewer who stands close." Card 2 says the Homer painting can "be read from across a room." What does this mean for a classroom exhibit?
Result: Size changes how people look. A small print works on a table or at eye level where two or three people can lean in at once, so the plan needs time for viewers to rotate. A large canvas, or a large printed description of it, can hang on the main wall and be seen by everyone together.
Interpret a work that tells no story
Card 6 says Fuller's Serpentine Dance "tells no story" and that the silk "seems to become waves, petals or flames." What could a presenter decide it means, and how would that shape the presentation?
Result: One defensible interpretation: the dance is about transformation, a body turning into moving light. A presenter who reads it this way might place it right after the Hokusai wave so the audience sees still water, then moving "water," and might use one sentence of introduction instead of a plot summary. The interpretation guides the choices.
Sequence for meaning
Compare two orders: (a) Tempest scene, Homer, Hokusai, Water Music; (b) Water Music, Hokusai, Homer, Tempest scene.
Result: Order (a) moves from panic to calm and leaves the audience at rest. Order (b) starts with a celebration and ends with a ship that seems to be sinking, so the program now says that calm does not last. The same four works send two different messages, so the order is part of the interpretation.
Point to Diagram 1 and trace the four worked examples on it: the first is a selection decision, the second an analysis, the third an interpretation and the fourth the program plan. Stress the return arrow: analysis often sends a curator back to change the selection.
Guided Practice15 minutes
Read a curator note. The note below was written for this lesson by an invented eighth-grade curator planning "Storm and Calm" from the candidate set. It does some things well and one thing badly. Paragraphs are numbered.
1Our program, "Storm and Calm," is 12 minutes long and will be presented to a sixth-grade class in our art room. It moves from danger to rest, so the audience feels the storm pass.
2We open with the storm scene from The Tempest, read by three voices. It is short and loud, and it drops the audience into panic in the first minute.
3Second is Homer's The Gulf Stream. I chose it because I like it the most.
4Third, we read the card for the Water Music while a classmate plays one short movement on the classroom keyboard. After two storms, the bright, dance-like music tells the audience the danger is over.
5We end with Hokusai's print on the small table by the window, so people can lean in. The wave curls like a claw over the boats, but Mount Fuji sits still in the distance. We read the print as a picture about what stays calm while everything moves, so we will close by asking the audience to find the mountain.
6We left out La mer because it lasts about 23 or 24 minutes and our whole program is 12 minutes.
SVHS (original model text; invented student and class), Draft curator note for "Storm and Calm" (invented student curator). Original passage written for this page.
Tag the curator note (students fill in the empty cells)
Move
Paragraph(s)
Evidence (a short quotation)
Selects with a reason tied to purpose or constraint
Students fill in
Students fill in
Analyzes what a work needs in this space
Students fill in
Students fill in
Interprets what a work should communicate
Students fill in
Students fill in
Selects with no reason beyond liking it
Students fill in
Students fill in
Tag the note. Pairs fill in the table. Grades 6-8 find one example of each move; grades 9-12 find every example and note where one paragraph does two moves at once.
Fix the weak spot. Pairs rewrite the paragraph they tagged in the last row so that its choice is justified by the program's purpose, using at least one detail from the matching card.
Test the order. Ask: "If the Homer painting and the Water Music traded places, what would change for the audience?" Take two or three answers.
Independent Practice15 minutes
Same works, new audience. Each student plans a 6-minute presentation of three works from the candidate set for a different audience and purpose, chosen from the two below. They write one sentence per work explaining why it is in, one sentence explaining the order, and one interpretation sentence for the work they put last.
Option 1: a seventh-grade science class that has just studied ocean waves, in their science room.
Option 2: a music club that knows nothing about visual art, in the band room.
Grades 6-8: use the sentence frames "I chose ___ because ___," "It goes ___ because ___," and "This work shows ___; you can see it in ___."
Grades 9-12: also name one work you rejected and the analysis that ruled it out, and explain how the new audience changed your interpretation of one work.
Before and after. Show the two versions of the selection statement below, written for this lesson by an invented eighth grader. Ask students which version a showcase organizer could act on and why.
1Selection statement written for this lesson by an invented eighth-grade student for the Birchwood spring showcase. I picked "Night Shift" for the showcase. It is a good song and the choir worked hard on it. Everyone will like it. It goes in the middle of the program because there is a space there.
2Revised by the same student after feedback: I picked "Night Shift" because it fits the theme "Something Changes": the song moves from the busy noise of evening traffic to a single quiet voice, so the audience hears a city fall asleep. It needs the keyboard, which is already on the floor for "Thaw," so placing the two pieces next to each other saves a move. I placed it after the loud dance so the change to quiet is easier to hear.
SVHS (original model text; invented student), A selection statement, before and after feedback (invented student). Original passage written for this page.
Closure5-10 minutes
Exit ticket: Choose one card from the candidate set and write one sentence that interprets it for an audience, then name one presentation choice (placement, order, lighting, introduction or excerpt) that your interpretation would lead to.
Teacher note on Card 2: Homer's painting shows a Black sailor alone in danger. Some early reviewers wrote about the figure in mocking terms and dated racial language; this page does not repeat them. If students research the painting, preview sources first. Discuss the work through what it shows: a person in danger who does not look at the dangers around him.
For homework: students use the candidate list below. It was written for this lesson; the school, the students and the works are invented. Items are lettered A-H.
1The Birchwood Middle School arts team has a 25-minute slot in the school library on a Thursday evening for its spring showcase. The audience is families, including many younger brothers and sisters. The theme is "Something Changes." The library has one open floor area about 4 by 5 meters, a wall board 3 meters wide, a keyboard, and no stage lights. Eight works are on the candidate list.
2A. "Thaw," a piano solo by an eighth grader, 4 minutes. Slow and quiet at first, then faster and brighter.
3B. "Six Days of a Seed," six small drawings in pencil, each 15 by 20 cm, showing a bean sprouting. They need to hang in a row at eye level.
4C. "The Swap," a comic scene for two actors from a class-written play, 7 minutes. Two friends trade backpacks by mistake. It ends with a joke and no change of mood.
5D. "Tide," a dance for five dancers, 6 minutes. The dancers move from a tight clump to a wide circle and back. It needs the whole floor area.
6E. "Flip Book Storm," a hand-drawn flip book of 48 pages that shows a cloud growing into a storm. Only two or three people can watch it at once.
7F. "Night Shift," a choir song for twelve singers, 5 minutes, about a city falling asleep. It needs the keyboard.
8G. "Old Photo, New Room," a monologue by a seventh grader, 3 minutes, about a family moving to a new apartment.
9H. "Paper Lantern Series," five paper lanterns, each 40 cm tall, folded from one sheet each, from flat to fully open. They need a table and some floor space around it.
SVHS (original scenario; invented school, students and works), Birchwood spring showcase: the candidate list (invented school and works). Original passage written for this page.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a criteria checklist for selection (fits the theme, fits the time, fits the space, adds variety) and have students tick it for each card before they choose
Pre-teach five words from the cards: woodblock print, canvas, movement (in music), suite, gel (a colored filter for a light)
Let students work from three cards instead of six in Independent Practice
For Advanced Students
Plan a version of "Storm and Calm" that includes a short passage from La mer, and explain how choosing an excerpt changes what the audience can understand about the whole work
Write two opposite interpretations of the same card and a program order for each
Plan a second program from the same six cards for a different theme, such as "Light," and explain which cards change role
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Strong work names the purpose, audience and constraints before choosing, gives a reason for every selection that a stranger could check against the work, uses specific details (size, length, sound, movement) in analysis, and states an interpretation that actually changes a presentation choice. Watch for selections justified only by preference, and for interpretations that are summaries of the description.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Storm and Calm: Curate Four of Six
20 minGroups of 3-4
Groups choose four of the six works on the candidate set for a 12-minute classroom presentation to a sixth-grade class, decide the order, and write a one-line note for each work. The presentation is simulated: groups present their plan, reading the cards aloud, in their own classroom.
Setup
Give each group the six candidate cards (Cards 1-6 from the lesson), a sheet of chart paper and painter's tape
Assign roles: timekeeper, reader, recorder, and space planner (who sketches where each work would sit in the room)
Post the constraints: 12 minutes in all, one art room, one classroom keyboard, no stage lights, audience of about 25 sixth graders
Grades 6-8 Version
Tape the four chosen cards in order on the chart paper
Under each, write "In because ___" with one detail from the card
Under the two cards left out, write "Out because ___"
Sketch the room and mark where each work is shown or performed
Grades 9-12 Version
Do the 6-8 tasks, and also budget the 12 minutes in a list of minutes per item, including changeovers between items
Include one work as an excerpt or as a talk about the work, and explain what the audience loses and gains
Write a one-sentence interpretation of the whole program that the order makes visible
Art-Form Options
Music: plan how a classmate plays or sings a short excerpt of a card's music on the classroom keyboard or by voice
Theatre: cast the readers for Card 5 and mark where they stand
Dance: mark the floor space a live version of Card 6 would need
Visual arts: plan the wall and table placement for Cards 1 and 2
Media arts: plan the program as a slideshow of the cards projected in class, with a time for each slide
Share and Compare
Two groups that chose different sets present to each other in two minutes each. Each listening group names the strongest reason it heard and one choice it would question.
2
Choose Your Art Form: The Five-Piece Shortlist
20 minIndividual, then pairs
Each student works in one art form and builds a shortlist from work the class has already made or studied, for a presentation that stays in the classroom.
Options by Art Form
Visual arts: from your class sketchbooks, choose five drawings for a bulletin board 120 cm wide, and plan their arrangement on paper at a scale of 1 cm to 10 cm.
Music: from pieces your class can already play or sing, choose a 6-minute set for another class and decide the order.
Dance: from phrases your class has learned, choose phrases for a 4-minute classroom showcase and decide where the audience sits.
Theatre: from public-domain plays the class has read, choose two short scenes for a 10-minute reading and decide who reads which part.
Media arts: from storyboard frames the class has drawn, choose eight for a 1-minute slideshow projected in class, and decide how long each frame stays up.
Grades 6-8 Version
Write the purpose and audience in one sentence at the top
For each of the five pieces, fill in a checklist: fits the purpose, fits the time or space, adds variety
Write one reason a partner could check for each piece
Grades 9-12 Version
Write a selection statement of 120-200 words that names the purpose, the constraint that mattered most, the order and one piece you rejected
Include one sentence of interpretation for the piece that opens the presentation
Partner Check
Partners swap shortlists and try to argue one piece out. The author must answer with a reason based on purpose, analysis or interpretation, not on preference.
3
Interpretation Cards
15 minPairs
Pairs write an interpretation card for one work and test whether a classmate can turn it into presentation choices. The activity shows that an interpretation is useful only if it guides decisions.
Write the Card
On an index card, write one sentence that says what the work communicates, then two details from the description that support it
Do not write the title on the front; write the card number on the back
Swap and Plan
Another pair reads the card and writes two presentation choices it suggests: placement, lighting, order, an introduction, tempo, or whether to excerpt
They guess which work it is and check the back
Choose Your Art Form
Pairs may write the card for a work in their own art form (dance, media arts, music, theatre or visual arts) that the whole class has already studied, instead of a work from the candidate set. They write its title on the back.
Grades 6-8 Version
Use the frame "This work is about ___. You can see (or hear) it in ___ and ___." Choose from Cards 1, 2 and 3.
Grades 9-12 Version
Write two cards for the same work with different interpretations. The receiving pair must show how the presentation choices differ between the two cards.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
1 diagrams
Diagram 1: The Three Moves of Anchor 4, Worked on the Candidate Set
A presentation starts from its purpose, audience, time and space. Students select works, analyze what each one needs, interpret what each should communicate, and turn the result into a program plan. The examples come from Cards 1, 4 and 6 of the candidate set. The dashed arrow shows that analysis often sends a curator back to the selection.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
NCAS.A.4 Homework: Plan the Birchwood Spring Showcase
Directions: Use the Birchwood spring showcase candidate list at the end of the lesson plan (in Closure). Paragraph 1 gives the slot, the audience, the theme and the space; items A-H are the candidate works. Answer in complete sentences. Problem 6 has a grades 6-8 version and a grades 9-12 version; answer the one for your grade. This is a planning task: nothing is performed, recorded or posted.
Part 1: Select (Problems 1-2)
Five of the works have running times (A, C, D, F and G). Add them up. Then allow 1 minute of changeover between one item and the next. Can all five fit in the 25-minute slot? Show your arithmetic and say what the result means for the selection.
Choose a program for the showcase. For every work you include, give a reason tied to the theme "Something Changes" or to the audience. For two works you leave out, give a reason tied to the theme, the audience or a constraint.
Part 2: Analyze (Problems 3-4)
Items B, E and H have no running time. For each one you selected (or would select), analyze what it needs in the library: where it goes, how many people can look at once, and how the program gives the audience time to see it.
Analyze item D, "Tide." What does it need from the space, and where should the audience be? Explain how its needs affect which work can come right before it and right after it.
Part 3: Interpret and Order (Problems 5-6)
Write a one-sentence interpretation of two works in your program, each connected to the theme. For each, name one presentation choice (placement, order, introduction, or where the audience looks) that your interpretation leads to.
Grades 6-8: Put your program in order and explain the order in 3-4 sentences, including what the audience should feel at the end. Grades 9-12: Write a program note of 150-250 words for the families that states the idea of the program, explains the order and tells the audience what to notice in one work.
Rubric
Criterion
Strong (3)
Developing (2)
Beginning (1)
Selection
Every choice has a reason tied to the theme, audience or a constraint, and the time budget is correct
Most choices have reasons; the time budget has a small error
Choices are listed with no reasons, or the program does not fit the slot
Analysis
Names specific needs (space, viewers at once, equipment) and shows how they shape the plan
Names needs but does not connect them to the plan
Describes the works without analyzing their needs
Interpretation
Each interpretation is one clear claim, tied to the theme, that changes a presentation choice
Interpretations are present but vague or do not affect any choice
Retells the item instead of interpreting it
Order and note
The order has a purpose the student explains, and the note tells families what to notice
The order is explained only partly
The order is not explained
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Questions 2-5, 12, 16 and 17 use the candidate set (Direct Instruction). Questions 6-9 and 18 use the curator note (Guided Practice), and Question 13 uses the selection statement (Independent Practice). Choose the best answer for each multiple-choice question; write 3-5 sentences for each short-answer question.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student curator is asked to choose work for a presentation. Which question should come first?
Answer: C
Selection for presentation starts with purpose, audience and constraints; only then can any work be judged as a good fit. Choice B is the trap of selecting by preference, and choice A confuses fame with fit.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Card 3, which feature of the Water Music suited its first performance on the River Thames?
Answer: A
Card 3 says many movements have "horns and trumpets that carry outdoors," which matters for music played from a barge. Choice C borrows the lighting from Card 6, and choice D borrows the storm scene from Card 5.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Card 6 says Fuller's colored lights "change the color of the silk as it moves." A group plans to present the dance in a classroom with no stage lights. What does this analysis show?
Answer: C
Card 6 says lights of Fuller's own design, with tinted gels on turning lamps, change the color of the silk, so the effect depends on lighting a room with no stage lights cannot give. The group has to adapt the presentation, describe the effect or leave the work out. Choice A ignores the lighting the card describes, and choice B invents a running time that Card 6 never gives.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which two cards describe works that avoid telling a story?
Answer: A
Card 4 says "Debussy avoided a story," and Card 6 says "The dance tells no story." Choice C includes Card 5, a scene with events, sailors and passengers, which is a misreading of "no story."
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Card 6 says the dancer "swirls yards of loose silk around her body." A curator concludes that the dance needs a wide, clear floor with the audience seated well back. What kind of thinking is this?
Answer: C
Working out how much floor a work needs and where the audience can sit is analysis for presentation: it predicts how the work will behave in a room. Choice A would be a claim about meaning, and choice B belongs to anchor 5.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In the curator note for "Storm and Calm," which paragraph selects a work with no reason beyond preference?
Answer: B
Paragraph 3 says, "I chose it because I like it the most." Paragraph 2 gives a reason (short and loud, it drops the audience into panic), and paragraph 6 gives a time constraint.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 5 of the curator note, which phrase is an interpretation?
Answer: D
Only choice D states a meaning the presentation will bring out. Choice C describes what the print shows, and choices A and B are placement decisions based on analysis.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why does the curator place the Water Music after the Tempest scene and the Homer painting?
Answer: A
Paragraph 4 says the bright, dance-like music "tells the audience the danger is over." Choice C is wrong: the Water Music (1717) is older than the Homer painting (1899) and younger than The Tempest, and the note gives no date reason.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 1 of the curator note says the program "moves from danger to rest." Which choice in the note does this purpose explain best?
Answer: A
A program that moves from danger to rest needs a calm ending, and paragraph 5 closes with the Hokusai print, where "Mount Fuji sits still in the distance." Choice B is the choice made by preference in paragraph 3, choice C is explained by the running time rather than by the purpose, and choice D is a practical way to perform the music.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A dance class has eight learned phrases and a 4-minute classroom showcase. Two strong phrases use the floor in almost the same way. What is the best reason to include only one of them?
Answer: D
Variety is a selection criterion: two near-identical phrases spend time without adding a new idea. Choice A turns a constraint into a rule that is not true, and choice B ignores the audience.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A media arts class chooses clips for a 3-minute screening in a classroom with weak speakers. One clip depends on quiet spoken lines. Which analysis matters most for that clip?
Answer: B
Analysis for presentation asks how the work will function in this room; a clip whose meaning is in quiet dialogue fails if the audience cannot hear it. Choices C and D are facts about making the work, not about presenting it.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A program opens with Card 5 and closes with Card 2. What does this choice of first and last work suggest to the audience?
Answer: A
Card 5 ends with passengers "believing the ship is sinking," and Card 2 shows a sailor with sharks around him and a waterspout on the horizon, so both ends of the program are dangerous. Choice B describes Card 3, which is in neither position.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Compare the two versions of the eighth grader's selection statement. What makes the revised version stronger?
Answer: C
The revision explains how the song fits "Something Changes," uses the keyboard constraint, and gives a reason for the order. Choices B and D repeat the reasons in the first version, which an organizer cannot act on.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which statement is an interpretation for presentation rather than a description?
Answer: B
Choice B makes a claim about what matters in the work and tells the presenter what to bring out. The other three are facts that can be checked against the cards or the program, not interpretations.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
A choir has ten songs ready and 15 minutes for a classroom concert for a visiting group of grandparents. Name three criteria you would use to select the songs, and explain how one of them would change your choices.
Model answer: Fit with the purpose (a visit, so songs that welcome or tell about the school), fit with the time (about four or five songs plus introductions in 15 minutes), and variety (not all slow, not all in the same key or language). Variety would change the choices because two similar ballads could not both go in, even if both are strong. Rubric line: three distinct criteria, at least one about the audience or a constraint, and one explained with its effect on the selection.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Using Card 5, analyze what a classroom reading of the Tempest storm scene needs: voices, sound, space and time. Cite two details from the card.
Model answer: The card says it "can be read aloud by a few voices in under five minutes," so it needs three or four readers and fits a short slot. Because "sailors shout orders" while passengers "argue with them," it needs voices that can overlap and get loud, so it should not sit next to a quiet work that the noise would cover, and readers need room to stand apart. Rubric line: two accurate details from Card 5, each linked to a need of the presentation.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Write a one-sentence interpretation of Card 2, support it with two details from the card, and name one presentation choice your interpretation leads to.
Model answer: The painting is about a person facing danger alone with calm, since the sailor "does not look at any of these dangers" while sharks circle and a waterspout twists on the horizon. A presenter could ask the audience to find the distant ship only after they have looked at the sailor, so the sense of being alone comes first. Rubric line: a claim about meaning (not a summary), two details from the card, one choice that follows from the claim.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
The curator's audience for "Storm and Calm" is a sixth-grade class. Name one change you would make for an evening program for adults, and explain how the new audience changes the selection or the interpretation.
Model answer: For adults with more time, I would add a short passage of La mer and introduce it as music that suggests the sea without telling a story, placed before the Fuller dance so the program becomes about how artists show moving water. The new audience can follow a work without a plot, which changes both what fits and what the program can say. Rubric line: one concrete change, linked to a specific difference in the audience, with its effect on selection or interpretation.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Explain the difference between analyzing a work for presentation and interpreting it, using one example from any art form.
Model answer: Analyzing looks at the work's parts to see what it needs and how it will work in a space; interpreting decides what it means and so what the presentation should bring out. For a solo song, analysis notes that it is quiet and needs a still room; interpretation decides it is about missing someone, so it goes last and is introduced in one plain sentence. Rubric line: both terms defined correctly and illustrated with one example in which they lead to different decisions.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
A visual arts class has 14 finished paintings and a hallway display case 2 meters wide. Describe a process for selecting and arranging the paintings for the case, naming at least one analysis step and one interpretation step.
Model answer: First set the purpose and audience (students passing between classes) and measure the case. Analyze each painting's size and how far away it reads, which shows that only five or six fit and that small ones must sit at eye level. Interpret the group to find an idea several share, such as "the same street at different times of day," select the ones that show it best, and order them from morning to night. Rubric line: purpose first, at least one analysis step about size or space, one interpretation step that shapes selection or order.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
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Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does NCAS.A.4 mean?
It means students should be able to select, analyze and interpret artistic work for presentation. In practice, they decide which works go into a concert, exhibit, showcase or screening, study what each work needs in that setting, and decide what each should communicate to the audience.
Is NCAS.A.4 only for performers, or does it cover visual art and media arts too?
It covers all five art forms. The framework calls the process Performing in dance, music and theatre, Presenting in visual arts and Producing in media arts. A set list, an exhibit plan and a screening lineup are all anchor 4 decisions.
What is the difference between NCAS.A.4 and NCAS.A.7?
Both involve analysis, but for different jobs. Anchor 7, in the Responding process, asks students to perceive and analyze artistic work as audience members. Anchor 4 asks them to analyze work in order to present it: what it needs, where it goes and what it should say to someone else.
How does anchor 4 relate to anchors 5 and 6?
They are three steps of the same process. Anchor 4 chooses and interprets the work, anchor 5 develops and refines the techniques and the work for presentation, and anchor 6 is the presentation itself, where meaning reaches the audience.
Do students need a public performance or exhibit to meet this standard?
No. The decisions are the standard, and they can be practiced with a classroom presentation or a simulated program, as in this lesson. Students do not need to perform for the public, and they should never be asked to record or post themselves.
Should students select from their own work or from other artists' work?
Both work. Selecting from public-domain works, as in the candidate set, lets the whole class argue about the same pieces. Selecting from their own portfolios or repertoire adds a harder question: leaving out a piece they worked hard on because it does not fit.
How do you grade selection when there is no single right answer?
Grade the reasons, not the choices. A strong selection names the purpose and constraints, gives a reason for every choice that a reader could check against the work, and shows that analysis or interpretation changed at least one decision. The rubric in the homework section works for any art form.
Why does this lesson describe the works in words instead of showing them?
The page is text only, so every work is described by SVHS from museum records and published histories. If your classroom can view the works, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's online collection includes the Hokusai print and the Homer painting, and many recordings of the music exist. The tasks still work from the descriptions alone.
What does NCAS.A.4 look like in middle school compared with high school?
The anchor stays the same across grades 6-12; what grows is the reasoning. Younger students usually justify choices with a checklist and short reasons, while older students weigh competing purposes, explain what they rejected and write program notes for a real audience. The tiered versions of each activity on this page follow that pattern.
What mistakes do students often make when they select work for a presentation?
A common mistake is choosing by preference ("I like it") without connecting the choice to the purpose. Another is ignoring constraints such as time, space or equipment until the plan fails. A third is writing a summary of a work and calling it an interpretation.
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Related Standards
5 standards
SVHS editors suggest these links for NCAS.A.4: the anchor just before it, the other anchors in the same artistic process, the first anchor of the next process, and an ELA anchor with a similar skill.
