ATYP On Demand Plus
An exciting new digital resource for Primary Teachers
About ATYP
Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) is Australia’s leading national youth theatre company. We exist to connect young people with the professional theatre industry - to share stories, build skills and create experiences that enhance our understanding of ourselves and the society with which we belong. Our vision is to enhance the lives of young people through transformative theatre experiences. It’s the principle that founded the company in 1963. It’s what drives us today.
ATYP On Demand Plus
ATYP On Demand Plus is a new and exciting online education platform for Primary Teachers across Australia that extends on ATYP’s popular On Demand platform. An annual subscription gives educators access to a creative and flexible professional learning resource of detailed, multi-week units of work using drama and literacy strategies to explore the F-6 Australian Curriculum. The program has been developed with Professor Emerita Robyn Ewing, AM.
Teachers can access six rich and adaptable units of work addressing the following curriculum topics: History
Past and Present (Foundation, Year 1-2)
First Nations Connections (Years 3-4)
Waves of Migration (Years 5-6)
Science
Our Changing Environment (Years 5-6)
Physical
Health and Education
Me and You: Understanding Ourselves and Others (Foundation, Year 1-2)
English
Bringing Poetry Alive (Years 3-6)
Developed in partnership with Poetry in Action
Each 8-week unit of work includes:
• Detailed lesson plans with weekly drama and literacy activities, accompanying resources and creative challenges embracing participatory learning
• Instructional videos for each lesson presented by ATYP Teaching Artists that teachers can either use for their own PD or use in the classroom with their students
• Optional mentoring and PD sessions on delivering the units and the drama and literacy strategies with the ATYP Education team and Professor Emerita Robyn Ewing, AM.
“It’s wonderful to find a resource that really has everything, and you don’t have to go looking for anything extra. It really helped our students to engage with often very abstract concepts that are in that part of the curriculum, but turned them into very concrete physical experiences, which helped them to engage with it in a much better and much deeper way. Things that they remember and keep talking about - that’s a very special thing.”
“We found the unit really fantastic for our class. It’s made it much more interactive and enjoyable for the kids - so that they’re learning but they don’t even realise that they’re learning. When it’s fun they will actually engage, and they will actually take part and listen... And it’s really good for teachers to have something different to offer.”
Jane Vaughan, Railway Town Public School, Broken Hill, NSW
Vanessa Wallace, Primary Teacher, St Martin de Porres Primary School, Davidson, NSW
The units
History
Years F-2 – Past and Present
This unit explores concepts of the past and present through drama and literacy strategies and participatory learning.
In this unit, students explore:
• Personal memories as inspiration for creative writing and playbuilding based on the story, characters and objects in Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox
• The concepts of continuity and change through games children play and evolving technologies, (early telephones to smartphones; gramophones to CD and back to vinyl) Students reflect on how some things change rapidly over time (i.e. buildings, roads, technology) while others remain the same (i.e. trees growing, old games are still played)
• The figure of Miles Franklin, a pioneer Australian female writer as a significant person, through the children’s book Miss Franklin. Students reflect on the story, analysing and debating the choices the two main characters make through drama and literacy strategies
Years 3-4 – First Nations Connections: Country, Culture, Community and Family
This unit explores how First Nations Australians are deeply connected to country, culture, family and communities.
In this unit, students explore:
• The difference between a Welcome to Country and Acknowledgment of Country, writing their own Acknowledgement of Country as a class
• First Nations Peoples’ connection to the land through the Australian landscape, using images as a stimulus
• Indigenous habitation of Australia stretching back over 80,000 years to other, more well-known ancient civilizations such as ancient Egypt
• The book Cooee Mittigar by Jasmine Seymour and Leanne Mulgo Watson, using improvisation and movement to relate Aboriginal language to stories and ideas
• Creation stories and reflect on how knowledge is transmitted through generations in an oral storytelling culture
• The interconnectedness of Aboriginal Australian family groups and kinship
• Elders and Indigenous groups within the community who are the custodians of ancient knowledge
Years 5-6 – Waves of Migration
Students will explore the experiences of migrants in Australia through history and consider the reasons people might leave their country of birth to start a new life elsewhere.
In this unit students explore:
• Using images from The Arrival by Shaun Tan as a stimulus, students create their own interpretation of a story through playbuilding. Students consider the push/pull factors that drive the decision for people to migrate in Australian history
• Journeying across land and sea in search of a new home using soundscapes, students explore the migrant experience through an exercise in empathy, language and communication
• The book Waves by Donna Rawlins, using migrant and refugee stories as a stimulus for playbuilding and scene work
• Photographs of migrants from the Gold Rush in the 1850’s, creating characters and a whole group scene inspired by real photographs of people
• Composing a letter from a migrant character’s perspective to their family in their home country, working collectively to create a group poem out of lines from their letters, experimenting with rhythm and composition
• A project-based learning task. ATYP Teaching Artists dressed as time travellers zoom into your classroom with a video excerpt, giving students an important task: There has been a blackout and all Australian History has been erased. The students need to research a noted Australian migrant. They write a script to interview their chosen migrant and present this in a dramatic performance, readers theatre or as a short film. The class collectively begins to arrange all of their research subjects on a timeline
Science
Physical Health and Education
Years 5-6 – Our Changing Environment
The Our Changing Environment unit explores ideas surrounding human impact on the environment and how, as communities, we might deal with these changes in the future.
In this unit, students explore:
• Using words, sounds and physicality to express ideas around changes to the environment in a drama strategy called Art Gallery
• A case study on the honeybee and how the future of this insect has been affected by human impact and climate change. Students explore the text Just One Bee by Margrete Lamond and Anthony Bertini, using a recounting exercise of advance and detail, they reflect on the characters’ feelings and perspectives through a sculpting exercise
• Ideas for hypothetical funding that can have a positive impact on the environment in the future through collaborative group work. Students will partake in an improvised media scene to present their idea
• The issue of development vs the natural environment using a key image from Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker as a stimulus. Students take part in a Conscience Alley thought walk, critically thinking about the text and ideas presented and developing persuasive language skills
F-2 – Me and You: Understanding Ourselves and Others
The Me and You unit focuses on understanding our own emotions, others’ emotions, and the nature of friendships and belonging. Students explore how to deal with change and transitions.
In this unit, students explore:
• The nature of friendships, including what makes a good friend and what happens when friendships change, through literature including Amy and Louis by Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood and Bear and Rat by Christopher Cheng
• Their own emotions and others’ emotions through The Day the Crayons Quit by Oliver Jeffers, exploring changing emotions through looking at colour and drama strategies including sculpting
• Individuals’ and classmates’ similarities and differences through drama games and writing exercises
• Coping with change, transition and building resilience through looking at fictional stories and situations. Change and building resilience is particularly relevant in the current climate, with children having to re-establish friendships and connections after lockdown, as well as transitioning from online to face-to-face learning
English Year 3-6 – Bringing Poetry Alive
Developed in partnership with Poetry in Action
This unit assists students in their understanding of different types of poems and poetic techniques. It provides teachers with new and innovative ways to teach poetry, bringing poetry alive in the classroom through drama and literacy strategies.
In this unit, students explore:
• Responding to poetry through writing their own poems, understanding classic and contemporary poems, and using sound, voice, movement and imagination to explore key ideas, symbols and images
• Gaining an understanding of poetic techniques including imagery, metaphor, rhythm and rhyme
• Nonsense poems as well as character, mood, and narrative driven poems
• Key poems including “Ebenezer Bleezer”, “The Adventures of Isabel”, “The Man from Ironbark”, “The Hairy Toe”, “Hope is the thing with feathers”, “Prayers for the 21st Century”, and other poems
• Writing and performing a group poem based on their wishes for the future and writing an individual poem as a culmination of the unit
FAQs
What’s delivered?
Why buy?
• 8-week units giving teachers complete units of work and professional development
• Complete, comprehensive and adaptable unit resources
• Authentic curriculum integration of Literacy and Drama strategies by an experienced Education team
• Fun, participatory engagement opportunities for students across all abilities
• Content demonstrated by drama and literacy experts across a series of videos
• Additional resources from other educational Institutions including State Library of NSW
• New learning tools for teachers at any stage in their career
• Cost effectiveness
What are the benefits of using On Demand Plus in my classroom?
There is unequivocal evidence that drama-rich strategies motivate students to engage in deep learning across the curriculum, whilst building their imaginations, compassion, and self-efficacy. Educators already using On Demand Plus are reporting an increase in student literacy and engagement: students are learning without even realising it! Teachers are also reporting that their own skills are being extended and refreshed, as they gain confidence using new strategies to explore the curriculum with greater joy, participation and creativity.
How long does each week’s lesson go for?
Each week’s lesson goes for approximately 1 hour. Teachers can shorten or lengthen the lesson to suit their timetable by including more or less of the educational videos provided.
Does each unit have to be delivered at the same time?
As the units are on an online platform, teachers have flexibility as to when and how they choose to deliver the lessons.
• Boost teacher confidence in teaching Literacy and Drama strategies in cross-curricular programs
• Supply teachers with the tools and resources needed to shape dynamic classroom learning
• Use innovative methods of teaching cross-curricula primary units to increase student learning across multiple areas
• Increase overall student engagement, wellbeing and performance while supporting individual learning
• Feel prepared to confidently deliver shown and tested integrated Arts content
• Access more than just ATYP content with curriculum linked resources from the NSW State Library
• Explore new tools and ideas to develop, extend or refresh your teaching practice
• Save money on lesson prep with an annual subscription payment at a competitive price
Can I book an in-school workshop or Professional Development with ATYP for an On Demand Plus unit?
Yes! ATYP offers in-school workshops delivering one lesson from a unit or a whole unit of work at your school, at our venue at Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay (NSW only) or online.
We have also developed an On Demand Plus professional development workshop for teachers, led by Professor Emerita Robyn Ewing, AM or an ATYP Education team member. The professional development workshop explores how to use the drama and literacy strategies embedded in On Demand Plus in the K-6 classroom.
How much does an On Demand Plus subscription cost?
Subscription per school for schools with an ICSEA value over 1001: $500
Subscription per school for schools with an ICSEA value of 1000 or less: $450
Individual teachers: $200
We have half day and full day workshops for staff available. The professional development workshop can take place at your school, at our venue at Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay (NSW only),or online.
(Please note: the costs for an On Demand Plus in-school workshop or professional development workshop is additional to your On Demand Plus subscription.)
How do I subscribe?
Subscribe today here Or contact a member of ATYP’s Education team: education@atyp.com.au (02) 9270 2400
