We have introduced new functionality to the Digital Theatre+ platform to promote more efficient and effective lesson planning. Study Units are curriculum-aligned, time-saving spaces bursting with ready-to-go tools and content for your classes!
What is a Study Unit?
Study Units are the Digital Theatre+ answer to one of the biggest challenges our teaching community has: too little time and choice overload! There are so many videos, lesson plans, guides, and activities out there to choose from that it can feel overwhelming.
We're going to help you quickly identify what is relevant, accurate and suitable for your students and plan your next class with ease.
Each of our Study Units is a curriculum-aligned package of resources and activities covering a key text or topic that you're teaching.
What's inside a Study Unit?
Carefully curated by teachers and education experts, each Study Unit has undergone a rigorous vetting process to ensure you can teach with confidence. There's enough in each of them for 2-3 weeks of teaching, giving you complete flexibility to use what matters most to you.
Within each Study Unit, you will find a streamlined collection of relevant resources and tools, including some or all of the following resource types:
- Lesson Plans - time-saving, grab-and-go teacher packs
- Workbooks and Activity Packs - hands-on student resources, including study guides
- Performances - high-quality clips and segments from productions and poetry recitals
- Educational Videos - e-learning videos, interviews, documentaries and workshops
- Assessments - to allow you to gauge your students' understanding
- Essays - written by renowned academics for further context and stretching students' knowledge
- Texts and Playscripts - primary written resources, including graphic novels, for further exploration and analysis
The resources for each Study Unit have been scaffolded into three possible Learning Pathways, curated for different stages of understanding and student needs:
- Getting Started - for teaching students with no prior knowledge of the topic, subject or content
- Building on the Basics - for teaching students who have a basic, foundational knowledge of the topic, subject, or content
- Deep Dive - for teaching students who already have a solid understanding of the topic, subject, or content and want to stretch their understanding
What do Study Units cover?
We have an initial offering of 100 Study Units, which we will be adding to in the coming months.
Study Units is intended to be an ever-expanding collection based on educator feedback and learner needs, but you can expect to immediately find content that:
- Boosts ELA and English students' understanding of plays, poems, and novels (such as Key Themes in Macbeth, Exploring Narrative Poetry or The Works of Edgar Allan Poe)
- Gets Theatre and Drama students up and on their feet and gaining new skills (such as Creating Meaning Through Movement, Designing Costumes or Evaluating Performance Choices)
You can take a peek at further examples of the Topics and Study Units now available in our visual user guide.
Who can use Study Units and when will they be available?
Our first batch of 100 Study Units have been designed for High School and Middle School educators who are teaching ELA and Theatre. These are now available as a first release in the United States as of May 2024 and can be found via the Navigation bar.
We hope to also make Study Units available for educators in the United Kingdom, who are teaching English and Drama at Secondary and Key Stage 3, later this year and elsewhere in the world soon after.
Also under development are Study Units specific to our Higher Education customers, so do watch this space!
Need help getting started?
You will find a user guide with step-by-step instructions for using Study Units and visuals of the new feature in the following article:
You can also reach out to our Customer Success team for guidance throughout your subscription. They are on hand to provide you with a guided tour of Study Units and our other new resources and features. You can book your refresher call today or drop them an email with your questions.