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AHI Curriculum Units | Assessing the Unit | Resources Upper elementary grade teachers often use biographies to introduce their students to expository texts. Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) received federal funding to develop, test, and disseminate a curriculum unit that would help upper elementary school teachers introduce expository texts through the use of biographies. The resulting curriculum unit, the American History Idol (AHI) Curriculum Unit, was inspired by the popular television show. However, it emphasizes important contributions to our country's history. Students enjoy the motivational strategy of voting for their favorite “idol” at the end of the unit. As an introduction to understanding expository texts, the AHI Curriculum Unit focuses on the following content literacy skills
To teach these skills, the AHI Curriculum Unit embeds the following set of research-based instructional strategies: asking prompting questions, modeling, using think-alouds, and using graphic organizers. While the AHI Curriculum Unit was developed for the 4th and 5th grades, it can easily be adapted for 6th grade students, as well as older, struggling students. In addition, the AHI Curriculum Unit has a technology component. It was designed to integrate the software program, Draft:Builder, published by Don Johnston, Inc. Draft:Builder allows students to take notes, create an outline, manipulate information, and prepare a draft. Literacy Matters serves as the means by which EDC is disseminating the AHI Curriculum Units (with and without the use of Draft:Builder), accompanying materials to assess student's growth when using the unit, and additional materials to support the curriculum unit (or revise it to meet your needs). Feel free to use these materials and share with others! |
