Curriculum Unit Development Guidelines

The following outline should be used as a basis for the curriculum units developed for the TAH Summer Institutes. Variance in materials and approaches to the content are acceptable, but completed curriculum units should be roughly of the same scope and scale as this outline indicates. Substantially, different curriculum designs should be discussed with the institute staff. The eras are from the Tennessee State Standards and institute curriculum units will be based on the eras covered during the institutes.

Curriculum Unit Guidelines Requirements
The Unit Plan for completion of the Cumberland River Valley Consortium Teaching American History summer institute consists of the following 6 components. For a discussion of how the unit plan will be scored see the accompanying rubric.

1. Title Page. The title page should includes name, unit topic, grade level, and date completed.
2. Table of Contents. The table of contents should list each component of the unit plan and any auxiliary materials for each lesson plan in order. This page should also include the file names of the digital file for each component. The following file naming conventions should be used for the digital submission of the unit:
   

   lastnametitle	(eg. mcgeetitle)
   lastnamecontents	(eg. mcgeecontents)
   lastnameessay	(eg. mcgeeessay)
   lastnamelesson#	(eg. mcgeelesson1)
   lastnamelesson#doc#	(eg. mcgeelesson2doc1)
   lastnameassessment	(eg. mcgeeassessment)
   lastnamebibliography	(eg. mcgeebibliography)

3. 5 Page Content Overview Essay. This essay will consist of an analytical overview of the time period that clearly shows the teacher has an understanding of the multiple events, persons, and places that intersect within the time period. The essay will also demonstrate the understanding of major themes from the time period and will address some of the multiple ways of understanding the time period. The Essay will conclude by identifying one theme that the unit plan will address and connecting that theme’s importance to the time period. (See a sample of appropriate essays.)
4. 5 Lesson Plans. The 5 lesson plans will at a minimum incorporate 5 primary sources which can include documents and/or artifacts. The Tennessee State Standards for history will be clearly addressed by the lesson plans. The lesson plan template found on the website should be used for the creation of the lesson plans.
5. Assessment. The assessment can consist of traditional testing or may incorporate authentic assessment techniques with a rubric provided and a clear description of the student product. Pre-assessment activities should be included within the lessons or as a separate activity.
6. Annotated Bibliography. The bibliography will have at least 6 annotated sources. The annotation should explain how and why the source was used within the unit plan. The annotated sources should include 2 books, 2 internet sites, and 2 other sources. The 2 other sources may be books and internet sites or may be other sources. At least five additional sources are encouraged but annotation is not required for additional sources. Primary sources should also be included in the bibliography in such a way that it would be clear how to obtain copies or replicas of the source.

Rubric General Requirements
See attached Rubic available as [pdf] or [doc].

Primary Source Resources
In preparing the units, an emphasis should be placed on primary sources and when appropriate local history resources.

Submission Deadline
Deadline for submission of the units is August 15th of each year.

File Formats for Submission
(Proprietary or copyrighted material will need appropriate permissions for publication on the grant website)

File formats for submission to facilitate web publishing of units:

• Text of the lesson plans, background essays, and other written materials should be submitted in Word format on CD or floppy disk in a Windows compatible format as well as a hard copy.
• Image files should be JPEG or GIF with scanned images not larger than 100 dpi.
• Video and audio clips should be in QuickTime, wav, mpeg, or should full bibliographic information for obtaining a copy should be provided.
• Please try to keep any PowerPoint or other computer presented presentation to 3MB if possible. If not in PowerPoint format please export the presentation to web format.