The Concept Attainment Strategy is an instructional technique proposed by Jerome Bruner that targets the “big idea” or concept underlining concrete or abstract examples. This strategy focuses on the developing comprehension of words and ideas associated with a concept rather than on its name or what the concept is called. Specifically it develops children's thinking and reasoning as they examine concepts from narrative and expository texts. Students are given the specific steps or structure to scaffold their thinking. Viewing examples compared to nonexamples of a concept enables students to inductively increase their understanding of the many facets of the concept. This allows learners to generalize to other similar examples and to differentiate the concept from other nonsimilar examples before the concept is named. Finally, applications are made to real‐life situations.

People who have impacted generations have left legacies we can explore today through biographies. The 5L instructional design introduced in this article includes five components: Listen, Learn, Locate, Link, and Legacy. In the “Listen” section, teachers use storytelling and read‐alouds to introduce individuals who shaped history. During the “Learn” component, each student selects a historical figure and, using print and online sources, examines his or her life. In the “Locate” portion of the design, students use graphic organizers to locate and record important events in the person's life alongside related world events or cultural opportunities of the period. In the “Link” component, students connect with someone else to share their work and receive feedback and questions. The final section, “Legacy,” encourages students to consider the financial, intellectual, social, or other kind of legacy left by the historical figure as well as the legacies they themselves want to leave the world.

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