Academic Units

AcademicVoice lets a student take part in academic lessons using their communication board. Academic content is delivered as units - themed sets of vocabulary, sentence frames, and activities tied to grade-level standards.

Badges: School · Pro · Clinician (no badge = all editions).

1. Assigning units to a student

Academic vocabulary is not on a student's default board - it reaches a student only when an educator turns a unit on for them. This keeps everyday communication uncluttered and puts you in control of what each student works on.

1. Open Settings (enter your PIN if asked).
2. Tap Unit Library.
3. Choose a subject.
4. Turn on the units you want available for this student.

Units are assigned per student, so each learner can work on different content on the same iPad.

2. Activating a unit

When a unit is active, its vocabulary and sentence frames become available on the student's academic panel, and that unit becomes the context for related activities and assessments.

• You can make a unit active directly, or link it to a time block in Settings → Schedule so it turns on during the right class period.
• If several units are active, the app uses the highest-priority one that fits the current schedule.
• Turning a unit off removes its vocabulary from the panel again.

The Academic Panel settings (chapter 05) let you filter by grade and subject, show word counts on folders, and choose whether quick answers speak as soon as they're tapped.

3. What the student sees

With a unit active, the student's academic area shows that unit's words and frames alongside their core communication vocabulary. The student can:

• explore the unit's vocabulary in folders,
• build sentences with the unit's frames, and
• answer questions in an assessment for that unit (see chapter 03).

Core communication words remain available the whole time.

4. Guided lessons with the mascot

AcademicVoice includes a friendly mascot who can guide a student through short tutorial lessons.

Choose the mascot's look and behavior in Settings → Mascot & Tutorial. There are four ways a lesson can start:

1. The student taps the mascot on the board - a lesson starts for the active unit. (If no unit is active, the mascot offers a friendly nudge instead.)
2. From Staff Tools - tap the staff icon in the navigation strip (PIN), then Quick Actions → Lumi Lesson.
3. Automatically when a unit starts - turn on Auto-start under the mascot's Lesson Behavior settings, and activating a unit begins its lesson by itself.
4. From an assigned lesson - in Settings → School Panel → Lessons, a facilitator can add a lesson (unit + level) to the student's list; tapping the lesson row starts it. Parent/Guardian and Aide sign-ins don't see this section in School and Clinician settings.

5. Standards and your state

Units are aligned to academic standards. In Settings → Standards & Location you can:

• confirm or change your state,
• turn on state-mandated content, and
• show standard codes on units if you want to see them.

The state you chose at first launch determines which standard labels appear.