Supporting Constructive Conversations in the Classroom Collection
Chris Sloan, Judge Memorial High School, Salt Lake City, Utah
A collection of resources curated by Chris Sloan that support having constructive conversations, and even productive disagreement, in the classroom students engage with American Creed.
American Creed Activities @ New Tech Coppell
Janelle Quintans Bence, New Tech High@ Coppell, Coppell, Texas
A set of resources and activities compiled by co-teachers Janelle Bence and Kat Saucier that support using and creating with a range of media to explore American Identity, including found symbols, words, song lyrics, and iconography.
Related article "Literature, Identity, Agency: Civic Engagement in the Classroom", Teaching Channel
American Creed from Different Historical Perspectives
Stan Pesick, Bay Area Writing Project
The “American Creed” is thought of as a set of ideas and beliefs about what America means to the people who have lived and arrived here throughout our history. But, these ideas and beliefs have been defined, redefined, and contested at various points in American history. These resources are designed to support exploring these ideas and beliefs as reflected in primary letters and documents of their time, including during the Era of Reconstruction (1865-1876) and the Great Depression (1929-1939).
This I Believe Essays and Word Manipulation Activities for American Creed
Suzanne Sutton, Classen School, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Building upon resources for educators developed by the This I Believe project, Suzanne Sutton has curated a set of example essays that pick up on American Creed related topics and uses them to support her students in composing their own This I Believe essays. She also supports her students in playing with words and meanings to explore a range of ideas of what it means to be American.
C3WP American Creed Argument Project
Casey Olsen, Montana Writing Project and NWP’s College, Career, and Community Writers Program
This project is designed to support high school educators incorporating Citizen Film’s documentary release of American Creed on PBS. The project options below are listed in sequential order, though they can be selected ala carte.
Crafting Public Response with the Civically Engaged Writing Analysis Continuum
Stan Pesick, Bay Area Writing Project and NWP's CEWAC Project
To help support thoughtful submissions to the American Creed publishing site the National Writing Project offers its newly developed Civically Engaged Writing Analysis Continuum (CEWAC). Begun in 2015, CEWAC grows out a development process focused on identifying and articulating how civically engaged writing differs from academic writing. Stan Pesick and Liana Gamber-Thompson use CEWAC to look at two publicly posted compositions by youth and provide example annotations.
American Creed: Family Narrative and Extended Definition
Molly Robbins, Cherokee Trail High School, Aurora, Colorado
Molly Robbins' high school students in Colorado explored key questions from American Creed, including: How does your family & community history connect to the American Creed? And How is the American Creed expressed, in words, symbols, and rituals? They did this by collecting interviews as well as exploring catalyst texts from American history. Related readings and recommended clips from film are included.
America: A Land, A Creed, A Dream Project
Carla Truttman, Yreka High School, Yreka, California
A set of resources from an 11th grade project in Yreka High School in Northern California where students developed a 2-3 minute video inspired by the documentary American Creed. Carla Truttman provides an overview of this project, a multimedia project rubric, reproducible worksheets, and examples of student videos.
American Culture, Values, Creed
Dawn Reed, Okemos High School, Okemos, Michigan
A set of resources from Dawn Reed’s classroom in Michigan including a sequence of lessons including anticipation writing and reflecting, a guide for argument writing, a set of critical questions and worksheet to support viewing of American Creed, suggestions for composing a response to the documentary as well as support for independent reading and student projects in response to the film.
Related article "American Creed: Invitations for Conversation and Innovation", KQED Education
American Creed Playlists for Youth
Paul Allison, New York City Writing Project
These playlists, built by teachers involved in Youth Voices project, encourages youth to make their way through a set of writing and annotations as a means of supporting their publishing of a final work at the Writing Our Future: American Creed publishing site. This playlist is meant to support youth in a self-paced process where they can earn a badge upon completion. The earned badge is badge 2.0 compliant and can be exported and shared by youth to show their work and accomplishments.