Okemos High School

American Literature with Mrs. Reed

Students in American Literature in Mrs. Reed's courses

Roots

This work is a narrative describing the story of my Great Grandpa Lewis J. Minor and how he and his family came to America from Ireland in order to live the American Dream.

What is the American Dream?

In this project, we interviewed 3 different age groups to see each age groups perception of the American Dream, and how it related to other age groups.

An American Medley (Poetry)

Composed by Mia Colony and Sydney Stephens. Poems Used: "We Leave To-Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald and "Growing Up" by E.H. "How Would You Describe America?" is an original poem by Mia Colony and Abe Frank.

American Culture and Values

Dear Grandpa

Years after my grandfather passed away I have written a letter to him explaining how his stories have changed my life.

Interview with exchange students

I’m an exchange student from Germany and I’m really happy to be here in U.S., but I was wondering was other exchange students think about the U.S. and what they experience are compared to their different background and their different countries.

Was Every Man "Created Equal" ?

The Declaration of Independence says that "all Men are created equal". Looking at the treatment of minorities during and after of which it was written, that statement says otherwise.

American Division

We always say we want to be The UNITED States of America. But how true is that?

American Creed Interview

Inspired by the American Creed documentary, we decided to make our own version by interviewing people of different ages, races and gender to get the diverse views of students at our high school. We found many commonalities and many differences among Americans.

The Immigrant Dream

Immigration has been an integral part of american history since its conception. Although immigration has taken many forms immigrants have always had the same goal, to seize opportunities in order to lead a better life and fulfill their american dream.

Land of the Free as Symbolic as Can Be

Symbols show up on our lives everyday. America has many objects and items that represent the nation and they all have their own meanings and history.

The American Dream Fulfilled

The following work talks about the important values of American creed that exist to this day. There is no doubt that the values written in the nation’s documents are still in use today. By reading this piece, you will discover how well America has kept these values throughout these years.

American Creed

This essay is about politics and media in the United States of America.

Immigration and the American Dream

Immigration to America changed throughout the decades and this is how.

Privacy in America: How We Have Changed

How has American people's value of privacy been affected by our new technological age?

Just world

This piece is about the American dream of equal opportunity. This work is specifically focused on the just world hypothesis and how it leads to the misconception that is the American dream.

American Creed Interviews

For my American Creed project I interviewed people of different races and genders about the issues that America is having today. I made sure to ask everyone the same questions, so I could see the difference in answer. I turned these interviews into a scrapbook:

American Creed in Communities

American Creed is found in individuals and in their communities. The values for each group of people is different and unique but all of these values still affect the people around them and create a united country.

Immigration

A family's Immigration story.

The Future of America

What is your dream? How do you plan to achieve your dream? Do you believe your dream aligns with the American dream?

American Creed Video Essay

Thoughts on American Creed as shown by robot.

Perseverance and Our American Creed

This explains how perseverance is a key topic in our American creed.

American Values

This is a piece by a high school student on the core American Values and what his views are on the subject. And it shows how the values affect people, and what experiences have led to the values.

Discussion on Midterms and other subjects

7 friends have a discussion around the recent midterm elections and their effects on the US moving forward

To Be American

Poem

Our Fiercely Unique Nation

An essay about our individualistic principles.

Dear Grandchild

I created a scrapbook which is composed of pictures and letters. I wrote these letters to myself as if I were my grandmother just after moving to the United States. I composed this because in the film, American Creed, Condoleezza Rice said, “It doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters where...

Our American Creed

I decided to make my poem about my parents and what it took for them to come here. How they see us (my siblings and I) as Pakistani Americans and their perspective on America and what it holds for us.

The Vitality of American Entertainment and Sports

Exploring how entertainment is a vital part of the United States of America and her culture.

American Citizenship

We researched the process of naturalization through the lives of our family members and other people with similar stories.

My Great Grandparents Journey

My grandparents made a great journey to the U.S. to better their lives.

Creed

My grandpa's American dream.

How Does Education Connect to Our American Dream?

A Letter to our Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

Inequality in American Education

In this article I discuss inequalities that plague American education.

How do Traditions, Customs, and Holidays Change Through Immigration?

American Creed

Equality For All

Equality is arguably the most important American Creed, in this piece you will read about events that either represent equality or fail to.

Who's America Is It?

An interview of a family member and a reflection on who runs the country.

American Teamwork

Our piece talks about teamwork in America, unity, and how it should be more valued in our country

The Lost Dream

The United States has lost its common luster known as the American Dream. Through my essay, I explain the problems caused by the parts of the American Dream that have been lost and how those parts affects the American people today.

The Failure of Our Affirmative Action System

In the United States, affirmative action is used to promote diversity in universities. Universities take race into consideration during their admissions process. But how exactly did we get here? What have people done about this? And should we even keep our current system?

Immigration and America

I decided to craft an American Bald Eagle, since it often used to represent America. On it, I put snippets of stories from people who have immigrated to America.

Core American Values

What are the values that we share as Americans?

Immigration Stories

The story of three different immigrants, and the reasons why they came.

American Creed: The Significance of Immigration

I had to put the images into chunks so it can show up more clearly. However, there can be words that are still not clear. My poster is basically about immigration. My explanation and reason why this is significant to American Creed is explained below. Please enjoy.

The Scape Goats of America

We often focus so much on what is the American Creed or dream when in reality this one dream or creed is made up of every citizen's individual dream. This is an in depth look at the Jewish people's view on life in America.

Family History

To make this paper and further my understanding, I decided to interview my Grandpa to complete this task.

Why Our Values Are Our Values

How we view the values of others.

American Values in the Political Climate of 2018

This is a video conference with teens across the country examining how today's political climate has affected our lives and American Values.

My Identity Story

This is my identity story on how my ancestors came over to the United States. I'm showing how I ended up where I live today and showing how we all can come from different places and still end up at the same high school.

The American Creed and its Environment

Could concern for the environment unify the United States?

American Education

American education is essential to achieving the American dream and it molds our American values into what they are today. Getting a good education helps get you a better job and better quality of life. American education makes us into who we are.

Becoming a U.S. Citizen

This passage is about the process of becoming a U.S. citizen and a specific perspective of that process from the eyes of my parents.

Our Historical Journey to America

Nick Balesky and I compare and share our grandparents adventures from Europe to Michigan today.

Is the Immigration Ban Changing Our American Values?

A letter addressing the immigration ban and how it affects our American values.

How is American Creed defined by its members?

A narrative of how my immigrant mother overcame hardships to become American, relating to Gone with the Wind and the Great Gatsby, defining what American Creed is, defined by those whom belong to it.

Education in America

Why education has been and is still a strong aspect of our American culture.

What America could use

A few things America could use to make the country a better place overall.

Impoverished Education

How does your community's wealth affect the quality of education?

How the American Dream Has Changed

A video on how the American Dream has changed over time.

Immigration Stories

These immigration stories are supposed to see the point of view of immigrants. It's supposed to help you understand their struggles.

America from an Immigrant's Perspective

For our American Creed project, we decided to interview our parents, who are immigrants, and showcase their ideas around what it is to be American.

More responses from Michigan

Surprise Me

The Freedom of Speech

Why the right to protest is the American Creed.

Improper Resources in America

My paper is about how America doesn't provide the proper resources for some people to succeed in life. For example, job opportunities, and housing. So I'm trying to raise awareness of this problem to see if other people could help out and help other peoples lives.

How Does Education Connect to Our American Dream?

A Letter to our Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

Are We TRULY Equal ?

The American Flag symbolizes our nations strength and unity, but we still tend to judge by sight instead of knowledge.

My American Creed & How I Understand the American Creed

This is my story.

A Country of Immigrants

Through the experiences of talking to my mother, who was born and raised and Ukraine, I came to learn an important lesson on what it means to be "American".

I AM AMERICAN

This is my poem about the everyday life of being an “Black American”

Immigration and the American Dream

Immigration to America changed throughout the decades and this is how.

Just world

This piece is about the American dream of equal opportunity. This work is specifically focused on the just world hypothesis and how it leads to the misconception that is the American dream.

A Not So American, American Creed

Through my parents' naturalization ceremony to become U.S. citizens, I was able to learn a lot about what it means to be an American citizen and what must be done to protect and uphold such a right.

Value of Community regarding the American Creed

Analyzation of the sense of community that drives people to help others around them, specifically in the case of Detroit neighborhoods and downtown area.

How the American Dream Has Changed

A video on how the American Dream has changed over time.

More responses about "creed" and "generations"

Surprise Me

A Few Words

The Pledge of Allegiance rewritten

Maljusted States Of America

A short depiction of what America is really like. What people think of America and the truth about America can be totally different. It is not the greatest and sometimes its not united. Its a madjusted system.

My American Creed

This essay is about what I believe my American Creed is.

The American Dream

What the American Dream means to me and the U.S.

American Creed Argument

Your past doesn't matter as long as you focus on the future and what's in front of you. Equal opportunity is an important American value that people want.

What it Means to be American

America is a nation that was created to thrive in greatness, from the day it was deemed a country they had one goal, to give freedom to those who don’t have it.

Strive To Succeed

We should all follow our own American Creed. How all the immigration statuses are breaking everyone apart. We should all just be united and keep striving to get a better life than we already have.

The Freedom of being American

This is my writing piece about what I really think being American means. In my opinion it is all about freedoms.

I can ...

My American Creed, two simple words, I can... .

A Diverse Perspective on the American Creed

Analysis of the American Creed from the eyes of diverse Americans, and how they involve the American Creed within their lives.

What is Your American Creed?

My American Creed is a promise to myself and everyone else I am around, that I will stand strong for my beliefs and always remember my community.

My American Creed

American Creed could look different from person to person, but we all share some similar qualities. These qualities link us together as Americans and makes each person a little more similar than they may think.

What It Means To Be American

What being american means to me and others.

Unity Through the American Creed

We are divided as a people, but through listening and bringing people together, regardless of who they are, we will become closer.

My American Creed

Exploring my family history through art in order to explain my American Creed

What Does it Mean to be Me? { An True American}

My poem is a letter to you all. Althoug it's pretty short it touches on several things in america. I used Repition in this poem because the rhyme and rhythm is important to me. I just think you'll feel it relatable and etc. I hope you enjoy!

What Is Your American Creed?

I discuss my personal American Creed and how the position I have been born into has affected that outlook

The Evolution of the American Identity

The American Creed of young Americans today is not the same as that of their parents. What causes these changes, and why is this difference significant to Americans?

What It Means To Be American

Part of being American is being able to form your own beliefs and opinions, without imposing those beliefs on others.

My American Creed

This is a short essay about how my father's actions have inspired me through the years and shaped who I am today.

American Creed

My project represents how my Hispanic ethnicity from my parents influences myself as an American and my story of who I am.

Learning What it Means to be an American in New York City

In one trip, I learned some of the most important values of what it truly means to be an American.

The American Creed and its Environment

Could concern for the environment unify the United States?

Expressing your American Creed

This piece is about how you can express your American Creed. It shows the many aspects to American creed, such as why people chase their American, the fact that everyone chases one, and the three major aspects to American Creed.

Writing Our Future: American Creed is part of the National Writing Project’s family of youth publishing projects, all gathered under the Writing Our Future initiative.

Writing Our Future projects are designed by educators for educators and the young people they work with. Intended for use in schools, libraries, and other educational settings. All projects are COPPA compliant and educator-managed. NWP is committed to supporting young people’s writing and civic participation by providing a safe and supportive environment for youth writing, media creation, sharing, and publishing.