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.

American Teamwork

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

Discussion on Midterms and other subjects

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

Education in America

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

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.

What America could use

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

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...

Core American Values

What are the values that we share as Americans?

How the American Dream Has Changed

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

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.

Immigration Stories

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

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.

To Be American

Poem

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.

Privacy in America: How We Have Changed

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

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.

The Vitality of American Entertainment and Sports

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

Impoverished Education

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

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.

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.

My Great Grandparents Journey

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

Who's America Is It?

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

Dear Grandpa

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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 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:

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.

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.

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.

American Division

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

Inequality in American Education

In this article I discuss inequalities that plague American education.

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?

Family History

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

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

American Creed

Perseverance and Our American Creed

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

Our Fiercely Unique Nation

An essay about our individualistic principles.

Immigration

A family's Immigration story.

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 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.

American Creed Video Essay

Thoughts on American Creed as shown by robot.

American Citizenship

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

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.

Immigration and the American Dream

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

Our Historical Journey to America

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

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.

American Creed

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

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.

Creed

My grandpa's American dream.

American Culture and Values

The American Creed and its Environment

Could concern for the environment unify the United States?

Is the Immigration Ban Changing Our American Values?

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

Gen-Z

What is Gen-Z?

How Does Education Connect to Our American Dream?

A Letter to our Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

Why Our Values Are Our Values

How we view the values of others.

Immigration Stories

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

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.

More responses from Michigan

Surprise Me

Immigration Stories

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

Critiquing The White American Creed

This piece is about how many white Americans believe that being American means you have to be white and you have to promote certain cultural values. This can be shown by the political actions of the U.S. in the past and in the present.

Diversity Through Art

Diverse americans use music to express themselves and get points across that otherwise might have been ignored.

We Shouldn't Hide Our Feelings

I believe you shouldn't hide or bottle up your feelings.

Immigration and the American Dream

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

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.

Education Leading To Success

This writing is about the importance of education in America and how it helps our lives be successful.

What Is Your American Creed?

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

Tell the truth.

The importance of what it is to say the truth, giving a different point of view to the stereotype that most people have on this subject.

Little Black Girl

Life as a African American female in a white mans world.

The World is Changing, We Need to Change With it

The older generation is the largest percent of the voter turnout but the younger voters need help. People need to be willing and able to change their views of freedom to adapt to the ever changing world we live in.

One Step Closer

As a second generation Indian immigrant in America, the push and pull of cultures has both defined and created conflict in my identity. My American Creed is about accepting all parts of myself and expanding that idea of celebrating diversity to the larger society.

More responses about "equality"

Surprise Me

My American Creed

My Google Slide presentation is about how America is defined by our diversity, equality, and opportunity.

Shattered Glass

During our American Creed project, we all made a digital story to represent our personal idea of what the American Creed means to us. I saw the American Creed as a representation of Patriotism, Equality, Unity, and Freedom.

George Washington Photoshop Mask

This is an image I made to represent our first president, George Washington. With the help of my peers and facilitators, I was able to 'mask' George Washington using the words I believe represent the American Creed.

Social Issues in America

People are ignorant of many of the social issues that are still happening today. Through these drawings will help you be more aware of these important issues.

Holding the Door

I feel what guides us is what we believe to be right. I came to the conclusion that my creed is following the beliefs of leaders that have fought discrimination; to me that is what I think is right. Here is my art piece that reflects this creed:

Privilege

Privilege

American Mentor

I chose an image of Oprah to represent the American Creed because she has been a very impactful person on America. The words I used were, Freedom, Equality, Service and Diversity.

America Is One

Being an American is understanding and learning from each other.

American Creed

My poem is about civil rights, individuality, and capability as people of our nation.

America: The Dark Side of the Dream

My essay is regarding our country's foundation of the American Dream, and how it eventually influenced my family to emigrate to the States, even in the present day of unjust immigrant laws.

My American Creed

This piece of artwork represents some of the different cultures that make up America and how if we stand united together, people in America are one step closer to achieve their version of the American creed.

America

My American Creed

The Problematic System

Mary K., Hollie E., and Hero F. interviewed the administrator of our local hospital, Jonathon Andrus. He shared the problems with the current healthcare system and its impact on Fairchild Medical Center.

American Creed

No matter who you are you have the same privileges to check out as many as book you like. Instead of people decimalizing on other races, age, or religion we could improve on working our skills as a citizen to make our nation stronger

Is there really a true "american"?

I wrote this essay with the intended goal of explaining the idea that even though America is "ideal" there is an unspoken animosity against specific communities. Prejudice and ignorance need to be addressed and conquered. If not then history will repeat itself.

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.

Quality of Equality

A short poem about how I feel about intolerance in America.

American Soldiers

My writing peace is about the soldiers in our military that do not get the respect and recognition they deserve. Our soldiers defend are country to keep us safe and for us to have freedom. Our american soldiers risk everything they have to protect the country they love.

Eclipse Glasses

Colored storms meets the catastrophic miracle.

Being An LGBT American

This is about the growth of being a member of the LGBT community in America in 2018.

My Beliefs on Women Equality

My topic is about how women equality is something that women strive to have but haven't yet accomplished. In this country that we are living in men have a bigger say in what happens to women.

Don't Hate, Appreciate!

I wrote this essay to help explain that we should all be equal in America and be accepting of each other.

When I Think of Home

The American Creed is not always as equally attainable as it may seem.

School to Prison Pipelines

My letter is about different ways equality is presented in America, especially in schools. It needs to be changed and addressed more since America is "supposed' to be a equal place.

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.