Okemos High School

American Literature with Mrs. Reed

Students in American Literature in Mrs. Reed's courses

Privacy in America: How We Have Changed

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

Immigration Stories

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

Who's America Is It?

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

To Be American

Poem

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.

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.

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 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.

American Culture and Values

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.

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.

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...

Inequality in American Education

In this article I discuss inequalities that plague American education.

My Great Grandparents Journey

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

Immigration

A family's Immigration story.

Family History

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

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 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.

Impoverished Education

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

American Citizenship

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

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.

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.

Discussion on Midterms and other subjects

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

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.

Our Historical Journey to America

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

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.

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.

Dear Grandpa

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

Core American Values

What are the values that we share as Americans?

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.

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.

The Vitality of American Entertainment and Sports

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

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.

Immigration and the American Dream

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

American Division

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

American Creed

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

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.

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?

Creed

My grandpa's American dream.

Our Fiercely Unique Nation

An essay about our individualistic principles.

Perseverance and Our American Creed

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

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.

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 American Creed and its Environment

Could concern for the environment unify the United States?

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.

How the American Dream Has Changed

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

How Does Education Connect to Our American Dream?

A Letter to our Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

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 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.

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.

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?

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 Stories

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

American Creed Video Essay

Thoughts on American Creed as shown by robot.

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.

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

American Creed

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.

Why Our Values Are Our Values

How we view the values of others.

More responses from Michigan

Surprise Me

America Is

America is many things. Some of which are good, and some are not. This piece elaborates on a few of the words that represent America from all perspectives.

Experiences Shaping Americans

Ones own idea of their American Creed is greatly shaped on their community and family and, most of all, experiences. Experiences shape each individual in different ways and below you will see a few specific contrasting factors that shape certain individuals as American's.

My American Creed: Living with the Discussion of a "Dream," but Never Seeing it Realized

The repercussions of a teen who realizes everything she was told about America is far from the truth. Its sounds slightly dramatic, sure, but becoming more aware of the social constructs in this country continues to surprise me.

Define American?

A raw look into the American eye

How Being A First Generation Can Affect Views on What it Means to be an American

An examination on the similarities of how children of immigrants view their privileges and what it means to be an American.

The Language Of Music

This is a video about how music is a ritual which expresses the American Creed.

American creed

Cultural diversity, Immigration

Freedom to Live

My writing is about the issue of gun violence and how as Americans we can can use our freedom of speech to help create change.

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.

Immigration in America

In this podcast, we discuss the issue of immigration and how it affects everyday life in the US. We discuss why it is important to the success of America, and how it affects other countries, as well.

The American Dream

The American Dream is not a reality or everyone. The incarceration rates in America and jail programs are a big reason why.

How the American Creed is different for immigrants?

Audio interview of someone who immigrated here from Romania and their outlook on the American Creed.

More responses about "creed", "interview", "issues", and "scrapbook "

Surprise Me

American Expectations Vs. Reality

What the American creed expectations are and how everyone else should see them is way different then what it actually is.

A Foreign Perspective on the US

A YHS student interviewed students from Spain and England while on a school exchange and asked them how they perceived the American Creed. She also asked them to share their thoughts on whether the US was succeeding as a nation.

Land and the American Dream

Tycen B. and Trenton C. of Yreka High School explored the question, "How does/has land influenced your American Dream?" by interviewing three community members from different perspectives.

How To Bleed the American Creed

In this piece of writing I try and demonstrate how everyone can express their American creed through various actions.

What Your Family and Community Really Mean to American Creed

Throughout this essay, I focus on my Irish family history and military community to describe a personal meaning of American Creed, and what life is like in the United States today.

American Creed

This essay talked about the importance of education and proved that claim.

Family history and the American Creed

An essay about my family history and origin, and how it connects to the American Creed.

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.

American Creed

How do Words, Symbols and Rituals express the American Creed?

The Story of an Orzeł Biały

My American Creed consists of letting life take its course, working hard, and always staying connected to my roots and my family. In this video all three parts are going to be demonstrated,showing how my american creed ties into my family.

Ethnicities' Ethical Creeds

America is chock full of different nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures, and these different ethnicities that make up our country understand the American Creed differently based on their unique backgrounds.

My American Creed & How I Understand the American Creed

This is my story.

Origins of my American Creed

This piece is about my American Creed and how it was instilled in me.

Rights And Freedoms Make Us Equal

Rights and Freedoms that are given to Americans are very important. We should not judge one other based on looks or physical characteristics.

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.

The American Dream

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

American Creed

The American Creed film

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 Reamble

My piece is a black out poem with the Preamble of the constitution.

American Creed

My essay was about the perspectives of being an American from the eyes of Terrence Davenport. His views on struggle and unity, in my essay I write about how hearing his perspective on what it means to be American, and how it affected my views on struggle, ingenuity, and unity.

American Creed

A quick thought

American Creed-Problem in America

This is about the American dream, and what a major problem in America is.

What is the American Creed?

Everyone's idea of the American Creed is different. This piece discusses my personal opinions on what I believe America stands for and how we can set aside our differences and truly symbolize the ideologies that many believe America stands for.

What Does it Mean to be American?

To be an American means to be united. We were named the United States of America, so Americans can come together to solve problems and to help this country thrive. Not to become separated over issues that Republicans and Democrats can't agree on.

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.