The Americans All Program
It is well-established that high school students must develop writing skills to help them succeed in post-secondary education, the workforce, and our democracy. The nonprofit Americans All program has an exciting storytelling tool that fosters these skills and empowers students to research, create, and publish their writing in several subject areas. Without changing established classroom lesson plans or instructional practices, this program desires to establish a partnership with the Howard County Public Schools to implement a pilot to help share it with other Maryland counties and then the nation.
The program offers a writing and communication element—individual pages called Heritage Honor Roll pages—a component of the Americans All website. Stories are automatically uploaded to the website when they are completed. In addition, schools, clubs or teams can create “landing pages,” called Legacy Partner pages, where all individual or group Heritage Honor Roll stories are linked, so a viewer can see all the individual stories associated with the students’ school, clubs or teams. This can be done annually to provide an ongoing history of many of the school’s organizations.
Stories housed on the Heritage Honor Roll may contain up to 2,000 words, images, photographs, hyperlinks, audio-video and music links and be published in multiple languages. Up to half of the story can be password protected for privacy. What makes our website unique is that it contains historic information to provide context for these stories and the experiences, observations and accomplishments reflected in them. If we get multiple stories where the honoree is part of a historic event, more basic information will be added to the website about that event.
We also provide a template to enable creating an optional, shortened 500-word version of their Heritage Honor Roll story. The Honoree’s photograph, information and two of the logos will automatically transfer to this printable page. Instructions are provided on how to print the page in an 8½” x 11” format.
Students register by creating a log-in page using only a name, an email address and a Zip Code. We do not publish or share member’s information. Students become Americans All members when they begin to create an individual or a group story. This is easy with the tutorials and templates we provide, and members do not have to complete their story to access program benefits.
Schools, after selecting a point-of-contact, follow the same registration process. The Heritage Honor Roll stories can be based on a curriculum topic, the student, individual family members or groups, or those who have made an impact on their local area or our nation. This activity will also further student’s knowledge of history, and schools can use this tool as an opportunity to engage parents to support their student’s academic progress. If possible, we would appreciate the school system’s help in notifying the media about this community-outreach activity.
Our mission is to house the largest database of individual and group stories, past and present, about the Peopling of America. Storytelling is an ideal tool to help focus on the commonalities, rather than the differences, in our population. By sharing stories, we can all recognize the contributions of every citizen, reinforce the value of diversity, and promote tolerance and acceptance.
Click on the link below to view these and other images full-size.
https://www.keepandshare.com/doc9/27439/priscilla-hcpss-pdf-1-2-meg?da=y