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Building Stronger Schools Through Storytelling

Americans All uses a unique storytelling tool to facilitate legacy preservation, enable students to communicate better and help small businesses succeed. Schools, students and students’ families and friends participate in  Americans All at no cost and receive a free, one-year trial to our Social Legacy Network. Families can also use this tool to pass on knowledge and experiences to current and future generations. Without this information, children will neither understand their roots nor develop their ethnic and cultural identity. In addition, storytelling brings communities together by sharing people’s common histories, rather than their differences. 

Local businesses and service providers participate in our program as Business Legacy Partners, for a nominal fee. They can leverage stories about their business or practice to build closer relationships with current and future customers and clients. They can also use our program to share discounts on their goods and services with Americans All Social Legacy Network members.

Schools frequently ask businesses for financial support but rarely provide them with anything of value in return. Our grassroots approach enables schools to receive ongoing revenue from the fees paid by Business Legacy Partners. Americans All members can also continue their Social Legacy Network subscription for a small monthly cost ($4) after the free trial to receive additional benefits besides publishing a story on our web-based Heritage Honor Roll. Schools also benefit from the Social Legacy Network fees.

Membership Benefits for Students, Teachers and Their Families

These benefits can continue after the trial period ends for only $4 per month.

Academic Benefits of Storytelling and Americans All for Students

Stories begin at birth, and legacies are built every time a personal, academic or professional milestone is achieved. Everybody has valuable experiences and lessons learned to share with family, friends and future generations.

  • Creating a story can be a valuable language arts exercise, providing students with an electronic diary that highlights, for example, meaningful vacation experiences and semester and/or grade-level accomplishments.
  • Storytelling is a wonderful intergenerational bonding experience, building empathy, compassion and understanding.
  • Our inclusive social studies resources help students participate successfully in our nation’s democracy, economy and workforce. These proven instructional materials, initially distributed by the Houghton Mifflin Company, are being used in more than 2,000 schools and libraries.
  • By helping others less skilled in the art of writing and the use of technology to incorporate images and recordings into their legacy stories, a student can earn service-learning credits.
  • Helping others create and enhance a story also demonstrates to prospective employers and postsecondary institutions a student’s character and appreciation for how volunteerism benefits a community.

Benefits of Storytelling and Americans All to Schools

Schools participate in Americans All for free because they reinforce our goals of creating and sharing legacy stories and supporting excellence in social studies instruction. In addition, they can:

  • Easily provide opportunities—in many subject areas—for students to create legacy stories, without changing established classroom lesson plans or instructional practices.
  • Receive a free story on their school that is published on our Heritage Honor Roll.
  • Host, on their free Americans All  Legacy Partner home page(s), stories from our Heritage Honor Roll about their students and staff as well as stories created by their students doing volunteer work.
  • Allow students to receive credit for volunteer activities that have an academic component. [Students do not have to join Americans All to earn service-learning credits.]
  • Make students and their families aware of the academic and personal benefits of participating in our program.

Professional Benefits for Teachers

Teachers can be more effective when they have easily accessible instructional resources that align with their school's education philosophies and help their students pass state tests. They also need access to free professional development opportunities.

  • A social studies education develops critical-thinking skills and teaches students how to evaluate different perspectives, assess the validity of evidence, work in groups and apply facts in decision-making.
  • Our inclusive supplemental resources focus on factors that help unite—rather than divide—the American people and can support interdisciplinary instruction.
  • Our program will use Web-based technology to enhance teachers’ capacity to use our resources and other social studies information most effectively.

Any questions? Please contact Americans All.

Click here to join Americans All. Your "Welcome Back" page contains links on how to create a legacy story, how to access our education resources and gain other benefits.

 

 

Create a Legacy Story, Support Schools and Businesses