When I teach Asian American Literature, I like to connect my students to current events to make the historical material or the stories we read in class more real to the students. In this way, students can experience for themselves the core concepts of the class. To make the core concepts more appealing to students and to allow students to better encode/synthesize the core concepts, I refer students to websites, have them do projects, group work, or write academic papers.
Recently, I found a fascinating website called American Portrait. On American Portrait, you can add your story of what it means to be American. You can participate as a student to tell the world what it feels like to be 'American' for you. Every American has a story to tell no matter who you are. Getting students involved in this manner makes the class even more real for them. Teachers could assign students to write essays on, 'What it means to be American' using the same writing prompts that American Portrait is using. If you are teaching college students, you can have your college students upload their American stories.
My American story started when....
My parents expected me to....
Here is how American Portrait describe their website:
"This is a collection of stories contributed by people all over
the country — a portrait of what it really means to be American today.
PASADENA,
CA; JANUARY 10, 2020 – PBS today announced the launch of a new
multiplatform experience that will allow people throughout the country
to participate in a national conversation about what it really means to
be an American today.
PBS AMERICAN PORTRAIT, a national storytelling project aligned with PBS’s 50th anniversary celebration, is the organization’s most ambitious multiplatform project in its history. A digital-first initiative produced by RadicalMedia, AMERICAN PORTRAIT begins as a platform for user-generated content participation, and is envisioned to encompass publishing, short form content, classroom engagement, a web miniseries, public art installations, live events and, in January 2021, a nationally televised documentary series on PBS stations.
Leveraging the local reach of PBS through its member stations, AMERICAN PORTRAIT presents a mosaic of our country’s diversity, allowing people from all regions to appreciate what we have in common as well as the many differences that make up the American experience. AMERICAN PORTRAIT has immersive interactivity built into its DNA, featuring user-generated content captured through video, photo and text submissions shared directly from everyday people across the United States.
Go to this link for more
Everyone has a story.
Tell yours.
Be heard. Get creative."Tell yours.
THE MULTIPLATFORM EXPERIENCE,
INCLUDING A MULTI-PART DOCUMENTARY SERIES, CREATED AND PRODUCED BY
RADICALMEDIA, WILL BE THE SIGNATURE PROGRAMMING INITIATIVE OF PBS’s 50TH ANNIVERSARY
PBS AMERICAN PORTRAIT, a national storytelling project aligned with PBS’s 50th anniversary celebration, is the organization’s most ambitious multiplatform project in its history. A digital-first initiative produced by RadicalMedia, AMERICAN PORTRAIT begins as a platform for user-generated content participation, and is envisioned to encompass publishing, short form content, classroom engagement, a web miniseries, public art installations, live events and, in January 2021, a nationally televised documentary series on PBS stations.
Leveraging the local reach of PBS through its member stations, AMERICAN PORTRAIT presents a mosaic of our country’s diversity, allowing people from all regions to appreciate what we have in common as well as the many differences that make up the American experience. AMERICAN PORTRAIT has immersive interactivity built into its DNA, featuring user-generated content captured through video, photo and text submissions shared directly from everyday people across the United States.
Go to this link for more
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