What is your American History?

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Kathryn Shaughnessy

NHPRC QIH Assignment Title:

What is your American History?

 NOTE: This assignment was created by the participant educator named above as part of the Queens Immigration History curriculum development project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission division of the National Archives (grant #DH-50022-16).  For more information on this grant project, please visit the Queens Immigration History website  at https://queensimmigrationhistory.wordpress.com     

NHPRC QIH Assignment Creator

Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator Deirdre H. Tuite (C1, July 2017 – June 2018). Ms Tuite is a History teacher in the Department of Education. She has been teaching for over 15 years at Academy of American Studies, Gilder Lehrman’s Flagship school. Over her teaching career, she has taught Senior Thesis, Sophomore Global History, Freshman American History, Junior American History, Advanced Placement U.S. History and Advanced Placement European History. She received her M.A. in history from Queens College, where she wrote her thesis on America’s Denazification Plan in post-WWII Germany.

 

Summary/ Description Overview:

Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator Deirdre H. Tuite for US History; Adaptable to other grades. Throughout this year we have been studying how the United States came to fruition. We have evaluated the reasons behind the establishment of the United States and the key figures in our history. However, it is important to remember that you too are part of America’s history. Your history is our nation’s history. As we progress through the year, you will be documenting your history, through various projects: an interview, a community snapshot, and family artifact, ending with a personal essay. 

Purpose/Learning Goal

  • To apply historical thinking (complexity, causality, change over time, contingency, context). 

  • To create a project that connects American history to personal history.

 

Task/Assignment/Activity

Your history is our nation’s history. As we progress through the year, you will be documenting your history, through various projects: an interview, a community snapshot, and family artifact and a personal essay. 

A: History Interviews:

You will be conducting two interviews in which you will be able to capture your family history or your neighborhood’s history. You do not have to interview family members- you can also choose to interview neighbors or family friends. After all, we are all shaped by our surroundings, as well. 

The interviews need to be recorded (audio and/or video). If the interviews are not in English, you will need to provide a transcript that has been translated into English or the interview should have an English voice-over. 

B: Community Snapshot

In this assignment you will capture a “snapshot” of your community. You want to make sure that you capture what from your neighborhood is most important to who you are as an individual. It can be one place or multiple places. It can be a store or a basketball court….there are many options. Do not choose your own house/ apartment.  You will express the community snapshot through: 

  • Visual presentation:  You can either photograph your neighborhood, sketch it, paint it, sculpt it or use any other kind of a visual.

  • Written explanation of artwork:  You must include a written paragraph behind your artwork in which you explain what your image is and why you chose that subject. 

C: Family Artifact

Choose a family artifact or any item that is special to you- to tell the story of. This should be at least 2 pages, typed. It can be either written through your perspective of through the perspective of the artifact. Being creative is key! 

D: Personal essay

In the essay you explain what your American history is. What has your journey been? You should pull the artifact that you chose and the snapshot of your community together into the essay.  The essay must be typed, double spaced, 12 Font, Times New Roman. It must have an introduction, at least two body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

 

Some Resources from the NHPRCQIH LibGuide:

·         Oral History Tab –  links to local NYC Oral History Projects for contributing.

·         NYC Resources Tab – for demographic data, neighborhood information, NYC historical newspapers 

·         Queens Memory Project Tab – assistance with conducting open ended Interviews, and local NYC interviews

 

Assessment

I) Artwork (50%)

  •  Presentation (15%)    --  Neatness of the piece of artwork
  •  Creativity (25%) --   Use of artistic medium
  •  Subject (10%)  --  You must include a paragraph behind the artwork in which you describe what your artwork is capturing and why you chose this subject    

II) Personal Essay (50%)

  • Format (10%)   --   Typed, double spaced, 12 font, Times New Roman, with an  introduction, at least two body paragraphs and a conclusion
  • Explanation of what your history is and what your journey has been or hope that it will be.  (30%)
  • Grammar/ Sentence Structure/ Spelling (10%)  --  your essay should be proofread and grammatically correct.

 

Attribution:

 This NHPRC Teacher Participant assignment was created by Deirdre Tuite 

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States

 


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