Welcome to TechKNOW Associates' This is MY America page. This project was developed by TechKNOW Associates for Lintor Publishing. To download a copy of the project, you will need a userid and password. Please go to the Terms of Use page for more information.

TechKNOW Associates Corporation can provide expert, onsite staff development to insure that teachers and children fully implement this and other projects at a reasonable cost. We will train teachers in the classroom with their students, model lessons, and help them integrate technology into their curriculum through a project-based approach.

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This is MY America

For Grades K - 8

Culture is defined as the identity of a group of people who maintain shared beliefs and practices. America is a country of many cultures and many people from all over the world. Some families have lived here for generations, while others are newly arrived.

“I am an American;” but what does that mean?

Who am I? What are my beliefs, values, and traditions? How does learning the past help me understand myself and my community?* These are some of the questions that students will explore in This Is My America.

This Is My America is an interdisciplinary project that offers students the opportunity to develop language and literacy skills as they examine culture and history from a personal perspective. Students explore how identity is shaped by one’s culture, community, and personal experiences. Current research and educational trend guide this project.

As a result of their participation in this project-based learning experience, students will invest time, thought, and effort to produce meaningful products that exhibit creativity, comprehension, and higher order thinking.

This Is My America strives to motivate students by appealing to their natural creativity and curiosity about themselves and their community. The project provides students with a strong foundation of nonfiction reading and writing skills, as well as an authentic, meaningful opportunity to publish their own writing.

Publishing students’ work as a real, hard-covered book provides intrinsic motivation; it empowers students and helps them take ownership of their own learning. The project is structured around three, distinct learning strands that can be approached independently or sequentially. Each strand culminates with students publishing one or more nonfiction books in a variety of genres:

• Customs– Students learn about the writing process through personal exploration. They discover their own personal and family histories as they develop, write, and publish a collection of family stories and traditions.

• Culture– Students investigate culture and diversity in their community and world. They develop note taking and research skills as they engage in nonfiction writing in several genres.

• Change– Students expand their understanding of the past and historical concepts and reflect how their past, present, and future are interrelated. They write and publish stories expressing multiple perspectives.

This Is My America is designed for elementary and middle school students and is driven by the national standards of several disciplines, including English language arts, social studies, geography, mathematics, technology, and fine arts. The project can be undertaken by a single class, multiple classes or grades, or it can be part of a whole-school initiative.

To download a copy of this project, you will need a userid and password. Please go to the Terms of Use page for more information. If you have a userid and password, click here.