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Americans All®,
an education program operated by The Peopling of America,
is designed for use in grades K–12, is easily integrated into daily classroom
activities, and offers inclusive, objective and historically accurate curriculum resources
in print and electronic formats. These attributes set the program apart from other
programs offering history and civics instructional materials. Moreover, its delivery of
curriculum resources in multiple mediums and its tying of those resources to the scope
and sequence of each state’s history and civics instruction make the Americans
All® teaching materials more effective than those designed by traditional textbook
publishers or other Internet providers of curriculum resources.
See The ABC’s of Americans All®, About Americans All®: Business and Implementation Plan and Americans All®: Why It Matters and How It Works.
To become responsible citizens, productive employees and educated consumers,
students must stay in school until graduation and increase their understanding of the
diverse world around them. Yet demographic changes are exerting considerable pressure
on teachers to prepare youth with increasingly different backgrounds and learning
styles. Americans All® seeks to impart appreciation for the value of diversity and
recognition of the social, political and economic contributions of the various groups
peopling the United States.
Americans All® can help educators increase students’ interest, elevate
minority achievement, bridge the teacher-student disconnect, combat racial stereotypes,
improve students’ self-esteem and develop students’ citizenship skills and
employability. The program will deliver needed resources—instructional materials
and training and support—to enhance student performance and strengthen schools
and communities. It is possible to teach U.S. history as a history that recognizes
the contributions of all people.
The Americans All® teacher site will be developed with input from teachers across the
nation. It will help teachers in participating schools develop effective thematic lesson
units to meet state standards, give them access to lesson plans for major history and
civics topics, and serve as a forum to share problems and find solutions. This site will
augment existing communication networks in the field. It will also help teachers adapt
to changing student demographics and provide information on learning style differences
and on strategies for how to adapt curricula to those differences. Teachers will be
encouraged to take advantage of professional development opportunities and national
meetings sponsored by The Peopling of America. In addition, teachers will be able
to gain national recognition for posting effective, school-developed lesson plans,
teaching methodologies and exam questions on the Americans All® Web site.
Instructional Materials
Schools participating in Americans All® will receive the existing program resources (see
Americans All® Classroom Materials and Teacher Resources).
They will also receive materials developed for and by the state; the content of the state
resources will fully support each state’s standards and curriculum frameworks.
Each participating school is guaranteed the following printed resources.
- One Teacher Resource Package. This package contains one complete set of
the existing Americans All® resources with a grade-specific teacher’s guide,
a music CD, the poster collection and the photograph collection.
- Two Teacher Overview Packages. Each package contains one copy of
The Peopling of America: A Timeline of Events That Helped Shape Our Nation,
The Peopling of America: A Synoptic History and a grade-level-specific teacher’s guide.
- Copies of the newly developed state timeline publication, the state
poster and the state photograph collection with accompanying teacher’s guide,
will also be provided.
In addition, teachers can access Americans All® generic and state-specific
electronic resources to update,
supplement or, in some cases, replace textbooks no longer meeting their needs.
Training and Support
The Peopling of America recognizes that today’s educators face an enormous
challenge in trying to stay current in their field. They need opportunities that can help
them relate to both the academic and personal development of their students. Moreover,
ever-changing information and new technology make it imperative that they update their
areas of expertise.
The terms “inservice education,” “teacher training,” “staff
development,” “professional development” and “human resource
development” are often used interchangeably. Research on effective professional
development suggests it should aim to increase teachers’ content knowledge and
instructional skills and, ultimately, improve student learning. Professional development
must align closely with school improvement plans and be guided by these questions:
What are our goals for our students? What must we (the adults) learn in order to help
our students learn?
Intellectually rigorous, sustained professional development is needed to make
teachers more effective and achieve student learning goals. Nothing less will get the
job done. For this reason, the national organization will support state-directed efforts
intended to improve teachers’ ability to infuse Americans All® resources
into their own history and civics instruction and increase their understanding of the
interdisciplinary value of these resources.
For five years, The Peopling of America will fund professional development programming
delivered via Internet-based technologies. The process is likely to include sharing
lesson plans, exam questions, methods to meet the needs and interests of all students,
and ways to incorporate technology into the classroom and curricula. It is also likely
to include discussing ways to apply the teacher activities described in the existing
teacher’s guides to state-specific learning scenarios.
Supplementing this peer training will be a biweekly electronic newspaper with tools and techniques
to use Americans All® program resources and other useful information for educators.
The newspaper will also link individual schools to a broad network that will share ideas,
best teaching practices, community outreach strategies and ways to create and reward
parental involvement. In addition, the national organization plans to use workshops
and exhibits at educator conferences to gather feedback on program implementation in
the classroom. The feedback will guide future professional development opportunities.
The importance of professional development to the successful implementation of
Americans All® cannot be overlooked. Resources will be focused on the knowledge,
skills, and attitudes required of teachers, so all students can learn and perform at
high levels.
School Registration
To find out how your school can register to participate in Americans All®,
click here.
Elementary School
Middle School
High School/Adult
Ethnic and/or Cultural Groups
State
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