Everybody has a story to tell and storytelling brings families together.
Storytelling inspires people to preserve their legacy by sharing their achievements, experiences and lessons learned with current and future generations. It also imparts important information about family heritage and values. Together these stories contribute to the telling of our nation’s history and are a key element in a comprehensive social studies education. Students need inclusive social studies resources to help prepare them to participate in our nation’s democracy, economy and workforce.
Our 33-year-old nonprofit foundation supports both legacy preservation and social studies education. For a one-time, tax-deductible fee of only $49 (24.50 using a 50 percent Legacy Partner discount Promo Code), people can join Americans All to create a legacy story and access our social studies materials. Schools, students and students’ families and friends participate in Americans All at no cost and receive a free, 3-month trial to our Social Legacy Network. We invest more than half of our membership fees to support excellence in social studies instruction.
Benefits for Classroom Instruction:
Teachers can be more effective when they have instructional resources at their fingertips—information that meets their school's educational philosophy and helps their students pass state tests.
- We focus on social studies because it develops critical-thinking skills, and it teaches students how to evaluate different perspectives, assess the validity of evidence, work in groups and apply facts in decision-making. Our Americans All resources focus on factors that help unite—rather than divide—the American people.
- Our materials were developed to facilitate interdisciplinary instruction, which is why besides the 11 texts and 5 teacher's guides, we include more than 300 period-specific photographs and 5 posters. In addition, we provide 22 original recordings of historic songs representing diverse ethnic and cultural groups who came to—and moved through—our nation. Click here to see examples of our music resources.
- We support Intellectually rigorous, sustained professional development opportunities to make teaching more effective and to achieve learning goals. We will provide professional development opportunities to enhance teachers' capacity to infuse Americans All program resources and other approved state- and grade-level-specific resource databases into their social studies instruction.
- By helping others use technology to incorporate images and recordings into their legacy stories, a student can earn community service learning credits. As he or she masters working with templates and improving their communication skills, the student can also contribute writing and translating assistance.
- Americans All has received preapproval by the Montgomery County Public Schools’ Student Service Learning Office, making it easier for students to receive community service credits for their volunteer work.
- Students can help others less tech-savvy create their story, thus demonstrating the value of community service.
Benefits of Membership in Americans All
- Can contain up to 2,000 words, of which 1,000 can be password protected.
- Can be published in multiple languages and be updated at no cost.
- Can be enhanced with photographs, home movies and audio recordings.
- Can include links to other Heritage Honor Roll legacy stories, social media sites and other Web pages.
- Can be shortened to print on an 8½” x 11” template to share with family and friends.
- Can take advantage of our secure event, anniversary and memorial information e-mail tool.
Teachers and their families can also access our existing K–12 social studies information—a $500+ value.
Benefits of Membership in our Social Legacy Network
The free, 3-month Social Legacy Network trial subscription gives members and their families access to:
- Our new resource databases, texts, photos, songs and teaching tools.
- Discounts on goods and services from our partners and e-newsletters with money-saving tips.
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. One of the main benefits is receiving discounts on goods and services from our Business Legacy Partners.
Click here for tips on “How to create a legacy story.”
Click here for tips on “Storytelling for younger children.”
Click here to view our program videos.
Click here to view our program overview.
Click here to register for Americans All so you can create and share a legacy story and receive program benefits.
Click here to see stories in multiple languages and formats on our Heritage Honor Roll.
Click here to see stories on teachers on our Heritage Honor Roll.
Click here to learn how your family can become a Legacy Partner.
Any questions? Please contact Americans All.