Heritage Through Media

Choose ONE of the three options below. Each one uses a different type of media — film, books, or music — as a lens for understanding American heritage. Pick the one that fits your interests.

Option A: Historical Films

Movies bring history to life in vivid ways — but they also take creative liberties. Your job is to watch with a critical eye and separate the facts from the fiction.

Choosing Your Films

Get your counselor’s and parent’s or guardian’s approval before watching. Good historical films are set in a specific period of American history and portray real events or realistic situations from that time.

Consider films set during:

• The American Revolution or founding era
• The Civil War or Reconstruction
• Westward expansion
• World War I or World War II
• The Civil Rights Movement
• The space race
• Other significant periods

Evaluating Accuracy

For each film, consider:

Historical events:

• Did the major events in the film actually happen?
• Are the dates, locations, and outcomes accurate?
• Did the filmmakers compress time or combine events for dramatic effect?
• What important events were left out?

Character portrayal:

• Are the characters based on real people? If so, are they portrayed accurately?
• Do the characters behave in ways that are realistic for their time period?
• Are certain groups of people stereotyped or left out entirely?
• Does the film show multiple perspectives, or only one side?

Option B: A Biography

A biography takes you deep into one person’s life — their struggles, decisions, and impact. This is your chance to understand a historical figure as a real human being, not just a name in a textbook.

Choosing Your Biography

Get your counselor’s approval on your choice. Look for biographies of people who made a significant contribution — positive or negative — to America’s heritage. This could be a president, an activist, a scientist, an artist, a military leader, or any person whose life intersected with American history in a meaningful way.

Thinking Critically

The requirement specifically asks you to identify things you admire and things you do not admire. This is important — no historical figure is entirely good or entirely bad. Great leaders made mistakes. Flawed people sometimes did extraordinary things.

Questions to guide your reading:

• What challenges did this person face?
• What decisions did they make that you respect? What decisions do you question?
• How did this person’s actions affect other people — both positively and negatively?
• On balance, do you think this person made America better or worse? Why?

Option C: Songs from American History

Music captures the mood of a moment in a way that speeches and documents cannot. Songs from different periods of American history tell you how people felt — their hopes, fears, anger, and joy.

Finding Historical Songs

Look for songs from at least three different periods. Here are some eras to explore:

Analyzing the Songs

For each of your five songs, be ready to tell your counselor:

• What period of American history is it from?
• What is the song about? Summarize the lyrics.
• How does it reflect the mood of its era? What were people feeling — and how does the music and lyrics capture that?
• Why did you choose this song? What makes it a good window into that time?

You have explored American heritage through media. One more requirement to go — your future in heritage.