About Young American Heroes

Young American Heroes tells real stories about young people from the past. We do so by using primary documents and diaries to show ordinary kids doing extraordinary things during seminal moments in American history. This peer approach to historical narrative brings the past to life in a way that is both captivating and informing for our target audience: young people ages 11-14 in grades 6-9.

To help us make these stories work for teachers and students, we invite you to give us your thoughts, comments, opinions on all aspects of the Young American Heroes project, as it develops.

Dare we say it without sounding pretentious? It's a new paradigm! Rather than just handing out materials developed by "experts," we are asking teachers—the real experts— what would work best in classrooms! Makes sense, right?

The first installment in our series is about Frederick Douglass. The story of how he made his escape from slavery to freedom is the premiere in the multiplatform Young American Heroes TV, Web and graphic novel project.

To create this series, we have partnered with Connecticut-based Docere Palace Studios, Connecticut Public Television, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Fairfield University Graduate School of Education, the Education Development Center, Inc., eduweb, and Palace Production Center/Palace Digital Studios.

We invited middle school teachers and students to participate in the design of the Frederick Douglass materials from the very beginning, first through focus groups. This interactive website is another step in getting your ongoing involvement in the creative process. Click on Get Involved to see how. This interactive website is another step in getting your ongoing involvement in the creation. For each hero, we will create a YAH Curriculum, a 30-minute TV show and classroom DVD, a graphic novel, and a variety of Online Activities, tied to the curriculum, which students can use in school or at home. And we invite teachers to submit their own adaptations of the Young American Heroes curricula and their students’ best online projects to a social studies Wiki that will continue to grow.

Through Young American Heroes, the true-life stories of young American heroes and heroines from colonial America to the Civil War will do for today's middle school students what Star Wars did for science fiction and Harry Potter did for fantasy. That's because Young American Heroes shares in common with all successful films the same dramatic elements of good and evil, right and wrong, life and death and young people taking on and triumphing over adversity. These are compelling tales well told in each of the mediums we use. Click on The Heroes for a list of upcoming projects.

We also use an innovative approach to developing our materials. Instead of the typical method of producing a television series and then retrofitting it to make other tools for use in the classroom, we create the content all at once for television show, classroom DVD and lesson plans, retail DVD, website, and graphic novel.

Young American Heroes has been partially funded by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. More than 80 proposals were submitted to CPB's American History and Civics Initiative from organizations around the country; Young American Heroes is one of only a handful that was been given the green light—and the funding—to move forward to create a pilot program. (CPB press release)

Young American Heroes has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Because democracy demands wisdom.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Web site do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Note For Teachers (and Parents)

Our mission is to give "Our nation's future leaders a clear idea of who we are, what we stand for, and where we are heading." Young American Heroes is designed to do this by providing tweens with positive, peer role models who not only made the right decisions, but in so doing, changed the history of America in their own small but powerful ways. This series will provide students with a strong ethical compass as they watch peers making good and moral decisions—and the teacher tools will help encourage discussion and writing about how the actions of any one individual can affect the course of history.

That’s a lofty goal. But what if no one uses our stuff? In developing this concept, we realized that if students (and teachers) did not watch the television series or use it in the classroom or go to the website because they found it boring or history for history's sake, then we would have a noble failure on our hands.

How to make it “must use” material? One way, we decided, is to get teachers involved in the creative process. Too often, we were told, the voices of teachers on the front line are the last to be heard! We listened… in focus groups and to feedback on this website! And we are listening now!

All middle school social studies teachers in Connecticut have received an email containing the password and login to access the Young American Heroes Online Activities. Once on the page, just click the Sign Up button at the top and follow the directions to create a password-protected workspace for your students. In this workspace you can have your classes create and edit their own digital stories, graphic novels, or videos. You’ll find instructions on how to post their finished projects to the Gallery where their peers in class—and other visitors to the site—can comment on their work.

Once you tell your students what your password is--and be sure that they spell the name of your school correctly--they will be able to get onto the site to work on their projects, whether in class or at home.

To create your own password-protected classroom workspace and Gallery, click here.

Let us know what you think about these tools, how you use them and what recommendations you have for improvements! Send your comments to deb@palacedigital.com

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