Researching America
Imagine that you had to explain our nation’s values to someone from a foreign country, and you only had three
minutes and could only use three examples to do it. This challenge is the heart of our assignment, as we ask you to
consider: What is the American Identity? What do Americans value?
The Learning Targets
I can select credible and appropriate sources.
I can create properly formatted Works Cited entries.
o Purdue OWL can help you with MLA citations. For those of you working with YouTube, your
citation would adhere to the following format:
Editor, author, or compiler. “Posting title.” YouTube. Date of resource creation. Web. 22 Aug.
2014. <web address>
I can use evidence to analyze the message a text conveys explicitly.
I can use evidence to analyze the implicit message of a text and/or where there is room for interpretation.
I can integrate multiple sources to support my opinion of American values.
The Work
Find three cultural artifacts that represent three different stereotypical American values. You can
showcase these values through the following options, making sure that your selections are ALWAYS school
appropriate: music videos, commercials, movie clips, television show clips, websites, pictures of magazine
ads, political campaign ads, artwork, and more. YouTube is a great source for most of these artifacts.
Each cultural artifact should be roughly 30 seconds long or less (you might just have a picture from an
advertisement or website).
Read the cultural artifact as a text. Many artifacts merely imply what they value, so your job is to clearly
articulate the cultural value that the artifact conveys. Consider looking for artifacts that represent
contradictory or competing values since our nation’s values are complicated.
o Note: Your selected artifacts should do more than merely entertain (i.e. Old Spice commercials).
They should represent a deeper value of our country, such as individualism, the underdog
overcoming the system, money, dynamism (the ability to constantly improve), love of the
environment, etc.
The Examples:
Cadillac ELR Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGJSI48gkFc
Ram Trucks Super bowl Commercial “God Made a Farmer”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sillEgUHGC4
Drew Barrymore Cover Girl 2010 Commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w83e5s2Cn4&feature=em-share_video_user
The Timeline
Friday, August 22: Time in the Computer Lab to select your three artifacts; Start the Researching America
Analysis Sheet
Monday, August 25: Researching America Analysis Sheet due at the BEGINNING of class. Artifact
presentations in class today.
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