The American Hero Project

By: David Lund P'03, '05, Grade 5 Teacher

When the Declaration of Independence was signed 249 years ago, did all people have the right to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”? What does it mean to live in the “land of the free and the home of the brave”? These are two of the Essential Questions that guide fifth graders during their American Hero Project. March is Women’s History Month, and every March Grade 5 students pause their chronological study of United States history to tell the stories of trailblazing women who worked to ensure that the basic tenets of American democracy applied to all people. 

For this project, each fifth grader selects someone from a list of women who might be unsung or underrepresented in traditional history books. An example is Grace Hopper, a pioneer in coding who invented the COBOL programming language and also served as a Rear Admiral in the US Navy. Another is Temple Grandin, a woman on the autism spectrum who became an inventor and author. The fifth grader who studied her this year reflected, “No matter who you are, you can make a difference.”

After researching and taking notes, the students are put into groups of two or three to write a script. They devise a setting for their scripts, which usually adds some humor to the presentations. For example, one group this year had Clara Barton, Katherine Johnson, and Eleanor Roosevelt meeting at a charity fundraiser. Since our heroes often come from different eras, the audience must suspend its disbelief and enjoy the show.

The students compose their scripts in the first person, effectively becoming their hero, and they present their scripts without props or costumes. They focus on obstacles their women faced, how they overcame them, their accomplishments, and how they changed our society. As students refine the scripts, they balance entertaining their audience with being respectful and informative. The fifth graders are self-motivated to edit, revise, and rehearse, because there is nothing like having a live audience to energize them and create a sense of urgency.

Before the students present their scripts to families in their respective classrooms, everybody gathers in the theater for our American Hero social media campaign. This is a “quick hitter” in which each student reads a biographical post and some hashtags while an image of their hero is projected onto the screen. The emotional impact of this twelve-minute presentation is powerful. Audience members are often moved by the cumulative effect of seeing so many great accomplishments. These courageous women helped free those who were enslaved, campaigned for the right to vote, opened concert halls and stadiums so that all artists and athletes might perform on equal footing, broke glass ceilings and fought for equal pay, and moved science and technology forward.

Writing and public speaking are two hallmarks of a Shore education, and the fifth graders emerge from this project with new confidence and expertise, but they are also seemingly transformed into more mature and thoughtful young people. One student commented, “Women and girls like me can change the world by just being determined.” Not a bad lesson to learn from the women who helped shape America into the land of the free and the home of the brave.