KCAC invites educators from all subject areas, grade levels, and school environments to study and to shape American communities.

This website introduces educators and community members to a model for interdisciplinary learning developed in a multi-year project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Over several years, teachers affiliated with the National Writing Project created this curricular program for teaching collaboratively about American communities.

The program promotes student research and writing to explore community life. Through community projects and collaborative research, KCAC supports students' and teachers' interactions with community members. These collaborations expand the study of local cultures to reflect the increasing diversity evident in American life.

The five images on our KCAC logo embody the humanities-oriented focus of our project’s content. We organized our work around five thematic strands to study American communities in specific historical moments. Our website supports other teachers’ applications of our classroom resources and thematic content in their own local communities.

Contact us at kmwp@kennesaw.edu if you have additional questions or would like to arrange for KCAC workshops at your school or district.

Specific Goals of this web site:

• Invite teachers and students to create a classroom community through research and writing.
• Share lesson plans created and used by KCAC educators and their students.
• Share KCAC research gathered by educators and students.
• Encourage educators to include community-based inquiry and authentic research with primary sources in their curriculum.
• Investigate how the recovery, critique, and creation of community texts can reflect the dynamic values of local and larger communities.
• Model research methodology for other regions using our national themes.

How to use this web site:

Go to . . . .	If you want to. . . .
Curricular Program	Find out about the main goals of the KCAC program Learn about our project design, program components and chronology See the benefits teachers can gain from KCAC participation
Thematic Content	Learn about topics studied by KCAC participants Get ideas for teaching about community life in different times and places Find and read models for doing community-based research
Classroom Resources	Find lesson plans for your classroom, for different subjects and grade levels Get ideas for extended projects or units using KCAC principles See examples of whole courses organized around KCAC themes and principles
Community Projects	See an example of a community-wide student writing contest See a model of high school and elementary school collaboration
Who We Are	Meet individual teachers who have participated in the KCAC program Find out about the leadership roles teachers have held in the KCAC project Learn about the variety of schools involved in the program

Home | Curricular Program | Thematic Content
Classroom Resources | Community Projects | Who We Are

 

© 2000-2001KCAC
No materials on this website should be copied or distributed
(except for classroom use) without written permissions from KCAC.
Questions? Comments? Contact KSU webmaster Jim Cope.

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