Cultural Heritage Assignment

Talk to your parents, grandparents, and/or other older relatives or family friends to find out what they can tell you about your family’s heritage or genealogy (a history of the ancestry or descent of a person or family).

Using whatever resources you can find, tell your family’s cultural history in a PowerPoint presentation consisting of 7-10 slides. Feel free to include pictures to illustrate your story, though take into consideration file size when you add pictures. The format and content for your presentation are outlined below:

Introduction (1 slide)Give your presentation a title and include your name. This is a good opportunity to include a family photo or other picture that demonstrates your cultural heritage.

Family Structure (1 slide)Describe your family make-up: the number of people/ages, family heredity, relatives in other countries, etc.

Ethnicity (2-3 slides)Discuss your family’s ethnic background. Some questions to consider: What are the different ethnicities in your family that you and your family members know of? How important are the issues of ethnicity and ethnic heritage in your family? Do you observe particular customs because of your ethnic heritage? Are there family stories involving immigration to the U.S. or movement from one part of the U.S. to another? Did your family and/or ethnic group encounter prejudice or discrimination? If so, describe those encounters. If not, why not?

Gender Issues (1 slide)Discuss how gender roles have been distributed in your family. Has this changed over time or through generations? Is there an ethnic component to the way gender roles have been defined in your family?

Economic and Social Class (1-3 slides)Describe what social class you consider your family to belong to and why. Has your family been upwardly or downwardly mobile during your lifetime or across generations? What kinds of occupations have your family members held? Address the way class status has affected your family and whether this status is also affected by ethnicity. You can also explore how your family’s educational achievements have changed over time.

Conclusion (1 slide) Discuss what you have learned from researching your family’s heritage. In what way are the different elements you’ve explored (social class, gender, and ethnicity) connected?