The final formal writing assignment of the year will involve the theme "Our Journey to America." With the exception of Native Americans, all of us have come from elsewhere in the world and have arrived in the United States sometime during the last five hundred years. I would like you to reflect on your family's journey to America and what this journey meant and means for your and your family's identity. Some issues which you might want to consider in your reflections:

• Where did your ancestors come from? From a single country? From different countries?
• When did they come to the United States? What was their home country like then? What was the United States like then?
• What was the journey like for them? How did they experience their separation from their old life? How did they experience the new American setting?
• WHY did they come to the United States? What did America mean for them that motivated them to leave their traditional homes?
• What impact did your family's people have on shaping the American experience?
• How have the journeys and experiences of your family in the past shaped your present family? What did it mean for them to be Americans then? What does it mean for you and your family to be American now?

In reflecting on these questions you will have a number of resources to draw upon.

• Books on American history and the history of the country(ies) from which your family came.
• Books on the history(ies) of the places from where your family came. There are also numerous accounts of their journeys to America.
• Peter Balakian's The Black Dog of Fate: this book will give you the American journey of one Armenian American  who discovered his identity by a family journey to a tragic past.
• Our trip to Ellis Island on April 15.
• Your conversations and memories of the stories of your own family. I hope that you will have opportunities to discuss the questions above with members of your family.
• The movie and videos which we will be seeing in class and our class discussions of the American experience. Much of the "American Experience" section of our course will be shaped by this theme of the meaning of America for those who arrived here from various places or who were here from the beginning (Native Americans).
• Your own reflections on what it means to be an American in a diverse world of Americans from many lands and peoples.

The requirements and dates for the paper are as follows:

• The paper should be from five to seven pages in length.
• The first draft will be due on Thursday, April 13.
• Peer group discussions of the first draft will be held on Tuesday, April 18.
• The final draft will be due on Thursday, April 27.