Contact: Shelly Siders
(202) 626-8904
ssiders@c-span.org

C-SPAN'S AMERICAN WRITERS II: THE 2OTH CENTURY SERIES BRINGS THE WORDS THAT SHAPED OUR NATION TO CLASSROOMS
15-Weeks of Writers Who Influenced the Course of America

WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY, 2002—Classrooms across the country will meet the writers who shaped American history in C-SPAN's television series, American Writers II: The 20th Century. From New York's Harlem Renaissance to the war in Vietnam, the 15-week series explores the lives and works of selected American writers who have chronicled, reflected upon or influenced the course of our nation's history.

From March through July 2002, C-SPAN takes students and teachers on a journey through history, chronicling the works of 18 American writers during four periods in American history. American Writers II: The 20th Century features the novels, diaries, essays and life stories of writers like Langston Hughes, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, James Baldwin, David Halberstam and others.

Beginning March 31, American Writers II: The 20th Century airs live every Sunday from 3 - 5pm ET. Programs will re-air each Friday evening at 8 pm ET on C-SPAN. (All C-SPAN produced programming is copyright free for educators.)

The original series debuted on March 19, 2001, and ran through September 10th. During that time, American Writers focused on the early days of the country, beginning with the Mayflower Compact through the end of the 19th century and the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt—producing more than 140 hours of original programming covering 27 writers. The series went on hiatus after the events of September 11th.

C-SPAN in the Classroom is working with educators across the country to create a wide variety of educational materials and activities to complement the series. American Writers lesson plans will be available throughout the series. Guides for each featured writer include a biography on the writer, excerpts from the featured writer's work and video clips from American Writers programs.

All American Writers education materials are located on the American Writers web site, www.americanwriters.org/classroom. In addition to schedule and program information for the series, the web site features a variety of American Writers resources and activities for students and teachers. The American Writers classroom website earned the endorsement of the National Council for the Social Studies and is a finalist for a Beacon Award, the cable industry's award for excellence in public affairs.

Americanwriters.org/classroom also features:

• TEACHER RESOURCES—Suggested teaching topics in Social Studies and Language Arts, facts about each writer, an Internet scavenger hunt, links to historical timelines, video lessons and more.
  
• STUDY THE SOURCE—Special text based classroom activities encompassing 10-12 writers featured in the series including William Bradford, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Booker T. Washington.
  
• COMMUNITY SHOWCASE—Photos of the sites, communities and people C-SPAN encounters during its American Writers tour.
  
• VIDEO LESSON PLANS—After each LIVE program airs on Sunday, a Video Lesson Plan is posted, based on clips from the program and discussion questions of varying levels. A detailed program clip list allows teachers and students to easily identify their own segments from the two and a half hour program for classroom study.
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