Running Head: CULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Cultural Autobiography
Nonnie Jones
Ivy Tech Community College

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Intasc Standards Page

Standard #2: Learning Differences
The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities
to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.
Name of Artifact: Cultural Autobiography
Date: October 4th, 2015
Course: EDUC 255
Brief Description:
This assignment is called a cultural autobiography. It basically includes information about
my familys cultural background. In this assignment I will included a little bit about where my
family is from. Also I include my mothers life as a teen and how we ended up living in the
community that we live now. I speak about two of my familys holiday traditions as well. In this
assignment I include a lot of information about my family
Rationale:
To document my understanding of Intasc Standard #2, Learning Differences, I have
included my Cultural Autobiography. This assignment demonstrates that I understand what I
need to bout individual differences and diverse cultures. I understand that another students
cultural background will be different than my own. This shows that I am able to enable each
learner to meet high standards. That is why I included this specific assignment.

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Introduction
I am a 21 year old African American. My cultural background is not extraordinary or anything.
My ancestors had a lot of Cherokee Indian in their blood. I do not know anything about my
fathers side of the family. I was raised by my mother so I do know my mother side of the family.
However, that side of the family is also divided by two families which is my mothers parents.
Those are two different families for me that are completely different than one another. My
grandmother side of the family is from either Wisconsin or Chicago. My grandfathers side of the
family is mostly from Michigan City and some are from Chicago as well. My familys cultural
background is pretty simple and predictable in my own opinion.
Major Traditions/History or Events #1
My mother grew up in the hard streets of Chicago. She was raised in a small house with her two
brothers, mother, and step farther. My mother did not have an easy life coming up because of
financial issues, family disputes, then having two children by the age of 17. She had to go visit
her father a few times a year and be around a step mother that disliked her. My mother moved
around constantly which caused her not to keep relationships. When she was able, she choose to
turn her life around in order to make sure we had a better life than she did. We ended up moving
to Indianapolis when I was three years old and we stayed in an apartment for 11 years. She
refused to move my brother and me around constantly because she wanted us to be able to stay
on track with school and keep friendships. We moved after those 11 years because those specific
apartments started to be a bad neighborhood. That is how I ended up living in the community
that I live now.

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Major Traditions/History or Events #2

We have a Christmas holiday tradition. This tradition has been going on since I was younger and
still occurs now. The tradition is very special to my family. Not everyone in my family does this
tradition, it is literally those who live in my household. Every Christmas Eve we are allowed to
pick one present to open at midnight. My brother and I use to look forward to this. We literally
would take a nice and long nap during the day in order to stay awake until midnight. We actually
got my aunt and my cousin to start this tradition in their own household. My cousin spent the
night one Christmas Eve and he got to open a gift from my mother. That is how it started in his
household. I wouldnt know what Christmas Eve was without our little family tradition.

Major Traditions/History or Events # 3

Another holiday that has a tradition in my family is Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving we typically
go to my grandfathers house in Michigan City. We all dress up and look nice for this holiday.
We spend this day to spend time with those that we are thankful for. Typically it is a full house
with the adults upstairs and the children downstairs. The tradition starts when the food is all
complete. We have one person pray over our Thanksgiving dinner and we sit at one big table to
eat our dinner. During dinner we go around the table and tell the family what we are thankful for
with the specific year. It is always great to hear what your family members are thankful for. Also
allowing your family member know what youre thankful for is also a great feeling. I enjoy that
specific family tradition!
Summary/Conclusion
In conclusion everyones family is different with different backgrounds, beliefs, history.
However, everyone has each one of those things and need to embrace them. My family is just an

Running Head: CULTURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

ordinary family that I love and wouldnt wish for a different family. We need to learn about our
familys history in order to understand somethings that is occurring now in our families. Not only
do we need to learn about our family history, background, etc. we need to teach the younger
generation as well.

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