What Does the American Flag Mean to You? A Community Interview Activity

K–12 Resource: Researching

Interview people in your life to explore how meaning is personal, cultural, and shaped by lived experience

About

Learning Objectives

In this activity, you will:

  • think about your own view of the American flag
  • conduct short interviews using prepared questions
  • identify patterns and differences across multiple perspectives on the American flag
  • reflect on how symbols carry layered, sometimes conflicting, meanings

Time

  • Multipart Activity

Materials Needed

  • Audio recorder (optional)

Assignment

Watch The Power of Symbols Video

Afterwards, write or discuss your responses to the following questions.

  • How do different people’s backgrounds and experiences in the video shape their ideas about the American flag?
  • Is it possible for a symbol to be a source of pride and pain at the same time? Explain.

Reflect on Your Own View of the Flag

Before interviewing anyone, take a moment to reflect on your own ideas about the American flag.

  • What does the flag mean to you, if anything? If it doesn’t mean anything to you, why do you think that is?
  • Where do your feelings about the flag come from? What experiences have shaped your perspective?
  • What does the Pledge of Allegiance mean to you, and why?

Conduct Interviews on People’s Views About the Flag

Use the directions below to interview a few people in your life, people whose backgrounds or experiences might differ from yours. Your goal is to find out what the flag means to them—not to prove that one meaning or another is right. By gathering different perspectives, you will understand how the symbol of the American flag works and is shaped by each person who looks at it.

You don’t need special equipment or formal interview training. Just a notebook, a few honest conversations, and some curiosity about how other people see the world.

Step 1: Prepare to interview

  • Choose three to five people to interview. Try to include people with different backgrounds, ages, or experiences. Some ideas: a family member, a neighbor or community elder, a classmate, a teacher, or another trusted adult.
  • Review the interview questions below. You may use them as written or put them in your own words.
  • Practice asking the questions with a partner before you start.

Interview Questions

  • What does the American flag mean to you (if anything)?
  • When you see the flag, what feelings or memories come up?
  • Has your relationship to the flag changed over your lifetime? If so, how?
  • Are there other national symbols (the Pledge of Allegiance, the national anthem, the Statue of Liberty) that feel more or less meaningful to you than the flag?

Step 2: Conduct your interviews!

Before starting each interview, write down:

  • their first name or initials (or “anonymous”)
  • a brief description of the interviewee (relationship to you, age range, any background information they shared about themselves)

Use the Interview Questions (or the version of them that you prepared) to guide the interview. You do not have to ask every question, but try to ask at least the first two.

As you talk with each person, take notes in the moment, capturing their words as closely as you can so you can quote or paraphrase them later. Think of this as notetaking to help your memory, not formal documentation. You don’t need to record audio or video, though you can if you would like to and your interviewee gives you their permission.

Step 3: Review your interview notes

After finishing your interviews, review your notes and optional recordings (if you made any).

Summarize and Reflect on Your Findings

Write or discuss your responses to the following questions:

  • What did multiple people seem to agree on (if anything)?
  • What kinds of disagreement or tension did you notice among the responses (if any)?
  • What do you think shapes how a person sees a national symbol like the flag? Consider things like: family history, race or ethnicity, immigration experience, military service, or personal loss.
  • How do your own feelings about the flag compare to what you heard from others?
  • What surprised you most about the responses you heard? Why?
  • Compare what you heard to your own answers to the following questions: “Where do your feelings about the flag come from? What experiences have shaped your perspective?” What does that comparison tell you about how views on national symbols are formed?

Present What You Learned

Choose one way to present what you discovered from the interviews:

  • write a short essay
  • design a poster
  • create a slideshow
  • draw a comic or visual narrative

Whatever format you choose, be sure your presentation includes the following elements:

  • at least two direct quotes or paraphrases from your interviews
  • a comparison of at least two different perspectives you heard
  • your own reflection on how your view compares to what you heard from others
  • an answer to the question: What does a national symbol really represent, and for whom?

Glossary

Black Lives Matter

A movement and organizing framework that emerged in 2013, founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. The movement calls attention to violence and systemic racism experienced by Black communities in the United States, particularly around policing, and has organized major protests following incidents such as the killings of Michael Brown (2014), Ezell Ford (2014), Breanna Taylor (2020), and George Floyd (2020). BLM is both a specific organization and a broader slogan/movement used by many different groups and individuals, whose views on tactics and goals vary.

Community

A network or group of people, sometimes living in a particular place, who share interests, values, characteristics, responsibilities, or physical spaces.

Justice/Injustice

In different contexts, “justice” refers to both moral correctness and fairness, and also the rule of law. By contrast, “injustice” usually describes unfairness.

Perspective

A person’s point of view, shaped by their background, identity, and experiences.

Symbol

When one thing is used to represent something else.

Related Materials

  1. The Power of Symbols

    Watch a Video

    Follow Ollie, Sid, Ezra, and Alex as they examine two images of the American flag and the many meanings it holds

  2. Layering the Narrative: Headlines, Images, and the Power of Context

    Artmaking

    Street art style image of man wearing American flag bandana around nose and lower face, staring into the distance

    Analyze how a single image layers decades of protest, then create your own collage inspired by that technique

  3. Explore South Central Los Angeles, August 15, 2014

    Close Looking

    Photo of man wearing an American flag bandana around his nose and lower face, staring into the distance

    Learn about a powerful photograph that asks viewers to think about unresolved issues from the past

  4. Meet Ted Soqui

    Reading

    Photograph of man standing with a camera in his hand.

    Read about a photojournalist whose pictures amplified the voices of the unheard

  5. Explore American Rage

    Close Looking

    Street art style image of man wearing American flag bandana around nose and lower face, staring into the distance

    Learn about a poster that speaks out against police violence

  6. Meet Shepard Fairey

    Reading

    Photographic portrait of a standing against a wall.

    Read about an artist and activist whose prints transform photographs into powerful messages

Deeper Dive

Related Standards and Outcomes

Credits and Licensing

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