Title: Immigrating to the U.S.
Type of Teaching Unit: lesson
Grade Levels: 3
Time Frame: 2-3 hours
Subject Matter: Historical Analysis and Interpretation
Literature
Teacher Information:
Natalie Fish
William Holliday Elementary
AAM affiliation: SIUE
Lesson Plan Description and Rationale:
This is the final lesson in a series of three. This lesson will also combine the use of primary sources and literary sources to illustrate the innate differences among various information sources and to provide students with concrete links to the concept of immigration. The focus of this lesson will be on research through primary and secondary sources and on the student as a historian. Students will create their own historical questions and use primary and secondary sources to seek out their answers. This process is intended to help students become better acquainted with the process of historical analysis as well as help them acquire more information about the immigration process and the immigration boom in the United States.
State Standards:
State Goal 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations.
Standard A: Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation.
Benchmark: b Ask historical questions and seek out answers from historical sources (e.g., myths, biographies, stories, old photographs, artwork, other visual or electronic sources).
Objectives:
1. Draw conclusions about immigration and reasons for immigration during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s from primary sources (oral histories.)
2. Write three questions about Ellis Island, Angel Island, or the immigration process through these ports of entry.
3. Search for information (ideally the answers to the three questions) and draw conclusions about immigration using primary sources (photographs, video clips, and oral histories) and The Ellis Island Experience by Southpeak Interactive as well as secondary sources (textbooks, encyclopedias, and websites)
4. Compile information into written reports and present them to classmates.
Resources:
Adabie, A. “ Emigrants [i.e. Immigrants] Landing at Ellis Island”. Early Motion Pictures, 1897-1920, Thomas A. Edison, Inc, New York
[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/papr:@field(NUMBER+@band(lcmp002+m2a10987))]
(May 2004)
Angel Island State Park
Carroll, T.D. “I Started Work Only Three Days After I Got to this Country.”. Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting
[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/afcwip:@field(DOCID+@lit(tca01201))]
(May 2004)
Carroll, T.D. “I Was Born in Puerto Rico.”. Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting
[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/afcwip:@field(DOCID+@lit(tca02301))]
(May 2004)
Carroll, T.D. “You’re Going to a Different Country, Different Style of Life… It’s a Challenge.”. Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting
[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/afcwip:@field(DOCID+@lit(tca01202))]
(May 2004)
“New York, N.Y., Immigrants Landing, Ellis Island”. Touring Turn-of-the-Century: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920, Detroit Publishing Co, Detroit
[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/detr:@field(NUMBER+@band(det+4a25608))]
(May 2004)
Say, Allen. Grandfather's Journey, Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books, 1993
“Scandinavians Leaving for Europe, Going Home to Norway”. Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933, Chicago Daily News, Inc. Chicago
[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n008850))]
(May 2004)
Statue of Liberty Service 2 Description
http://www.nps.gov/stli/serv02.htm
Welcome to Immigration
http://www.teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/index.htm
Methods:
Students will read and discuss the story, Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say, as a large group. The teacher will guide classroom discussion to include the following questions:
1. How did Grandfather feel about moving from Japan to the United States?
2. Why do people make the choice to immigrate to the United States?
3. What was life like for people who immigrated to the United States during the time that Grandfather did?
Students will then listen to a three clips from the American Memory Collection Working in Paterson: Occupation Heritage in an Urban Setting and discuss their observations from the clips in a whole group setting.
Students will then work with a partner to write three questions about immigration or the immigration process (i.e. How old were most immigrants? Which countries did the most immigrants come from?) and research the answers using a teacher made website and The Ellis Island Experience multimedia software by Southpeak Interactive.
Evaluation:
Students will work with their partners to create a brief report with the information they find and present it to the class. The report and presentation will be scored with a teacher made rubric.
Keywords:
Angel Island
Ellis Island
immigration
interview