During the 2015-2016 school year, my class explored the broad topic of immigration, using the lens of New York City to focus in on immigration to Ellis Island during the 19th and 20th centuries. Our class visited the Tenement Museum and Ellis Island itself, and took part in many multi-sensory projects, like building individual tenement apartments from shoe boxes and found objects, sculpting from clay a suitcase with three personal items a family might bring when immigrating, and writing and singing a song about the journey. In addition, each member of the class kept a journal filled with written responses to a variety of conceptual and concrete prompts about immigration to Ellis Island. Each prompt went through four stages of edits and revisions, with the last one being an independently typed final draft.  

Please click here to listen to the song the class composed with the generous help of Hans Hsu, a musician, composer and audio engineer with a knack for working with children. Students were incredibly proud to share this work with their friends and family during our "Museum Week."

Unit: Immigration

Essential Questions:

Who are immigrants? 

Where did and do they come from?

Why do immigrants leave their homeland?

Why did immigrants come to the United States?

What are the challenges of immigrating to a new place?

What was Ellis Island like? What did immigrants have to go through at Ellis Island?

How might it feel to be an immigrant?

Processing Skills: Handling a diversity of interpretations (thinking), applying information (research/writing), identifying values conflicts, avoiding stereotypes (interpersonal/groups skills)

MINI-UNITS: 

1. Interviewing Modern Immigrants/Immigration Past/Life In The Homeland
2. The Journey/The Immigrant Experience
3. Ellis Island & The Process of Entering
4. Life In Tenements & NYC
5. Forced Immigration in the United States (the immigration experience of African Americans) 
6. Modern Immigration

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I. Interviewing Modern Immigrants/Immigration Past/Life In The Homeland

Essential Question(s): Who are immigrants? Why do people move to new places? How might it feel to be an immigrant? Where did our families come from? Why did people immigrate to the United States? Why do they still? Where did immigrants in the 1800s & 1900s come from?

Objectives/Lessons: 

1. Create a class KWL chart for Immigration

2. Class Immigration Map- Students, using a family tree completed with families at home, share where their ancestors immigrated from. Using a map and different-colored yarn, we will label these various countries/states (for those who’s families migrated) with pins and names/pictures. We will keep this and add to it as we read about and interview other immigrants.

3. Map Skills- Students will use a New York Times interactive immigration wave map stretching back to 1880 on the SmartBoard. On Day 1, they will select an immigrant group and use the map to see how they settled across the United States over time. They will use this map to answer open and closed questions specific to that immigrant group/map individually. Then each student will be assigned a different immigrant group from the map and a laptop. They will use the interactive map to collect data and share this information with the whole class.

4. Waves of Immigrants in the Past- We will use the Scholastic immigration website, the information book Immigrants, and the PBS immigration website to explore 5 immigrant groups from the 1800s and early 1900s: Irish, German, Jewish (specifically Russian), Norwegian, and Italian immigrants. Each day will be devoted to one of these groups and will use multiple resources to learn about the reasons these groups immigrated, their experiences, and what they contributed to the United States.

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II. The Journey/The Immigrant Experience

Essential Question(s): What are the advantages & disadvantages of moving to a new place? What are the challenges of immigrating to a new place? How might it feel to be an immigrant? 

Objectives/Lessons:

1.The Arrival by Shaun Tan (2 days)- Using a visual narrative to gain information about a story, the students will meet in small groups and prepare a read aloud of a text that has no words. This book relates the tale of an immigrant (not from any specific country) and his experiences. Students discuss characters, storyline, mood, and the characters’ feelings. Each student or pair of students gets a section of the book and must use the pictures to create their interpretation of what’s happening. They must then read this aloud to the class. Creating a class “audio book” is also a possible project for this text.

2. New York documentary- Students will watch New York documentary, Episode 4 on immigration by Ric Burns. On Day 1 they will see images, early film footage, and hear about immigrants arriving in New York. They will use a graphic organizer with columns for advantages and disadvantages to record information they learn. On Day 2 they will break into discussion groups after every segment and summarize what they have learned through the advantage/disadvantage notes they gathered. They will also use a list of guided questions to focus their small-group discussions. 

3. Read Aloud: Watch the Stars Come Out- Students will use a graphic organizer to sequence the events in the story. We will then discuss the themes in the book. 

4.The Immigrant by Charlie Chaplin- Students will use this 1917 silent film to learn more about an immigrant’s experience moving to the US in the early 20th century. They will explore his use of images and movement to communicate this story, and they will compare and contrast it with Watch The Stars Come Out. They will also complete a written movie review.

III. Ellis Island & The Process of Entering

Essential Questions: 

What was Ellis Island like? What did immigrants have to go through at Ellis Island? 

Objectives/Lessons:

1.Emma Lazarus Poem/ Island of Hope, Island of Tears - We will read “Emma’s Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty by Linda Glaser” and discuss it’s meaning as well as its importance. Students will then have a chance to write their own poems as if they were moving to our country. We will then watch “Island of Hope, Island of Tears” and discuss the main ideas in the video. 

2. Ellis Island Simulation at School : Imitate the health checks, paperwork, name changes, and challenges that immigrants faced. 

ELLIS ISLAND STATIONS INCLUDE:

1. Station 1 – Baggage Room
2.  

2. Station 2 – Stairs of Separation

3. Station 3 – Medical Exam –

4. Station 4 – Mental Examination

5. Station 5 – Legal Examination

6. Wrap Up 

This will be part of a longer character study where they create characters based on what they have learned on immigration, select a reason for leaving as well as a country, study its culture, go through the mock experiences, and reflect in writing or on video. As part of this, students can create:

*Artifact box/Trunk: Picture of the flag, picture of family (photo or drawing), a memento of something from home (blanket, toy, stuffed animal, clothing, jewelry…).

* Passport: Names, country, birthday, eye color, height, weight, stamps (passport pic can be taken on regular camera or photobooth to add the sepia effect).

* Ongoing journal of their experiences. 

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IV. Life in Tenements & NYC

Essential Questions: 

What was living in a tenement like? Where did immigrants settle in NYC? 

Objectives/Lessons:

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V. Modern Immigration

Essential Questions: 

What was living in a tenement like? Where did immigrants settle in NYC? 

Objectives/Lessons:

1. A Debate about Mexican immigration- Students will use newspapers, video, and other resources to explore the issue of modern immigration. We will use supporting facts as well opinions to have students defend both sides of the issue in a mock debate.

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CULMINATING PROJECT(s): 

II. Song Project

Objectives: 

1. Students will isolate most important pieces of information they want conveyed in their song.
2. Students will write lyrics, together and independently, to express what they have learned about the 
3. Students will “go back in time” and cover various periods of immigration, highlighting key events/understandings. 
4. Students will conduct research, write scripts, create storyboards, prepare props/sets/costumes, and scout locations for the News Show.
5. Students will film and help edit the News Show.