Coming to America
Teaching with Primary Sources
Illinois State University
Cora Olsen
Northpoint Elementary
Summer 2012
Teaching with Primary Sources
Illinois State University
Four Immigrants and Their Belongings
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97501668/
In this cross curricular project 3rd grade students will research their own family history as well as the ancestral country/countries that their ancestors emigrated from. Students will learn possible reasons for leaving their homelands as well as reasons for wanting to become an American. Students will learn the struggles that immigrants faced getting to America, on the ship, at Ellis Island, and starting life in America. This unit will focus primarily on European immigrants in the early 1900s, but can accommodate students from other backgrounds.
Overview/ Materials/Historical Background/LOC Resources/Standards/ Procedures/Evaluation/Rubric/Handouts/Extension
Overview Back to Navigation BarObjectives / Students will:
· be able to read, comprehend, and analyze information from a variety of sources to gain a better understanding of this period in history.
· use a variety of resources (primary sources, interviews with family members, encyclopedias, the Internet, various classroom texts) to gain information about their family’s history and their ancestral country.
· write in an Immigration Journal taking the role of a child in the early 1900s who is immigrating to America. Writing will show knowledge of facts learned in class, as well as, an appreciation for the feelings/emotions of people making this journey.
· be able to dress as an immigrant from the early 1900s and will participate in a simulation through Ellis Island.
Recommended time frame / 2 weeks
Grade level / 3-5th
Curriculum fit / Language Arts, Social Studies
Materials / · Family tree template
http://genealogy.about.com/library/free_charts/Family_Tree.pdf
· Mentor Text: If Your Name were Changed at Ellis Island by Ellen Levine
· Immigration journals for each student (lined paper stapled with a construction paper cover)
· bar graph http://www.theteachersguide.com/pages/printouts/math/graphs/graphinglabelitwithoutnumbers.pdf
· Scholastic Website- Tour of Ellis Island http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/
· worksheet- Immigration Research
· student atlases
· blank map of each continent http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htm
· Rebecca’s Story- guided reading text by Cynthia Benjamin – Level L
Illinois State Learning Standards Back to Navigation Bar
Reading: Informational Text
· CC.3.RI.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
· CC.3.RI.7 Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).
· CC.3.RI.9 With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
· CC.3.RI.6 Distinguish their own point of view from that of the author of a text.
Writing:
· CC.3.W.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
· CC.3.W.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.
· CC.3.W.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Speaking & Listening:
· CC.3.SL.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
· CC.3.SL.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
Social Studies:
GOAL 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations.
· 16.A. Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation.
· 16.A.2c Ask questions and seek answers by collecting and analyzing data from historic documents, images and other literary and non-literary sources.
· 16.C. Understand the development of economic systems.
· 16.C.2c (US) Describe significant economic events including industrialization, immigration, the Great Depression, the shift to a service economy and the rise of technology that influenced history from the industrial development era to the present.
Procedures Back to Navigation Bar
Day One: (one week prior to the start of the unit)
· Introduce family trees by sharing a teacher example and leading students to the website (http://genealogy.about.com/library/free_charts/Family_Tree.pdf) in which they can enter their family history and print. Ask students if anyone already has an idea of their ancestral heritage. Allow one week for families to research and return the printed tree. Share the Library of Congress website http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/ with families for use as needed. *This site would not be appropriate for students to use independently, but may be helpful for family work.
· Journal: What did you learn about your ancestors that you did not already know?
Day Two: (one week later)
· Students briefly share their family tree and the countries from which their ancestors emigrated. Family trees are hung in the classroom. Assuming that many students have ancestors from more than one country, pose the question, “Do you think all your ancestors had the same experiences leaving their homelands and arriving in America?”
· Share the interview at the following link to see why this one immigrant wanted to come to America. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/progress/immigrnt/louist.html The discussion should lead to the conclusion that immigrants from different countries will have different circumstances. “For this reason, we are going to ask you to choose one country to be the basis for this project. Discuss this with your family tonight and be prepared to let us know your choice tomorrow.”
Day Three:
· Use a bar graph to show ancestral countries and analyze the data. Compare our data with the data on the LOC site. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/immigration/pdf/total_population.pdf and http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/rbpebib:@field(NUMBER+@band(rbpe+07902500))
· Analyze the primary source census data. There are also some great graphs on the Scholastic site:http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/
· How does our data match these sources? How do these 2 sources compare? How is ours unique? What could be a reason for these differences?
Day Four:
· Locate ancestral country on a map. Students will use atlases to label their own map of their country, border countries, major bodies of water, and a compass rose. Blank maps are available at: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htm
· This activity will allow students to see where they came from in contrast to their peers. Begin to discuss how emigrants from their country would have traveled to America (foot, wagon, train, ship). Use the map at the following link to spark ideas: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g3701e+ct000244))
· Students can analyze this map and what the arrows may mean. They can then infer how an emigrant would have gotten from point A to point B. This information is also found in the mentor text (If your name were changed at Ellis Island).
Day Five:
· To set the stage, begin by pulling up the following image on the Smartboard or sharing paper copies: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97501668/
· Ask: Who do you think this might be? What are they doing? What might they be feeling? Discover the reasons that “pushed” emigrants from their homelands and “pulled” them to America. Brainstorm reasons as a class. Students will record this list in their Immigration Journals.
· Use the mentor text, If Your Name were Changed at Ellis Island by Ellen Levine and the LOC site http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/riseind/immgnts/ as an additional source of information. Add new reasons to the class list.
· Journal: After this lesson students are ready to begin journaling as a child living in their ancestral country. Today students will write about overhearing their parents talking in the kitchen about the need to immigrate to America. Questions to prompt writing: Why is your family being “pushed” out of your homeland? Why are you being pulled into America? How do you and your family feel about this major life change? What are your fears?
· After journaling, allow students to share their entries aloud. This share time is very valuable and allows students to learn about another’s perspective and techniques for writing in the first person.
Day Six-Eight:
· Spend the next couple days exploring and learning first hand from Immigrants. Use the Library of Congress Interviews with Today’s Immigrants http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/interv/toc.php
· On day one, select one to work through as a class. Model for the students how to develop questions before reading and then summarize the immigrant’s story. See attached worksheet for a guide.
· On the second day, students can explore with a partner using the same procedures of asking questions and summarizing. Allow for share time at the end of this day.
· On the 3rd day of this activity, I would either have the students work with a different partner or read and learn independently. Allow share time again at the end to deepen their understanding.
· Journal: What do you better understand about immigrations after hearing first hand from immigrants around the world? What surprised you in the interviews?
Day Nine:
· Watch the Library of Congress video of immigrants landing at Ellis Island: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/papr:@field(NUMBER+@band(lcmp002+m2a10987)) What do you see that surprises you? What do you better understand?
· As a class, take a look at the Americanese Wall political cartoon. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2006681433/ Model for the students how you carefully look over the primary source and analyze what you see.
· On computers, have students explore the other primary sources at the following links just as you have done with the Literacy Wall cartoon. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/immigration/ or http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/070_immi.html
· Journal: Students are required to choose 2 primary sources to carefully analyze and journal their thoughts/feelings/reactions about. They should be prepared to share their picture and response with the class. *Teachers may choose to organize this more in some way so that students don’t all choose the same pictures.
Day Ten:
· What was it like at Ellis Island? Have students share some of the Ellis Island pictures they analyzed from Day 9. Then, have students in groups look over the information in the book- Our Immigrants at Ellis Island. This book written by Harriet E. Clark was written so that young people would develop a better understanding of the experiences immigrants had at Ellis Island. http://lccn.loc.gov/12013648/ Click on one of the links at the bottom. The descriptions of the different “stations” begin on slide 5 and end on slide 7. Each group take a different station to read and report back to the class. The reading of this source may be challenging to some readers, so it is important to group the children heterogeneously. Another option would be for the lower readers to read a more narrative version of the Ellis Island experience in Rebecca’s Story by Cynthia Benjamin (level L).
· Journal: Students should journal the facts of their “station” as well as the emotions that they might feel going through that station. Share as a whole class.
Evaluation Back to Navigation Bar
· Journaling is used throughout this experience to allow students time to reflect on and process the new information that they are learning about Coming to America.
· Journaling will also allow them to personalize this knowledge with regard to their own ancestral background.
· See rubric for assessing the journals.
Extension Back to Navigation Bar
· Ellis Island Simulation- As a culminating activity, the students and teachers will simulate a day at Ellis Island.
· The school cafeteria may work well as the Great Hall.
· Students, teachers, and adults are encouraged to dress as an immigrant from the early 1900s. Parents volunteer to run the following stations: Boarding station, ship to America, Medical station, Education and Occupation, Literacy, Hospital, Physical Fitness, Character, and Detention.
· Parents are given a script from which to work as they interact with the students. Students can create passports and birth certificates to bring as documentation.
· Teachers circulate as guards keeping the lines “orderly” and shepherding immigrants from station to station.
· Photographs from the Library of Congress website could be printed and displayed throughout the space.
Historical Background
Back to Navigation Bar
Information from Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/riseind/immgnts/
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/progress/immigrnt/
In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and
immigrate to the United States. Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity. Others came seeking personal freedom or relief from political and religious persecution. With hope for a brighter future, nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900. During the 1870s and 1880s, the vast majority of these people were from Germany, Ireland, and England--the principal sources of immigration before the Civil War. That would change drastically in the next three decades.
Immigrants entered the United States through several ports. Those from Europe generally came through East Coast facilities, while those from Asia generally entered through West Coast centers. More than 70 percent of all immigrants, however, entered through New York City, which came to be known as the "Golden Door." Throughout the late 1800s, most immigrants arriving in New York entered at the Castle Garden depot near the tip of Manhattan. In 1892, the federal government opened a new immigration processing center on Ellis Island in New York harbor.
Although immigrants often settled near ports of entry, a large number did find their way inland. Many states, especially those with sparse populations, actively sought to attract immigrants by offering jobs or land for farming. Many immigrants wanted to move to communities established by previous settlers from their homelands.
Once settled, immigrants looked for work. There were never enough jobs, and employers often took advantage of the immigrants. Men were generally paid less than other workers, and women less than men. Social tensions were also part of the immigrant experience. Often stereotyped and discriminated against, many immigrants suffered verbal and physical abuse because they were "different." While large-scale immigration created many social tensions, it also produced a new vitality in the cities and states in which the immigrants settled. The newcomers helped transform American society and culture, demonstrating that diversity, as well as unity, is a source of national strength.