What does it mean to be an American?

We will be spending the rest of the spring learning about immigration in the United States from the late 1800s onward in social studies. This unit will build awareness of the history of immigration in our country and explore the impact of immigration on the diversity and changing face of America. We will begin by looking at our own classroom and our diverse backgrounds, and then move more into the history and current issues surrounding immigration.



Unit Highlights:

* Migrant Worker Service Learning Project - The 8th grade students in the immersion program at Hamilton MS have asked us to join them in a service learning project that will benefit workers at a local migrant labor camp. We have already started learning about the migrant labor experience, and will be creating informative posters and skits to teach the other kids at JSIS about the issues. We will also be doing a sock drive that will supplement a food drive the students at Hamilton will be doing. Students are already working hard gathering ideas and starting to organize for the sock drive (sock drive scheduled to begin May 6th or 7th)

* Ellis Island Simulation - Students will each take on the role of either an immigrant or immigration officer from Ellis Island in the early 1900s. Immigrants will be creating personal passports and will complete a set of immigration papers they will present to the officers. The officers will also create a mini profile (similar to the passports) and will be responsible for turning our room into the Ellis Island immigrant receiving rooms. On Friday, May 8th, our immigrants will arrive at Ellis Island and our officers will evaluate the documentation and determine who will be allowed to stay, and who will need to return to their home countries, based on a realistic evaluation process.

* Civics CBA - As a state requirement, students will also complete civics Classroom Based Assessment. Students will research two positions on a public issue and then write a persuasive paper, stating a position on the issue and how it relates to a right or the common good. Currently there is a lot happening in our nation with immigration reform, so we will be choosing an issue based on what is currently happening in Washington DC. We will investigate the Dream Act 2009, unless there is new breaking news about a different reform plan over the next few weeks.

* Immigrant Interview - As the culminating project for this unit and for the year, students will select a family member, friend, neighbor, or a member of the JSIS staff who is a first generation immigrant, and conduct an interview about their experience. Students will then create posters that share this personal story of immigration, and compare this experience to that of an early immigrant at Ellis Island. On Friday June 5th we will have an informal poster sharing time around the room from 10:15 to 11:25. Families are welcome to come and participate in this event if you would like.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Expectations for the Immigrant Interview Posters

DUE FRIDAY JUNE 5th

What you should be doing (at this point at least #1,2,3 should be completed and you should be well into #4):
  1. Write interview questions
  2. Schedule your interview with the person you will be interviewing
  3. Do your interview (if the person speaks Spanish, you MUST conduct the interview in Spanish)
  4. Write a minimum of 3 paragraphs that summarize the information you got from the interview. You are writing a biography telling us their story, you are not typing out the questions and responses from the interview.
  5. Edit your work!!!
  6. Type your paragraphs
  7. Collect images, map, flag, artifacts for your poster
  8. Put your poster together
What you poster must include:
  • Name of the person you interviewed (first name or pseudoname is OK)
  • Country that person came from
  • Minimum of 3 paragraphs typed en Español
  • Map showing where the person came from and where they arrived (their travel route)
  • Flag of their country of origin
  • Minimum of 3 other images or artifacts
You will be graded on:
  • All parts are included
  • Writing is well edited
  • Poster is neat, attractive and presentable
  • Content of your writing is interesting and teaches us something new and important
  • Poster is ready ON TIME!!
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