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.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

More On Service Learning

Our project has, so far, been a great success. We've posted our posters around the school, some students made announcements in both English and Spanish at last week's Monday morning assembly, and various small groups have gone to each class in the school and talked to the younger students about the issues with migrant farmworkers, and about how they can help by donating to our sock drive. They have done an absolutely fantastic job with these classroom visits, I am very proud of everyone for all the hard work.

We have run into some scheduling difficulties with presenting out skits, but those will be performed for the fourth grade classes at some point this week.

Please remember to send NEW socks to school with your child. The donations will all be taken to Hamilton MS on Thursday June 4th after school.
All sizes/gender socks are needed!

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