Immigration to the United States in the Twentieth Century By Lauren D’Angelo and Talia Lewis

Context -Designed for a 8th grade, detracked social studies classroom at a Hartford magnet school. -Designed for a 60 minute Social Studies class consisting of 20 students that meets once a day during the school week at Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy (HMTCA). -Meets the standards for the Connecticut State Department of Education for Social Studies and the Common Core Curriculum for English instruction. -Inform students about immigration to the United States beginning with European immigration and ending with immigration in the modern era. -Incorporates elements of Cooperative Learning.

Objectives - Students will investigate certain ethnic groups and their immigration patterns. - Students will improve their writing and critical reading abilities, which will greatly benefit them in the future at the high school level and eventually the college level. - Students will develop the skills to compare historical events regarding immigration in the early 20th century to immigration in the late 20th century using data, maps, and primary sources. - Students will assess their knowledge of the immigration process in the 20 th century and draw parallels to today’s political rhetoric surrounding immigration and its effects on the American people.

Day 1 - General IntroductionIn Class: Data and map activity on computers in the library. Acts as a broad introduction to the subject matter. Discuss immigration trends observed as a class. Homework: Short readings about European, Chinese, and Mexican immigration to the United States. Day 2 - Group WorkIn Class: Students are divided into groups to discuss what they read, each group will present to the class. Distribute rubric. Homework: Review readings from night before for in-class writing. Day 3 - Letter Writing DayIn Class: Letter writing activity and Ellis Island video. Homework: Explore scholastic Ellis Island Website. Day 4 - Ellis IslandIn Class: Ellis Island role playing activity. Homework: Compilation of political speeches about immigration. Day 5 - Discussion about immigration today In Class: Open discussion about what was seen in the videos assigned for homework and free write.

Monday’s Lesson Plan -The class will meet at the computer’s in the library. -Students will explore two online resources that track immigration patterns from for 25 minutes and will take concise notes on what they observe. -Students will then return to the classroom to discuss the trends they observed on the online resources. -Sample questions include: At what point do the immigrant demographics change? (Western European to Eastern and Southern European? European to Latin American?) In what regions did certain immigrant groups settle?

Resources

Tuesday’s Lesson Plan -The students will be divided into four groups of five -The students will be carefully picked to ensure that all genders, abilities, and ethnicities will be represented in each group. -Each group will be assigned a country based on the readings from the night before -Mexico, China, Italy, and Ireland -Each student will have read selected excerpts from each book -In the groups, the students will discuss what they learned about their assigned country for approximately 20 minutes. -The students will then present what they discussed in their groups to the rest of the class -In the remaining time students will be encouraged to ask questions and discuss the readings -Distribute rubric for in-class letter writing activity.

Wednesday’s Lesson Plan: Evaluation and Activity One -For the first 25 minutes of class, students will receive an in-class writing assignment where they will have to write a letter to a family member in their “home country”. -Students will have the opportunity to choose their “home country” based off of what was assigned for homework and what was discussed on Tuesday. -Students will have to draw on examples based off of the homework and discussions. -This will be evaluated based on a rubric. -After the students finish the letter writing activity they will watch a 25 minute video about Ellis Island to prepare for Thursday’s Ellis Island activity.

Thursday’s Lesson Plan -Desks in the classroom will be rearranged to set up the Ellis Island role playing activity. -All students will be immigrants and teachers from neighboring classrooms will act as the immigration inspectors. -The students will move through each station, primarily medical, detention and deportation. -The students will know how to act based on the video shown in class the night before and reviewed for homework. -Students will then be granted a type of visa, permanent residence, or be deported. -Every third student will be deported to avoid bias on the part of the teachers and will have the opportunity to start the activity over to obtain a visa.

Friday’s Lesson Plan -The students will have an open discussion based on the youtube clips they watched for homework. -The discussion will be prompted by questions similar to the following: -“What are the stances of each party on immigration and deportation? How do they differ? How are they similar?” -“What is each candidate's stance?” -“Do the candidates position on the issue differ from that of their party’s?” -“How do you think the language used in the candidate’s answers in the debate and in interviews is harmful or helpful to the cause? How do you think the language the candidates use affect the opinions of voters?” -“What are the differences/ similarities in today’s immigration debate to the immigration debate in the early and mid 20th century?” -10 minute free write at the end of class to reflect on the discussion and what was learned over the past week

Evaluation  Writing assignment grade  Participation in small groups and during class discussions

In Class and School Resources  Computers in the school’s library  Common Core State Standards  Connecticut State Department of Education for Social Studies  Interactive Tour of Ellis Island (  Slavin, Robert. Cooperative Learning. London: Pearson,  New York Times Interactive Immigration Map ( explorer.html) explorer.html  Scholastic Immigration Data (

Homework Resources  Readings  Excerpts from the following books:  Sandler, Martin. Island of Hope: The Story of Ellis Island and the Journey to America. New York: Scholastic Publishing,  Jimenez, Francisco. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,  Yep, Laurence. The Star Fisher. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.

Homework Resources (Cont.) Youtube clips:  (Overall description of current immigration policy)  (Democratic debate questions on immigration)  (Democratic debate questions on deportation of illegal immigrants)  (CNN interview with Donald Trump regarding his stance on immigration)  (Republican debate questions on immigration)