Story Path: Emigration

5^th Grade

Selected Images of Ellis Island and Immigration, ca. 1880-1920

Selected Images of Ellis Island and Immigration, ca. 1880-1920

Michigan Curriculum Framework for Social Studies

Perspectives: Historical, Geographic and Public Discourse

Benchmarks:

∑ Geographic:

o Describe causes, consequences, routes and movement of major migration to the U.S.

o Describe places, cultures and communities in the U.S. and compare them with those in other regions of the country

∑ Historical

o Recount the lives and characters of a variety of individuals from the past representing their local community, state of Michigan and other parts of U.S.

o Identify and explain how individuals in history demonstrated good character and personal virtue

∑ Public Discourse

o Engage each other in conversations, which attempt to clarify and resolve issues.

Anticipatory Set:

Review the information on emigrants that we have been working on the past week. Ask higher-level questions to stimulate their thinking, such as, What situations caused individuals to migrate to the U.S? What was happening in other countries that made their citizens leave? After reviewing information, give each student a character card, which contains information like, their name, country of origin, language, characteristics, family and interesting information. Theses are the character roles they are to become for the rest of the lesson.

Input/Mode of Instruction:

The teachers will mainly be the facilitators of the lesson. We will be providing the students with their characters and situations that they must resolve. After each situation we will be review the situation and discuss how they handled that dilemma. How well do you think your group handled the conflict? What could you do differently next time? The students will be developing skills by role playing, and using speaking and listening skills. We will be using small group discussions and the students will engage in different intelligences learning by using auditory, kinesthetic and visual learning and cooperation. At the end of the lesson we will provide closure and final reflection for the students. The basis of our lesson is from the StoryPath lesson on the Internet called, Coming to America.

Hands on Activity:

After the students are given their character cards and told how the lesson is going to proceed, we will entice them to board the ship by handing out flyers depicting America. When they decide to make the journey they will get their boarding passes, board the ship, and make introductions to the other immigrants. We provided them with the phrase, ≥Hello≤, in each of their charactersπ native languages.

As we continue along on our journey the students will experience the cramped quarters of the steamship. They will also be given three situations that they must work together to resolve. The first situation is created by one of the passengers getting very sick and the others must find a way to help this person without infecting everyone else. The second situation pits three of the passengers against each other because they have previous prejudice towards the others native countries. They must find the reasons behind the trouble and create a plan to reside peacefully for the rest of the journey. The third situation creates distension among the passengers because they believe there is a thief among them and they must find out who and why the clothes and food is being taken.

Closure and Reflection

As their ship is almost to America, we will have the students write a letter to a family member back in their home country, telling about their journey, the conflicts, and advice to them if they arrive successfully in America. We will then allow them to come out of their character roles and answer reflection questions about the trip.

1. What can you conclude about life aboard an immigration ship?
2. What do you think your character will do after they reach Ellis Island?
3. What was your favorite part of your immigration experience?