How Jane E. Grant Teaches Immigration
As the highly charged national debate on the issues of immigration reform and border security continue, it is more important than ever for educators to take advantage of teaching immigration in our classrooms. If as responsible professionals our goal is to have our students be a part of a global community where tolerance and appreciation for diversity and cultural differences is paramount, the inclusion of immigration curriculum is ideal. There are numerous benefits for primary students all the way through high school. My 5th grade gifted students in urban Chicago who work at a middle school level benefit in numerous ways across many subject areas.
Even prior to the recent national debates, I've always found that teaching about immigration is a wonderful way to build class community. Kids love researching their own family history as well as hearing about their classmates'. Inherent in this activity is our study of geography. Rarely a day goes by when we are not consulting a globe, our classroom world map or our desk atlases. Research, oral histories and story telling are terrific opportunities to get kids involved in history; not just reading about it. Engaging parents, relatives and community members get kids actively involved and talking which is exactly what we want.
Given that immigration curriculum so perfectly crosses most core subject areas as well, meeting state standards is never an issue. One project I designed called An Immigrant's Experience was an interdisciplinary technology, language arts and social studies project whereby students wrote, produced and edited video shorts about immigrants in our local community. Students worked collaboratively from start to finish selecting an interviewee, conducting interviews (learning how to ask and write good questions), transcribing, narrating, scanning photos and documents, adding music etc. This three month endeavor gave students a chance to engage with real immigrants, hear their real stories and obtain newfound respect, sensitivity and understanding of a wide variety of immigrant experiences. Given that immigrants continue to enrich our culture; encouraging students to celebrate their achievements and contributions is necessary. Additionally, the historical content and writing and technology skills gained were immeasurable.
As a culminating project for my unit on immigration this year, students have kept an ongoing journal of vocabulary that I've introduced throughout. Beginning with the history, waves and changing patterns of immigration to the U.S. and examining reasons and biases; both past and present, students have gained a wealth of new terminology. The difference between immigration and emigration to asylum, undocumented alien, deportation and Chinese Exclusion Act are among the new words, phrases and laws they've learned. With this new vocabulary, students have created Illustrated Immigration Dictionaries from A-Z. Each student's dictionary is different depending on what they deemed significant.
Exposing our students to a rich immigration curriculum not only fosters engaged learning and builds classroom community but it also promotes tolerance and the need for appreciation of cultural differences. It is my hope that as my students leave my classroom for the upper grades, they begin to feel like citizens of the world with a better understanding of themselves, others and how they fit in the larger global community. The study of immigration is a perfect springboard to that end.
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