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Based on the Teacher Advisory Board's recommendations, the American Immigration Law Foundation has awarded four grants in its annual teacher fellowship competition. Teachers will conduct their programs during the 2008-2009 school year and report back to AILF on their experience. Those results will, in turn, be published in the next edition of AILF's Teacher Resource Guide.
| Title:
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| "Pride in Diversity; Coming Together" Multicultural Fair
| School:
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| Griffin Middle School
| Location:
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| The Colony, Texas
| Awarded:
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| $500
| Project:
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| In this project, sixth grade students will create and present the most creative information about their families who immigrated to America. Students will create posters using cultural artifacts, clothing, pictures, money and items from their home countries and present them to the class. The winner from each class will set up a booth at the school’s Multicultural Fair and share their exhibit with their parents and community members. Teachers and parents will also prepare tables containing cultural items representative of their cultural background at the Multicultural Fair. There will also be five performances, music from around the world, clocks displaying time in specific countries, and a large world map for everyone to demark their country of origin. Each student will have a passport from their original country and will collect stickers from every booth with a flag and country name.
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| Title:
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| Comic Relief: Linking the Past with Our Future
| School:
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| Longdale Elementary School
| Location:
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| Glen Allen, Virginia
| Awarded:
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| $500
| Project:
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| K-5 immigrant students will create a personalized comic book (using the Macbook "Comic Life" computer program) and tell their own immigration story. The immigration comic book will be written in context to earlier generations of immigrants-Ellis Island experiences, immigration from the south, war-motivated immigration, forced immigration of slaves, the immigration experiences of ancestors, etc. Researching previous immigration stories enables students to find personal connections to their own present day immigration stories and the comic book format provides a visual way for students to appreciate what it means to be an immigrant today. Every student has an immigration story that is begging to be explored and creating a personalized comic book is an accessible and fun method of documenting their stories.
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| Title:
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| Sharing Skyline High School Immigrant Students' Experiences Through Blogging
| | School:
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| Skyline High School
| Location:
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| Longmont, Colorado
| Awarded:
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| $500
| Project:
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| Sharing Skyline High School Immigrant Students' Experiences through Blogging project provides immigrant students an opportunity to share their experiences as immigrants. This blog will be hosted on Blogger (owned by Google) at no cost. Teachers serve as mentors for this program and show students how to create a group blog that they can use to tell their stories. Aliases will be used, but consistently, so readers can follow the stories of particular students through time. Blog entries will be in both English and in the native language of each student. Currently students fluent in Cambodian, Spanish, and Chinese are interested in participating in this project. By engaging students in opportunities to learn new technologies and fostering better communication skills, students can develop a multicultural perspective and connect to a variety of online communities.
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| Title:
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| We Are All Immigrants
| | School:
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| Harritt Elementary
| Location:
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| Salem, Oregon
| Awarded:
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| $500
| Project:
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| We Are All Immigrants allows dual language fourth grade students to gain a historical perspective on immigration from around the world-from the first immigrants to cross the Bering Strait to immigrant waves fleeing religious persecution. As the immigration unit progresses, student are asked to interview their families about their own immigration story. Families are then asked to share their stories in the classroom and students focus on the commonalities between past and present immigration experiences. As students hear the stories, they begin to realize that truly, "we are all immigrants," and will cultivate a deeper understanding of the realities of families in the classroom, an appreciation for the home lives of others as well as a greater feeling of commonality despite obvious differences. This open-door policy, where all families come and share their past and present immigration stories, is the first time many immigrants have actually shared these eye-opening stories with their own children. These student-written stories will be published in "Bare Books" and then presented at an Author's Immigration Celebration with their families. communities.
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| Title:
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| Immigration: Myths and Realities
| | School:
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| University Charter Middle School
| Location:
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| Camarillo, California
| Awarded:
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| $494.95
| Project:
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| Immigration: Myths and Realities is a 6-8 week unit that centers on the notion that nearly all Americans have come to this country from somewhere else. In Immigration: Myths and Realities, students will learn about the realities faced by many people who immigrate(d) to the United States, including members of their own families. In this unit, eighth graders will read a novel about immigration, study issues related to immigration, learn the basics of photography and write narratives about their families' immigration experiences. In addition, they will work collaboratively to create books that will be shared at the Ventura County Reading Association's annual Book Faire at California State University Channel Islands. The project culminates in an illustrated class book of immigration stories to be shared with schools across the US.
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| Title:
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| College Access for Undocumented Youth Video
| | School:
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| Bronx Lab School
| Location:
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| Bronx, New York
| Awarded:
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| $1000
| Project:
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| The Bronx Lab School's DREAM Act Club, a club organized around the "Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act" which high-achieving undocumented high school students who wish to serve in the armed forces or attend college to be able to gain legal status, seeks to educate undocumented students about their college options, develop a sustainable grassroots youth movement and provide scholarships through fundraising for undocumented graduates. Part of the DREAM Act Club's grassroots effort involves creating a promotional video that explains the situation of undocumented youth regarding college access and the importance of immigration reform. The video will be screened within the Bronx Lab School and then disseminated to school principals, communities, youth leadership groups, immigrant organizations and the United States Congress.
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Total Grants Awarded: $2,995
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