Primary School Lesson Plans
- Miss Bridie Chose A Shovel
Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel teaches primary students the value of immigration through the contributions of immigrants to American society through reading, listening, writing and art projects.
- Immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States allows students to use their communication skills in writing, speaking, and illustrating as they discover their families' heritage and appreciate the impact immigration has had on their lives.
- Multicultural Book Parade: Celebrating Immigration to America
Multicultural Book Parade: Celebrating Immigration to America involves the entire school community in a celebration, through reading, writing, artwork, and oral communication activities, of stories of courage, resilience, and strength told by and about immigrants coming to America.
- Interview Project: Getting to Know Our Immigrant Friends through Graphs
Getting to Know Our Immigrant Friends through Graphs introduces primary grade students to immigration by gathering and sharing information about immigrants and displaying this information on different types of graphs.
- Why Did They Leave Home?
Why Did They Leave Home? exposes primary grade students to the multiple reasons why people choose to immigrate to America and the challenges immigrants face.
- The Memory Coat: A Board Game
The Memory Coat Journey - A Board Game is designed as a follow-up enrichment activity to the picture book The Memory Coat Journey which follows a Russian Jewish boy on his journey to America during WWII.
- Immigration Stories - By Children, For Children
Immigration Stories - By Children, For Children is a lesson for primary school students designed to utilize a variety of research sources. Students will write their own immigration stories for other children in order to foster understanding of present day immigrant experiences.
- Marianthe's Story - Painted Words, Spoken Memories (NEW)
Students will appreciate the immigration experience through Aliki's Marianthe's Story: Painted Words, Spoken Memories. Through a guided reading and various classroom activities, students will identify with Mari's character as well as improve on reading, geography, art and expressive writing skills.
- Our Melting Pot: Meeting, Eating and Growing Together (NEW)
The goal of Our Melting Pot is to develop knowledge and appreciation of the diversity of nations from which our students' ancestors came. By creating his/her own Immigration cookbook, students will appreciate their ancestry and learn about how certain foods are incorporated in to life in the United States.
- Illustrious Immigrants (NEW)
Students will develop an appreciation of the varied social, cultural, economic, artistic, and political contributions made by immigrants through a research and technological process that culminates in the production of an iMovie.
- Honoring Immigrants - Place Setting Project (NEW)
Students will explore an immigrant's journey into the United States and honor his/her accomplishments by interviewing an immigrant, creating decorative placemats and inviting him/her to a banquet to celebrate.
- Heritage Boxes (NEW)
Creating Heritage Boxes will allow students to obtain a cross-curricular knowledge using relevant literature and information obtained through family member interviews. Students will understand the value of becoming familiar with their heritage and culture through the research of an ancestor. (NOTE: This is a project-based learning activity that requires several months and the support of families and the school community to implement. The interconnected activities will foster an overall understanding and appreciation for the diversity in your school and our nation.)
- Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say (NEW)
Grandfather's Journey explores themes of cross cultural experience as well as intergenerational relationships and family history. The award-winning illustrations convey Say's love of family, as well as his love of place. Through a series of reading, writing and reflection activities, students will explore this cross cultural theme and develop a deeper understanding of why immigrants come to the United States.
Middle School Lesson Plans
- Immigrants & Community
Immigrants & Community teaches middle grade students through literacy-based activities about various types of community and about how immigrants contribute to the communities of which they are a part.
- We Are Americans: Voices of the Immigrant Experience
We Are Americans: Voices of the Immigrant Experience seeks to teach students about the history of immigration through the voices and experiences of the immigrants.
- Immigration Today
Immigration Today will allow middle grade students to develop their communications skills as speakers and writers as they discover how American immigrants continue to contribute positively to the American way of life.
- Issues in Immigration: A Debate
Issues in Immigration: A Debate explores conflicts, myths and facts about immigration and immigrants. This lesson plan increases student awareness about immigration issues through the art debate.
- Stories of Immigration
Stories of Immigration teaches secondary grade students about the value of immigration through selected literature. The lesson also increases student awareness of the important historical periods of immigration and the effects of these events on America.
- An Immigrant's Experience - An Interdisciplinary Technology, Language Arts and Social Studies Project (NEW)
An Immigrant's Experience is designed to help middle school students gain a better understanding of an immigrant's experience. By conducting interviews and writing journal entries, students will be able to understand and appreciate their interviewee's unique journey by creating a first-person retelling of their experience using iMovie.
- Digital Natives = Digital Storytelling
The goal of Digital Natives=Digital Storytelling is to have students identify their own ancestry and understand the important role immigrants have in developing our nation. By using the latest technologies and literacy-based activities, students will become cognizant of what issues caused people to leave their former lives behind, the problems involved in adapting to a new world, the cultural richness they brought to this country and how these characteristics have endured time to enrich our lives.
- Cesar Chavez and the Mexican-American Field Worker Experience (NEW)
Cesar Chavez and the Mexican-American Field Worker Experiences is designed to teach students about the life and work of Cesar Chavez and to document the experiences of contemporary agricultural field workers. After learning about the work of Cesar Chavez, students will design and conduct original research about the conditions and needs of today's field workers. The end product of this project will be a booklet reporting on the research and findings of the students. This booklet will be printed and made available as a resource for the local school district and the community at large.
- No Pretty Pictures by Anita Lobel (NEW)
Illustrated with her family photographs, and written in a straightforward prose, No Pretty Pictures offers valuable lessons on the Holocaust and survival for adolescent readers. In this lesson, students will read, reflect and use maps and text to study the "push-pull factors" of the immigrant experience.
- Oral History - Creating an Immigration Museum (NEW)
Oral History - Creating an Immigration Museum will aid students in developing a deeper understanding of the immigrant experience through a series of Oral History projects-interviews, writing, research and art-culminating in the creation of an Immigration Museum.
- Making Immigration Come Alive (NEW)
Making Immigration Come Alive is designed to make the study of immigration a meaningful experience for students and highlights the importance of immigrant contributions to our country and culture.
- From War on Terror to War on Bias (NEW)
The objective of From War on Terror to War on Bias is to broaden the view students may have of Iraqi and Muslim immigrants. Students will examine current stereotypes and other forms of judgment as well as gain insight into the struggles immigrants face while adapting to a new culture.
High School Lesson Plans
- Immigration Themes in Film & Literature
Immigration Themes in Film & Literature uses literature and film to introduce high school students to various ways writers, poets, and filmmakers have depicted the immigrant experience in the United States.
- "Behind the Mountains" by Edwidge Danticat
Behind the Mountains teaches secondary students the value of immigration and increases student awareness of the adjustments faced by immigrants while developing their reading, writing, research, discussion, and literary response skills.
- High School Lesson Plan 3: Issues in Immigration
The Issues in Immigration series consists of three parts or modules listed below. Each module is designed to teach secondary students about immigration and immigrant conflicts, myths and facts. The lesson will also increase student awareness about immigration issues.
- Module One: Debate
- Module Two: The Lost Boys of Sudan
- Module Three: Lost Childhoods - Unaccompanied Children
- Wagner-Rogers Bill Debate (NEW)
The Wagner-Rogers Bill - Debate lesson allows students to develop and hear the arguments for and against the Wagner-Rogers bill by taking part in a mock Congressional debate on the bill. Students are encouraged to develop and listen to persuasive testimony and speeches, and to come up with creative strategies to change the legislation in ways in which it might be more acceptable.
- Immigrants VS Refugees (NEW)
Immigrants VS Refugees was created to leave students with a clear idea of what the legal distinction between an immigrant and a refugee is, and to provoke critical thought about whether this distinction is clear-cut, meaningful and/or useful. Students will develop critical thinking skills as well as obtain factual information on the distinction between immigrants and refugees.
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