The Immigration Experience

A Product of Jukebox Misc

Introduction	Task	Procedures	Conclusion	Job
Group Evaluation	Sample Notes	Sample Chart	Resources	Grading Criteria

Introduction:

Problem

Your family is in danger of dying at the hands of czarist soldiers because of your religious beliefs. You must either hide out for the rest of your lives or face the consequences.	EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWISH 1900
The potato famine has wiped out your family's main source of both income and food. You have no way to feed your family or pay your bills.	IRELAND 1850
Your family is living in poverty and there is no way to get out of it. No chance of getting a better job. No chance of providing food and clothes for your family.	ITALY 1885
Your family has lost its farmland and there is no more to be found. You have no way to make a living and support your family.	DENMARK, SWEDEN, & NORWAY 1880
Disease is taking your family from you one at a time. You are too poor to get medical help or move to more sanitary conditions. Your government is telling what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.	POLAND 1900
You make your own decision to find a better life and more opportunities for work.	UNITED KINGDOM
Your family and friends are being persecuted just for being whom they are.	RUSSIA

Solution

Beg, borrow, or steal your way to America, the land of freedom and wealth.

Task:

Those are the turmoils that your ancestors lived through and survived. You will become personally involved in this very important part of our/your American history. You will be researching the complete immigration experience:

life in the Old World
making the trip over the ocean
first sights of America
experiencing Ellis Island
life in the US
family tree

At the conclusion of your research, you will be presenting your exciting new knowledge of the immigration experience with the rest of the class in a Power Point slide presentation, in the form of a reflective narrative. The end result will be a class cumulative presentation on the immigration experience.

Procedures:

After participating in the class tally of cultural backgrounds, create a class cultural background chart using Microsoft Exel. It should be a multiple data chart, showing cultural backgrounds of each tenth grade teams individually.

Sample Chart

Using the information from the chart, choose which country your immigration group will be originating from. Base your decision on a group consensus of the countries that had the largest impact on our classroom.

Since each group member will be taking on the role of an immigrant from your chosen country, each group member needs to decide on an appropriate name and costume.

Your group has a teacher-selected captain. He/she will assist each member in finding a job that suits him/her. Each member will then need to research according to the responsibilities of his/her job.

Job	Responsibilities
Old World Historian	What was your family life like in the Old World? What were your living conditions like in the Old World? What was your home in the Old World? What employment in the Old World? What were your expectations of America?
Navigation Specialist	What were the conditions like on the ship? What were the sleeping conditions like on the ship? (click on 'PASSAGE') What types of diseases inflicted people on the ship? Was your family affected? How well did you enjoy the food & drink? What did you do to pass the time? Were there any storms while you were on the ocean? In what part of the ship did you travel? What were you sensing on your trip--seeing, hearing, smelling?
Docking Specialist	What was the first thing you saw when you entered New York Harbor? What was your first impression of New York? How did you feel about making it across the ocean? What was the order of departure of passengers & where you in that order?
Ellis Island Curator	What was your first stop inside Ellis Island processing center? Were the Immigration Officials difficult to understand? Were you provided with an ID tag, an immigration checklist, and a loyalty oath. Were the Immigration Officials kind and helpful? Were you able to be processed quickly? How was the doctor's examination? What was "retention"? Was anyone with you retained? Why? What does it mean to be deported? Did that happen to anyone you saw? Why? If it took more that one day, where did you sleep & what did you eat? What did Ellis Island look like?
New World Historian	Where did your family decide to settle? Why? Were you able to find a job? What was it? Were your children able to find a job? What was it? Were women able to find jobs? What was your new house like? If you spoke a different language, how did you communicate? How were you treated by the Americans? How were you perceived by the Americans? How were you going to get your family over? What did you like most about America? How did Nativism in America affect you? Did you miss anything about your old life?

Take notes, using links from above and resources listed below. To take notes, each member should use a piece of multi-folded note paper, taking notes in the appropriate columns.

See Sample Set Up below:

Docking Specialist
1^st Sights	1^st Impressions	Ocean Experience	Order of Departure

Using your notes, compile a 1 page reflective narrative describing the immigration experience of your "immigrant" in your portion of your assignment. Remember the writing criteria: written in paragaraphs, using topic sentences, correct grammar, sentence structure, and including an introduction and conclusion.
Type your paper into a class Power Point presentation.

Resources:

There are several types of resources available for each job. Each group member is responsible for using at least three of the following types of resources:

	*World Wide Web	*internet links from this site, or other sites

	*Non-fiction	*If Your Name Were Changed At Ellis Island, by
		*Immigrant Kids, by
		*Ellis Island: Gateway to the New World, by Leonard E. Fisher
		*Ellis Island: Doorway to Freedom, by Steven Kroll

	*Historical Fiction	*The Orphan Train, by

	*CD ROM Resources	*Grolier's Interactive Encyclopedia
		*Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia

	*U.S. Census Data	*U.S. IMMIGRATION STATISTICS

Family Tree:

Your on line Family Treewill look like this. Your teacher will help you add yours to your web page and fill in the details in computer class. Your Family Tree will be a BONUS project.

In this section you will research your own family's immigration history. You must trace at least one side of your lineage. Find out:

From what country(ies) did these family members come?

When did they come?

What was their life like in the "old country"?

What event or condition caused them to leave their country of origin?

What was their port of entry into the U.S.?

Where did they settle initially?

How did your family end up in Indiana County?

Elaborate on any stories or details that you found out in your investigation.

Conclusion:

Isn’t it absolutely amazing what your ancestors went through and survived in order to ensure freedom and wealth for you?! Every objective of this project was aimed at giving you a new & improved appreciation for (1) your living conditions now and (2) your ancestors.

Old World	Could those things really have happened?!
Ship Trip	Ick!
First Sites	And we take the Statue of Liberty for granted?!
Ellis Island	How scary and demeaning!
New World	Oh, how far we’ve come!
Family Tree	So THAT's who I am!

Group Evaluation:

Throughout this project, you will periodically be asked to do a group evaluation. It will look like this:

Group Evaluation - Immigration Project
1. Each member of your group has participated in and added to discussions and activities.

5	4	3	2	1

2. Each group member comes prepared with information and materials needed or asked for.

5	4	3	2	1

3. The group is working effectively toward the end product.

5	4	3	2	1

4. What is one thing that you have learned about immigration from a group member?


5. What is one thing that you taught another group member about immigration?


6. What is one thing that your group could do to improve your effectiveness on this project?

Grading Criteria:

Your grade will be based on how well you meet the goals for the chart, resources, bibliography, written reflection, and presentation.

Chart-	*Is it complete (title, axes titles, key)?
	*Is it set up properly (each class individually represented)?
	*Is the data correctly represented?
	*Is spelling correct?
Resources-	*Did you use at least one of each type of resource?
Bibliography-	*Have you recorded your sources on the works cited form?
Written Reflection-	*Does your reflection answer all of your job’s questions?
	*Is it written in the 1^st person?
	*Are the mechanics accurate?
		--spelling
		--punctuation
		--paragraphs & topic sentences
		--introduction & conclusion
Presentation	*Did you speak smoothly & clearly?
	*Were you dressed in costume?
Family Tree (Bonus)	*Did you fill the chart completely, or nearly so?
	*Was your data accurate?

Grading Rubric:

Chart	5	4	3	2	1
Resources	5	4	3	2	1
Bibliography	5	4	3	2	1
Written Reflection	5	4	3	2	1
Presentation	5	4	3	2	1
Family Tree	5	4	3	2	1