Reading, Writing, Teaching, and Living Tools for Impassioned People
The Immigrant Project
Intolerance: It's a problem EVERYWHERE.
As a high school teacher in Midwestern America, I learned that many of my students were unaware of what people faced outside of their small town, especially outside of the United States. Immigration is a hot topic in the political sphere, and media coverage has a residual effect on adolescents. After hearing ignorance expressed daily in high school hallways, but knowing that a lecture about tolerance, hate speech, and respect would probably fall upon deaf ears, I had the students teach themselves about immigration and its effects on America, immigrants, and the students!
Part 1: Background (Direct Instruction)
This initial step of the unit is dependent on your students' familiarity with immigration to the United States. In a language arts classroom, I have to be very careful when straddling the line between social studies and English. Knowing this project is a combination of reading, writing, geography, and history, I first assessed what my students knew about the history of immigration in the United States. One year, I had the students write essays responding to the question, "Should America allow immigrants?" to begin the unit, as I thought that would help front-load some background of this issue. If you feel that your students are well educated about these issues, though, feel free to proceed with the assignment. If you're in need of materials to teach background on immigration, however, I recommend the following links:
Here is a link to the prezi I made for the unit, entitled "America: A Patchwork Quilt". If you click the link, you will see the different text selections I used at the beginning of the unit, as well as some writing prompts and videos. This unit wasn't originally 100% about immigrants, but about American diversity, so you will also find some selections by Walt Whitman and other American writers.
This link provides a great overview for immigrants that came through Ellis Island in the 19th and 20th centuries. I used guided questions for my students to independently browse the website and acquire knowledge on Ellis Island's history and the hardships immigrants faced. Here is a link to follow-up questions.
This short, mostly silent scene from The Godfather chronicles Vito Corleone's journey from Italy to Ellis Island. The video illustrates the differences in languages and appearances and the invasive medical examinations immigrants faced upon entry to the US. I followed this clip up with "How would you feel..." questions to spark empathic connections from students.
God Grew Tired of Us is an excellent documentary, and it was turned into a book as well! This video documents the journeys of Sudanese refugees fleeing terrible living conditions and starting new lives in the United States. The video is raw; from my experience, students will be captivated by the reality of the experiences by the likable refugees. My 10th graders even asked to look up what they're doing now. This documentary did an amazing job of showing immigrants/ refugees as people, not problems (as they are often represented in our society).
Additionally, the book (written by John Bul Dau) is very well written. I used excerpts to teach reading comprehension in addition to the documentary. Once they watched the documentary, they were hooked!
Part 2: Introducing the Project
Project Goal: Students will hone skills in researching, writing, and critical thinking to create an original project about a fictional immigrant. This individual project impels students to think with empathetic lenses, expand their knowledge of the world, practice their research skills, and exercise their creative writing abilities. Furthermore, writing conferences allow teachers to have 1:1 meetings, which increases classroom trust and helps form mentor/mentee relationships between teachers and students.
At the conclusion of the project, each student will have composed and published 3-4 pieces of creative writing about one character. All of the information in their creative writing will be based on factual research.
In order to ensure the effectiveness of this project, I have found that it is essential that each student's project is original, individual, and organic. They must have choice regarding who their character is and where he or she comes from.
As with every project, my goal is for students to create something meaningful that makes them proud, as pride results in retention. I compile these texts into a binder and display it proudly on my bookshelf so the students understand that their hard work is appreciated.
Step 1: Assign the Character
In this particular segment, "assign" is a term used fluidly. Here's how I typically "assign" the students their characters:
1. Before class starts, set up your room. Place the photographs of different immigrants face up. When I have done this, I don't tell the kids what they're doing. They become curious, and then they are more likely to be interested in the project. Make sure you have enough papers so every student will get his or her own assignment.
2. Without telling them what they're doing, dismiss students individually or by rows to choose a picture. Instruct them to choose a face they think is the most interesting. If they ask questions, repeat your directive.
3. When each student has chosen his or her assignment, instruct all students to keep them safe. They will use the information on these photos for the duration of the project.
4. Pass around a signup sheet so that each student is held accountable for his or her choice. You should keep a copy of the different characters so that in the event information is lost, you have a backup and no reason for excuses.
5. After they've selected their characters, you can begin explaining the assignment and prompt them to research their characters.
*NOTE: All of these characters are fictional. They will not find real information about any of the people in the photos. I do this on purpose so they are forced to use their imaginations and think critically.
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Allowing 1-3 class periods, direct your students to find out general information regarding their fictional character and his or her history.
Some students may struggle with this, as the character didn't really exist. Support these students by providing examples for them and directing them toward websites which may guide their research.
Use the following documents to help guide them, and then ask them to use their imaginations and create a character sketch.
For more tips on character development, check out this video by Kristen Martin regarding character mapping!
Step 3: Turn Research into Writing!
The writing setup for this unit is based on the MGRP model by Tom Romano, but it is a little more complicated. The first time I facilitated this unit, I was met with frustrated students, concerned that they might not be able to complete the task. It was too hard, they thought, to find the correct information and bring it into creative writing pieces. Like the MGRP, this assignment taught students that they were capable of much more than they originally thought
While I gave my students more freedom with the MGRP, I offered more direction with this assignment. Each week, we worked on a new artifact, and that artifact exhibited what they learned in their research from that week. Here's a rough plan of how this worked:
Artifact 1: The Homeland. For this artifact, students had to thoroughly research what their character's life might have been like in his or her home country. What caused this person to want to come to the United States? This part of the assignment was similar to a history/ geography lesson; each student would need to understand the problems in this location during that time period. Then, they would have to empathize with their character and write a 1,000-word narrative from the character's first-person perspective. What might the character have experienced? What would he or she have seen, heard, felt, or smelled? I think this part of the assignment is the most important, as it really establishes empathetic understanding, which carries throughout the unit.
Here is a link to an awesome poem, "Home" by Warsan Shire, a British-Somali poet. The poem provides great insight into how some immigrants/ refugees may feel when making the decision to go to the United States.
Artifact 2: The Voyage. This is arguably the most complicated part of the project, but this component did a tremendous job of illustrating how hard the journey from another country to America would be. I gave each student a blank world map, and they were directed to look up means of transportation (available during that time period, of course; a person immigrating to the U.S. from Ireland in 1895 would not fly in a plane) and plot the route their character would have taken to come to America. I had to allow about two days for this, as it was tough, but every student was able to do it. I provided links via Schoology for various travel agencies, immigrant ships, and other means of transportation. Through conferencing, I assisted my students individually with finding accurate routes. Once they knew actual ways for their characters to come to the United States, their jobs were to research travel conditions, personal accounts, lengths, costs, etc. of the routes. Then, they converted their findings into narratives focused ONLY on the voyage from the home country to the United States.
Artifact 3: Arriving in America. When students researched the voyages of their characters, they should have determined where in America they would arrive. Depending on their original countries and the time periods, there is a variety of locations they may come in. Their job for this artifact is to determine the conditions upon their arrivals to America, how people from their homelands would have been treated by Americans, and the general culture shock experienced by the immigrants. They would use their already established characters and their histories, then do more research on the towns in which they would arrive, the populations in those towns, and problems experienced by the immigrants once in America.
Artifact 4: A Future in America. The most complicated parts of the assignment are over, but this last artifact acts as a sort of culmination. I wanted the students to reflect on how their characters changed once they arrived in America. We typically look at immigrants and disregard the struggles they may have faced in their pasts, but instead focus on the burden they currently are in our society. In order to make ends meet, what do these immigrants have to do? How have their perceptions of the United States changed over time? 10 years after their arrival, are they glad they came? In the past, I have had them compose an interview between their character and another person. Still, they are writing this from first-person perspective, but it has more of an informative feel rather than narrative structure.
As I mention in the MGRP instructions, writing conferences are necessary for projects like these, and it is important to keep a running record of each student's progress. Some of them may find research difficult; work with them! Help them!
Optional assignments:
Voiceover Video. One year, I had students convert one of their artifacts into videos using Adobe Voice. This addition was really cool, and it allowed us to experience one another's writing and performance, and they dipped their toes into a new app.
Bio Poem. I also had students create bio poems to use as covers for the entire project. Using Microsoft Word, I instructed them on how to find images and use them as backgrounds for their poem, creating dramatic effect. This assignment made the project look very creative and professional, plus it taught them how to use Microsoft Word.
Sample Bio Poem:
