Immigrants' Experiences

Grade Levels: 3 - 5

Objectives

• Students will use vocabulary related to turn-of-the-century immigrant life in New York City.
• Students will appreciate some of the challenges and difficulties of family life for immigrants.
• Students will understand how the families' lives were shaped by the environment in which they lived.

Materials

• Immigrants' Experiences worksheet

Procedures

1. Introduce key vocabulary: boarder, citizen, crockery, immigrants, tenement, urban.
2. Have students complete the Immigrants' Experiences worksheet after they visit The Urban Log Cabin website. This activity can be completed individually or with a partner.
3. Set up a time when students can share their work, and a place for them to display their drawings.

Assessment

Use students' worksheet responses to evaluate their ability to gather information about immigrant families from a website. Assign a point value for each response.

Extensions Activities

• Choose from a large collection of cross-curricular activities for all grade levels.
• Explore outstanding lessons and activities on Immigration.
• Have students create a neighborhood or community portrait, working in pairs or small groups. Direct them to the Neighborhood portrait page of the PBS website and tell them to click on the step-by-step instructions.
• Have students present their portraits to the class or school. Encourage them to focus on a specific aspect of their community that interests them.

Standards Correlations

National Social Studies Standards
http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/

Students develop an understanding of:

• how human beings create, learn, apply, modify, and adapt to their cultures.
• relationships between human beings and their environment.
• their historical roots and are able to locate themselves in time.
• how reading about and reconstructing the past allows them to develop a historical perspective.
• places and regions and the interactions of environment and society.

National Educational Technology Standards
http://cnets.iste.org/index2.html

Students:

• practice responsible use of technology systems, information, and software.
• use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.