ASSIGNMENT #4: Collaborative Unit Plan (25 points)



Maureen Southorn

IST 668/Spring 2008

Assignment #4: Collaborative Unit Plan

Due May 4, 2008

Target Student Group

The target group for this lesson is Grant Middle School sixth grade students. School demographics are heterogeneous. About 48 percent of students are white; 40 percent are African or African American; 8 percent are Hispanic; 2 percent are Asian or Asian American; and 2 percent are Native American. Grant has very substantial sub-populations of students with special needs (25%), economic disadvantages (80%), and/or limited English proficiency (8%). The school has not made NCLB adequate yearly progress ELA targets for a number of years and as of the 2007-08 school year is in restructuring – year 4 status. Sixth grade ELA test passage rate currently sits at about 35 percent. The administration has focused on teaching literacy skills within content areas as key to making adequate yearly progress toward NCLB targets. There are no dedicated full-time reading instructors; most teachers at Grant studied education and/or their content area as an undergraduate and pursued literacy education as a Master’s option.

Sixth grade students attend a secondary school yet fall under the “common branch” category for education. Sixth graders at Grant attend classes with block schedules of one hour each, with the same teacher for two blocks on most days. Their teachers are required to teach literacy within the content area curriculum alongside standard reading classes. This arrangement is ideal for unit studies, since students can work on skills across the curriculum in one context for an extended period of time, instead of just one short period each day or every other day.

ESL learners will also take part in the assignment. ESL learners at Grant primarily hold SIFE status (students with interrupted formal education). Most came from refugee camps abroad. Current ESL students are from Myanmar (Burma), Cuba, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Vietnam, Puerto Rico, Yemen, Sudan, Russia, Turkey, and Haiti. The SIFE students are eager to please and very appreciative of education, but encounter many problems since many have not before experienced the concept of rules, order, and authority. While earlier groups of refugees were highly educated and well-traveled, over the last decade the camps have grown larger, disorganized, and chaotic, leaving this set of students ill-prepared for a school setting.

Instructional Goal

While strengthening their literacy skills, students will learn about the historical causes behind waves of migration to the United States, then compare and contrast the experiences of several immigrant groups.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• challenge their assumptions related to the root causes for human migration, as demonstrated by an anticipation guide

• Learn and demonstrate, in quickwriting exercises, vocabulary skills related to the migration experience

• Demonstrate, in double-entry journal format, knowledge connections about migration

• Exhibit interviewing skills by drafting as a group questions to ask present-day immigrants about their experiences

• Successfully create artifacts about their target country, showcasing their new knowledge about a local immigrant’s culture

Part One/One Day

The Immigrant Experience: introduction

(The introduction will be held in the classroom and led by the teacher.)

Many immigrants have come to the United States. Many arrived from a certain country at a certain time period. This was called a “wave” of migration. We’re going to look at a few waves, and compare and contrast their experiences.

Vocabulary Review

See attached sample vocabulary activity sheet. The Jackdaws portfolio also includes several glossary/vocabulary sheets that can be copied and handed out to students for their reference. Vocabulary sheets will not be collected or graded, although the class should go over the sheet together to ensure that all students have matched up the correct definitions.

Teacher should focus on the words emigration and immigration by reviewing the prefixes and what they mean (in, out) to support better comprehension and recall.

“E-“ is the Latin root for “out.” emerge (out + dip) / emotion (out + move) / emit (out + sound) / elevate (out + lift) / eclipse (out + leave) / educate (out + lead) / effect (out + do) / eject (out + throw) / elect (out + choose). Do not confuse with French root, “em-,” which means “before.”

“Im-“, the Latin root for “into,” is used before the letter m, b, or p. “Im-“ can also mean not, but usually readers can tell which of these two meanings apply. Imbibe (in + drink) / imperil (into + danger) / implode (in + explode) / import (in + carry) / impound (in + shut) / imprint (in + press) / impoverish (in + poor) / impel (in + drive).

Anticipation guide

Students will fill out the anticipation guide before starting the unit. The teacher will collect and save the anticipation guides until the end of the unit, then redistribute them so students can compare before and after answers. The anticipation guide will not be graded.

|Before unit |Statements |After unit |

|Agree |Disagree | |Agree |Disagree |

| | |All immigrants came to the United States to pursue opportunities for work or | | |

| | |ways to earn money. | | |

| | |Immigrants traveled in family groups when moving to the United States. | | |

| | |Daily life in the United States was easier for immigrants, as compared to | | |

| | |daily life in their country of origin. | | |

| | |The people of the United States truly accept legal immigrants: the tired, the | | |

| | |poor, the huddled masses seeking to be free. | | |

What is Immigration?

Teacher will provide an overview of immigration waves, using the Immigrant Timeline provided in the Jackdaws packet or a similar aid.

Part 2/ 5-7 days

Wave 1: Irish/The potato famine and Ellis Island

• Day 1/Shared reading: Led by the TL in the LMC. The Amazing Potato, Chapters 4 and 5. Use shared reading strategies to boost comprehension. Illustrations are black and white and smaller than a page; the TL may want to blow up and display a few pictures during the session.

• Day 2+/Independent exploration and Sustained Silent or Guided Reading. Led by the teacher in either classroom or LMC. Teachers can present a centers-style set-up depending on reading level and dynamics of the class. By end of part 2, all students will have a) answered key questions using the Jackdaws portfolio broadsheet on the Irish and non-fiction selections by Doalm, Rebman, Meltzer 1, Meltzer 2, Bartoletti, and b) completely read Giff’s Water Street. The non-fiction selections range in reading levels from grade 3 (The Amazing Potato) to grade 7 (Bartoletti’s Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine). Giff’s Water Street is rated at a 4.8 reading level, an appropriate level since most students prefer to read for pleasure at a grade level or two lower than their school placement. Tan’s The Arrival, a wordless book, should also be made available to support full reading range.

• Days 2-7/Read-Arounds: In the classroom, facilitated by teacher. Students will mark their favorite passages to share and discuss with the class.

• Day 3 or 4/Quickwriting: In the classroom, facilitated by teacher. Two topics could include Potato Famine and Ellis Island. Teacher should grade for comprehension, vocabulary use, grammar, spelling, and syntax.

• Circa day 7/SSR response: In the classroom, facilitated by teacher. Double Entry Journal: Teacher will hand out the following quotes for students to write double entry journal reflections. Double entry journals will be scored up to 3 points each for writing voice and style, grammar, syntax, spelling, and comprehension. Total possible score for each journal is 15 points (full total: 60 points).

|Wave 1: Quote 1 |

|…She’d waited for this day all summer. This was the last year she’d ever spend in school. It would be time for her to go to work…Would it |

|be the box factory like Annie during the day? Would it be the fish store or a vegetable market? Or worse, cleaning someone’s house? How |

|could she spend the rest of her life like that, doing something that didn’t matter to her? And remembering what Da always said: “We have to |

|better ourselves in this new country. Each generation doing better than the last no matter how hard it seems.” (Giff 58-59) |

|Wave 1: Quote 2 |

|“If I were on a farm somewhere, working in a field, I wouldn’t care how hard I’d have to work… Do you know what it was like working in that |

|caisson under the river? Closed in, knowing the river was just inches away, deep underneath.” (Hughie) shuddered… “I couldn’t do it either,”|

|Thomas said. “Never.” “I think you could,” Hughie said. “I think you could do anything you had to do…. I’m going to fight until someone |

|stops me, or bashes my head in. I’m going to fight until I get the money for a farm.” (Giff 114-115) |

Wave 2: Chinese/The Transcontinental RR and Angel Island

Set-up will mimic format for wave 1.

• Day 1/Shared reading: Led by the TL in the LMC. Lee and Choi’s Landed. This is a color picture book, so no additional action is needed to prepare materials. TL should introduce idea that Asian immigrants entered the U.S. at the Angel Island location, and invite students to think about how the experiences of Asian immigrants might compare or contrast with European immigrants.

• Days 2-3/Independent Exploration: Also held in LMC. Students will rotate between print documents (at tables in main room) and the web resource (in the computer lab adjoining the main room). Teacher and TL will both be available to help. Activities:

o Print documents: Jackdaws portfolio broadsheet, “The Chinese” and Pert’s To the Golden Mountain: The Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad.

o Li Keng Wong’s Asian Island experience website: . This website links to other educational websites about Chinese immigration. Teacher/TL can encourage students to explore these or not depending on time constraints.

• Day 4/Quickwriting: Golden Mountain, Paper Son, Angel Island

• Days 4-7/Sustained silent and guided reading: Yep’s The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner (My Name is America: A Dear America Book).

• Days 4-7/Read-Arounds: Students will mark their favorite passages to share and discuss with the class.

• Day 7: Double Entry Journal:

|Wave 2: Quote 1 |

|I’ve met the hungriest Americans I’ve ever seen. They were so thin their bones were like sticks… There was something familiar about the |

|newcomers. As I stared at their gaunt faces, I realized what it was: their faces were the faces of starvation. Back in China, those had |

|been our faces. The cheekbones of my parents’ faces had stood out just like theirs. I never want to see that again. The dream is the |

|right one. As scared as I am, I have to try to find gold. (Yep 77-78) |

|Wave 2: Quote 2 |

|There are a lot of things rich people aren’t supposed to do in China. You can’t even scratch when you itch. That kind of life would be |

|tighter than a too-small jacket. Here on golden Mountain I am free. I can scratch all I want. And I can get all the books I want from San|

|Francisco… I wondered if this is how the swans feel when they leave one home for another. (Yep 191) |

Wave 3: Refugees

• Day 1/In the LMC. Primary sources, part 1: Immigrant student interview preparation. Students will gather at the tables in the LMC main room. TL will talk about interviewing to the class, describing interview etiquette, techniques, and the different kinds of questions students might ask their schoolmates. Teacher will split students into small groups to prepare questions for several minutes. Each group will record their question on large sticky paper placed on the wall in several areas of the library. One member of each group will present their questions to the class. As a large group, the class will eliminate duplicates and discuss the remaining questions. The TL will facilitate discussion about how appropriate and interesting the questions are. The teacher will suggest any points that might have been missed. Selected questions will be written down on the whiteboard. Chosen questions will be submitted to the ESL teacher, who will determine which students will be selected for an interview based on the question list.

• Day 1-2/in the LMC. Primary sources, part 2: Teacher & TL will present Kannon’s Beyond the Fire website at using the main room LCD projector and a laptop secured by the TL for the activity. Teacher and TL will co-present how to fully use the site by using John from Sudan as the example. They should be sure to demonstrate all aspects of the site, including how to view the country timelines and the full stories of each teen on the site. After the presentation, students will move into the computer lab to explore the site on their own. TL will ensure that the website is bookmarked and that headphones are provided at each computer station. If computer availability is limited, teachers may copy and hand out Oduah’s “To Be a Teen Refugee” article and discuss this with class members not using computers. This activity should begin right after the interviewing preparation session, and should continue for at least one full class period to ensure that all students get a substantial, if not comprehensive, look at the 15 stories presented on the website.

• Day 3/Primary sources, part 3: held in LMC main room. ESL students will visit class and answer interview questions. Teacher, TL, and ESL teacher will moderate. Several students may be designated as note-takers. At the end, the teacher will lead a summary of the interviews and write down the countries represented by the students interviewed on the whiteboard. Students will be told to select one of the countries listed to study. They should arrive on day 4 with their choice selected.

Culminating Project: Country Study

Students will choose to study a country represented by the interviewees or provided at the Beyond the Fire website. The teacher will give an overview of the project, noting that students must use a certain number of print resources and the Culturegrams database for their reports. The TL will provide a research orientation, demonstrating a) the public catalog and how to find the call number for the country; b) the Culturegrams subscription database; and c) the selected web resources students are permitted to use for the project. Students will gather data on:

1. Country Facts and Figures – population, leaders, flag, currency, major cities, etc.

2. Celebrations and holidays

3. Myths and folktales

4. Culture groups (ethnicities, tribes, social strata, etc.)

5. Daily life – family and gender roles, work, school system, dating, common hobbies

6. Food – staple foods, traditional recipes

7. Language – learn a greeting in target language, note one language or multiple languages used, gestures

8. Sports – to play or watch

Students will capture this information in a graphic organizer, then turn this into an artifact that will be shared with the class and displayed in the hall. The teacher can allow students to work in pairs or as groups, if desired. The artifact could include a collage, essay, book, or PowerPoint presentation. The teacher and TL should establish in advance the milestones and deadlines, and make sure to present these up front so students know what to expect. Deadlines and milestones should also be displayed on the main room whiteboard as a reminder to all students. Teacher and TL will circulate among all students to get progress checks and give individual feedback throughout the project, over several days, as students research their topics.

Each student or group will show the class their project and tell the class the most interesting fact they discovered and why they found this interesting.

Teacher will assess projects as a portfolio-type assignment, considering not only the finished project but also the progress made from earlier discussions. TL can assist with assessment as needed. Teacher/Tl should give immediate feedback after presentation to reinforce student interest and help them understand the strengths and weaknesses of their project.

Culmination: Instructional Conversation

After the presentations end, the class will sit at the LMC center tables for a grand conversation on these topics:

• Compare life in the country you studied to life in the U.S. If you were born in that country, would you emigrate?

• If you, as an American, were dropped off in the country you studied, would you be welcomed? Attacked?

• How has the immigrant experience changed over time? Do today’s immigrants have problems similar to the European and Asian immigrant groups we studied?

Teacher and TL should end the unit by discussing their observations about what the class has learned.

Text Set

>14 books/series, nine websites, and one primary document portfolio<

In-class, independent exploration, sustained silent reading, and guided reading selections

Baker, L., Ed. (2004). U.S. Immigration and Migration Reference Library: Farmington Hills, MI: Thomsen Gale. This comprehensive reference set provides all sorts of resources for a migration unit and includes Almanacs vol. 1 and 2, Biographies vol. 1 and 2, one-volume Primary Sources, and a Cumulative Index. Teachers can photocopy and pass out copies of the Homestead and Chinese Exclusion Acts, and students can look up and read full biographies of prominent and successful immigrants by nationality.

Bartoletti, S.B. (2001). Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. This Sibert Award winner will keep students’ interest through eyewitness-style memoirs of the famine and a multitude of drawings and news clips from the time period. Even students who merely views the maps, quotes, and poems will gain much from flipping through this volume.

Dolan, E.F. (2003). The Irish Potato Famine: The Story of Irish-American Immigration (Great Journeys). New York: Marshall Cavendish. This connects the famine and other root problems in Ireland more closely to the decision to migrate. The books contains many photographs and tables in black and white and color.

Giff, P.R. (2006). Water Street. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. Bird (short for Bridget) and Thomas, children of Irish immigrants, carve out their new lives in an 1875 tenement building overlooking the construction of the new Brooklyn Bridge. The book touches on the Irish potato famine, lives and recipes of a healer (Bird’s mother), pop culture (a woman taking over the bridge’s construction after her husband and son are incapacitated), and illnesses of the time (scarlet fever outbreaks and Cassion’s Disease, a early form of “the bends” suffered by underwater bridge workers). Giff’s descriptions focus on the close togetherness of Bird’s family; Bird’s attempts to balance her fears with the expectations of her immigrant parents; and problems of alcoholism, bloody boxing matches, and illiteracy among the Irish immigrant group.

Kannon, S. (2004). Beyond the Fire. An Electric Shadows Project/ITVS Interactive. . This powerful website, based on an independent film effort, asks readers “What would you do if you had to leave forever? What would you choose to take with you?” Students can learn about the refugee experience by clicking on one of 15 teens displayed on a world map. Each teen image brings up their native country’s map and a timeline of the area’s conflicts. A third click activates the teen’s “passport” including their name, background, and current home and school in the U.S. From here students can access 2-3 oral histories about key events in each teen’s life, from being shot at age 7 to misunderstandings endured at a U.S. high school. Audio clips are accompanied by family and home country photos. Each clip is horrifying, yet told with a tone of acceptance and hope. This resource was a favorite among teachers who looked over this unit plan. One teacher actually bookmarked this to follow up a Holocaust unit covered in the Technology and Literacy curriculum.

Lee, M. (2006). Landed. Y. Choi, Illus. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. In the 1880s, 12-year-old Sun must study for and negotiate the immigration process at Angel Island. How long will Sun stay on the island? Will he pass the test? Will his friends be sent back to China? Will Sun ever see his father again? This book is beautifully illustrated, with simple text for a read-aloud to middle school students. Comprehensive author notes chronicle the life of the real Sun, who was the inspiration for this book, and shed light on the rest of his life and connection to the book’s author.

Meltzer, M. (1992). The Amazing Potato: A Story in Which the Incas, Conquistadors, Marie Antoinette, Thomas Jefferson, Wars, Famines, Immigrants, and French Fries All Play a Part. New York: Harper Collins. This book focuses very specifically on the history of the potato itself, but Chapters 4 and 5 cover the famine in Ireland and its impact on the migration patterns of Irish. This book is written with simpler language than other resources on this topic, making it an excellent choice for struggling readers.

Meltzer, M. (2002). Bound for America: the Story of the European Immigrants (Great Journeys series). New York: Marshall Cavendish. Gives excellent charts, facts and figures that will help students place Irish immigration into the bigger picture, allowing them to compare and contrast motivations to migrate from other nations. Full-page photographs add to the book’s attractive appearance.

Oduah, C. (2003 Oct. 20). To Be a Teen Refuge. WireTap Magazine Online. Retrieved April 29, 2008 from . This article, written by a high school student, explains in understandable prose many details about the current influx of refugees into many area of the United States.

Pert, L. (2003). To the Golden Mountain: The Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad (Great Journeys series). New York: Marshall Cavendish. Another full-color, photograph-filled offering will give students more background about the many jobs pursued and held by Chinese immigrants. Gives great focus to daily life and the root causes behind anti-Chinese sentiment in America.

Rebman, R.C. (2000). Life on Ellis Island (The Way People Live series). San Diego: Lucent Books. This book will help students understand the treatment of all immigrants during migration “in-processing.” Includes photographs of documents and the immigrants coming in, and provides easy-to-understand prose for struggling readers.

Scriabine, C. (1995). Immigration: 1870-1930. Jackdaw Portfolio #G84. New York: Golden Owl Publishing. This portfolio combines fascinating primary documents with a prepared set of document-based inquiries and fantastic reference materials written by an expert in the field. Teachers will want to use Broadsheets 1 (Immigration in the Industrial Age), 2 (Northern Europeans: A Continuing Stream), and 3 (Asians: The Chinese) as core reading, then allow students to explore the interesting artifacts such as:

o Advice to Immigrants: What Every Immigrant Should Know/ A Simple Pamphlet for the guidance and benefit of prospective immigrants to the United States. By Cecilia Razovsky, Dept of Immigrant Aid, Council of Jewish Women

o Telegram from the Asiatic Exclusion League of America to Immigrantion Convention dated Nov 16 1911 calling for “a halt on the cheap labor that is being dumped on our shores to be used as a club to reduce the wages of laboring men now in the country… the League welcomes the immigrant that comes here with his family to till the soil, but is opposed to the single an who comes to be herded like cattle in a life destroying atmosphere to work for a pittance that is insufficient to properly maintain a man in decent surroundings…”

o Photographs and political cartoons capturing and skewering the immigration waves

Tan, A. (2007). The Arrival. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books. This wordless book follows a man who escapes a repressive nation and travels to his new home. The illustrations are striking and highly detailed. Readers are thrown into a foreigner’s shoes, where all signs are written upon with strange symbols and communications take place primarily though gestures and facial expressions. Each panel will transport readers though the protagonist’s memories and impressions as he finds his way in a new world.

Yep, L. (2000). The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner (My Name is America: A Dear America Book). New York: Scholastic. This first-person account presents a fictionalized but historically accurate picture of Gold-Rush era Chinese immigrants. Wong, nicknamed Runt, travels to California to help his Uncle seek gold and earn wages to elevate their family in China out of poverty and tax debt. Subtle text captures nuances from this controversial time period, from the underlying hatred of native whites for the Chinese workers, to the status Chinese gave to men who could read and write.

Pre-selected resources for culminating country study project

Culturegrams subscription database. . Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest K-12 .

Series: Enchantment of the World. Sample Title: Willis, T. Afghanistan: Enchantment of the World. New York: Scholastic Children’s Press.

Series: In America. Sample Title: Taus-Bolstad, S. (2006). Pakistanis in America. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications.

Series: Visual Geography. Sample Title: DiPiazza, F.D. (2006). Sudan In Pictures. Minneapolis: Lerner publications.

Websites:

• Library of Congress Country Studies and Country Profiles

• BBC Country Profiles

• Languages of the World, Web Edition

• Countries and Their Cultures

• Freedom House Country Reports

• U.S. Department of State Background Notes

References

Alessandro, A. (2008 Apr. 30). Syracuse City School District ESL Teacher. Interview.

New York State Office of Instructional Support and Development. (2007, Nov). Schools and Districts in Need of Improvement: Elementary and Middle Schools Accountability Status 2007-08 (Rest of State). Retrieved April 25, 2008, from the NYSTAR website,

New York State Office of Testing Accountability and Reporting. (2007). The New York State School Report Card: Accountability and Overview Report 2005-06: Grant Middle School, Syracuse City School District. Retrieved April 25, 2008, from the NYSTAR website, .

New York State Office of Testing Accountability and Reporting. (2007). The New York State School Report Card: Comprehensive Information Report 2005-06: Grant Middle School, Syracuse City School District. Retrieved April 25, 2008, from the NYSTAR website,

Nugent, B. (2008 Apr 30). Syracuse City School District ESL Teacher. Interview.

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ESL student interview session: sample questions

1. Before you traveled to the US, you must have had some thoughts about what it would be like. Is life in the US what you expected it to be?

2. What is difficult about living in the US?

3. What is easy?

4. Please describe an example where an American has misunderstood or believes something untrue about your country.

5. Who has helped you the most to settle in to your new home country?

6. Do you have relatives still living in your old country? How do they feel about your life in the US?

Related Content Area Standards

ELA 1/ Gather and interpret information from children's reference books, magazines, textbooks, electronic bulletin boards, audio and media presentations, oral interviews, and from such forms as charts, graphs, maps, and diagrams. Select information appropriate to the purpose of their investigation and relate ideas from one text to another. Select and use strategies they have been taught for notetaking, organizing, and categorizing information. Present information clearly in a variety of oral and written forms such as summaries, paraphrases, brief reports, stories, posters, and charts. Select a focus, organization, and point of view for oral and written presentations.

Social Studies 1/ Know the roots of American culture, its development from many different traditions, and the ways many people from a variety of groups and backgrounds played a role in creating it. Gather and organize information about the traditions transmitted by various groups living in their neighborhood and community. Explore different experiences, beliefs, motives, and traditions of people living in their neighborhoods, communities, and State.

Essential Question

How are the experiences of different groups who have immigrated into the United States similar? Different?

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