The Changing Face of America

1. The Changing Face of America Comparing Immigration: Then and Now

2. Unit Summary • Develop in the students the understanding that America is politically, ethnically, culturally, and economically a "nation of immigrants." • Focus on the motivations for immigration, the perils of their journey to America, the problems involved in adapting to a new world, and the unique rich cultures they brought to this country – past and present. • Make students aware of their diverse backgrounds and to teach students to be tolerant of other people who might be different.

3. Standards Social Studies (2004) Grade(s): 7 • Citizenship • 9.) Identify individual and civic responsibilities of citizens of the United States. • Examples: • - individual-respect for rights of others, self-discipline, negotiation, compromise; • - civic-respect for the law, patriotism, participation in the political process • • Describing differences in rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities between citizens and noncitizens • • Explaining how United States citizenship is acquired • • Interpreting an immigration map • • Identifying character traits that are beneficial to individuals and to the republic of the United States • Examples: honesty, courage, compassion, civility

4. Standards Social Studies (2004) Grade(s): 7 • Geography • 1.) Describe the world in spatial terms using maps, major physical and human features, and urban and rural land-use patterns. • • Explaining the use of map essentials, including type, size, shape, distance, direction, location, scale, and symbols • Examples: reference and thematic maps; topographic maps, globes, and map projections; aerial photographs; satellite images; lines of latitude and longitude; cardinal and intermediate directions; fractional, graphic, and verbal scales; conventional symbols used in atlases; Global Positioning System (GPS); Geographic Information Systems (GIS) • • Using geographic technology to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective • • Analyzing relationships among people, places, and the environment by mapping information about them, including trade patterns, governmental alliances, and immigration patterns

5. Standards Social Studies (2004) Grade(s): 7 • United States Studies: 1877 to the Present • 14.) Identify cultural and economic changes throughout the United States from 1960 to the present. • Examples: • - cultural-rock and roll, antiwar protests, counter-culture, hippies, fashion, cellular telephones, rise in single-parent families; • - economic-War on Poverty, Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), inflation, budget deficits • • Describing the impact of technological and social changes on the society of the United States from 1970 to the present • 15.) Explain major political events from the Nixon Administration to the present, including the Vietnam War; Watergate; the collapse of the Soviet Union; the Gulf War; the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; and the War on Terrorism. • • Identifying important legislation created from the Nixon Administration to the present • Examples: Clean Air Act, Environmental Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, Patriot Act, Americans with Disabilities Act • • Describing the changing role of women and minorities in society from 1970 to the present • • Locating on a map sites of significant historical events occurring between 1970 and the present

6. Learning Objectives Students will be able to: • Identify immigrant groups and ethnicities coming to the United States. • Explain the reasons people came to the United States from all over the world. • Gain knowledge about the following: the process of entering the United States as experienced by immigrants; methods of transportation and ports of arrival; treatment and reception of immigrants by other Americans; and conditions of tenement life. • Describe the hardships faced by immigrants coming to the United States. • Understand the feelings associated with being an immigrant. • Use the Internet as a tool for research to gain exposure to the wide range of information available on the Internet, including photographs, text, and interactive environments. • Know the difference between a primary source, such as the photos and diaries, and a secondary source, such as an essay written by a historian. • Make inferences by culling research from several sources to write an journal in first person depicting an accurate account of an immigrant's experience. • Appreciate their diverse backgrounds be tolerant of other people who might be different. • Compare and contrast the differences between the rights of citizens and non-citizens • Analyze the similarities and difference in immigration law and public policy in the early 1900s and present day • Explain the process of becoming a US citizen • Evaluate the socioeconomic impact of immigration on the country and their local community

7. Curriculum-Framing Question Essential Question: • Is change worth the risk? Unit Questions: • Why would you leave your home and family for a new world? • How does the economic impact of immigration at the turn of the century compare to that of today? Content Questions: • What is a citizen? What are rights? What is civic duty? What were the demographics of immigrants in the early 1900s? What are they today?

8. Assessment Timeline

9. Procedures • Introduction: Teacher will administer a pre-test (using QuizStar) to determine how much students already know about immigration. • Teacher will begin by oral questioning and guiding a discussion using the Presentation with the entire class about citizenship, rights, and immigrants. Teacher will lead students into talking about what it means to be a citizen and what are our rights and responsibilities. Teacher will further extend the discussion by asking students if they know anyone who was not born in America and therefore do not automatically citizenship and rights. • Watch the movie trailer for The Terminal (Viktor Navorski, a man from an Eastern European country arrives in New York but after he left his country; war broke out and erases his country from the map , voiding his passport. Navorski is left a man without a country that the U.S. cannot recognize, thus he is denied entrance to the U.S. However, he also can't be deported). • Students will complete an individual KWL Chart on what they know about immigration and how it affects their community and what they would like to know more about.

10. Procedures • Preparation for learning: Prepare students for the unit by reading a variety of short stories that focus on immigration. Teacher can use Google Earth to set up a tour of places which lost large numbers of their population to immigrants leaving for the US. Teacher can embed website links that depict early immigrants in photos and video. Ask students to place themselves in the photo and try to imagine how they feel in their new country. • Use the Visual Ranking tool to indicate the reasons why various immigrant groups came to America. • Teacher will post a timeline in the class and online for students to gage their progress throughout the project, as well as distributing a Project Checklist ensure they are completing all necessary tasks. Students will also enter what they have accomplished and what they need to do daily in a Learning Log. • Project plans, KWL charts, project checklists, rubrics can be uploaded to online collaborative documents like Google Docs and their learning logs on a blog.

11. Procedures • Activities: Create a family tree that dates back to immigrant ancestors to include their place of birth, pictures (if available), reasons for coming to America, description of their life, customs, dress, music, religion, etc. Use this information to create a group map (either with a bulletin board map and push pins or online at http://www.frappr.com). • Have students to conduct an interview of a relative or family friend who has immigrated to the US for a podcast. If no family or friends have immigrant backgrounds, have students use the Scholastic: Immigration Stories of Yesterday and Today to read questions and answer from three students who have recently immigrated here. • Have students bring articles from newspapers and magazines related to present day immigration issues to share orally with each other. • Using a graphic organizer, compare and contrast immigration to America at the turn of the century to modern day patterns, ethnic groups, reasons for coming, legislation/procedures to becoming a citizen, barriers/opportunities in America (housing, jobs, language, education), reaction by the American people, and the social and economic impact of immigration. • Use the Seeing Reason tool to create a causal map that depicts the economic impact of immigrants on the US economy. •  Create a collage of images (either with a Melting Pot bulletin board or multimedia presentation-PowerPoint, PhotoStory, MovieMaker- or online at http://www.flickr.com) that symbolize the hopes, beliefs and experiences of immigrants coming of America, such as the Statue of Liberty, as well as visually depicting their experience – then and now.

12. Procedures • Activities (continued): Watch Rant (Tolerance and respect can be learned through the wild adventures of two very different ants in the entertaining “Rant.” Ray, a slightly over the hill Anglo ant, and Lalo, a recent immigrant from Mexico, are ordered by their sergeant to return with food or not return at all. Rant is an engaging adjunct to Social Studies Units on Multiculturalism, Tolerance, Conflict Resolution, Communication and Friendship.) Ask students to try to imagine what life is like for new Americans-new language, new schools, new jobs, etc. What day-to-day problems might they face? What changes would they need to make in their life styles? How might we help new Americans adjust? Have students compile a class wiki with suggestions for living with and assisting newcomers to our country tom promote tolerance and civic duty. •  Students will use the Showing Evidence tool to help the class organize for a class debate on US immigration laws and the social and economic affects of the immigrant population in their local area. "Is it worth the risk?" will be answered by students thinking about the risks of allowing potentially hostile immigrants into the country and the strain on family and social services as compared to closing the doors and decreasing the cultural diversity that has made this country great and the economic impact of losing the workers and monetary circulation they generate. They will use their new insight(s) on the topic to host a school/community forum to discuss the issues and possible solutions in their local area. The teacher will be sure to invite local councilman/legislators and businessmen to participate as well. Through these activities students will develop flexible thinking, respecting differing perspectives, sound reasoning, argumentation and persuasion skills. •  Students will student will be answering the unit question “Why would you leave your home and family for a new world?” They will use their own blog to write "letters" back home to family and friends from the perspective of a US immigrant. In this way, they can describe the reasons they left their native land to come to America and what they experienced on their journey and when they arrived. Other students can "comment" back to the "letters" asking questions about their journey and experiences. The student will then have to answer their question based on their research and by making inferences.