8th grade – introduction to Immigration to the United States in the early 20th century, the cultures of the immigrants, learning from primary sources/ documents, internet-based research.
Lesson Title
Primary Source Activity
Standards:
NCSS
GLEs/GSEs
RIBTS
NCSS-I-C explain and give examples of how language, literature, the arts, architecture, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors contribute to the development and transmission of [S1] GLE-HP 1 (7-8) –1.a Students act as historians, using a variety of tools (e.g., artifacts and primary and secondary sources) byidentifying appropriate sources and using evidence to substantiate specific accounts of human activity
RIPTS-5.1 Design lessons that extend beyond factual recall and challenge students to develop higher level cognitive [S2] .
Context of the Lesson
This is an introductory lesson for a semester course objective based on early 20th century American History. Our main focus over the course is to illustrate how immigration trends influenced American culture, development, politics, history and America today.
The lesson is designed to last 50 minutes and will build upon beginning readings and lectures about early immigrations to the United States. The lesson will lead to a culminating activity over the course of a week when students will research personal background, culture, and ancestors’ immigration to United States. The students will be using several strategies to develop into investigative historians.
Objectives
The objectives for the lesson are: · To build understanding by finding, identifying, and using primary sources/documents to retell [S3] . · To begin to recognize the different elements that contribute to a person’s culture · To begin to reflect on how the early 20th Century immigrations affected the American culture then and how it affects the American people today. · To build an understanding of the process historians use to report history accurately · Learn from, with, and about their peers · Work with family members to find their own primary sources or documents from past family members who immigrated to United States or New England.
Instructional Procedures – Opening
5 minutes
(Students have prior knowledge of Ellis Island from readings and classroom lectures from the sessions before)
Introduce the Ellis Island Passenger Search http://www.ellisisland.org/search/passSearch.asp
Show the students my great-great grandfather’s and great grandfather’s records. · Use technology and personal connection to hook the students to the lesson and connection. · Use website and photographs of my ancestors to demonstrate examples of primary sources.
Show the students a photograph of my great grandfather’s fruit cart. · Use leading questions to illustrate how the students can find information about a people without meeting them. Ask the students to explain how they would research a person they have not met. · Discuss what primary sources are; written records, government reports, diary entries, letters, postcards, photographs. · Teacher makes a holistic connection with the students by asking “What would be a primary document I could use to accurate establish your grade?” Students respond should be “essays, homework, [S4] ”
Instructional Procedures – Engagement
35minutes
Part 1: 10 minutes
Divide the students into groups of 3 to 4 students.
Lead in whole group in discussion about Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Ellis Island Immigration. · Discuss what the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is through the museum website; how it connects with the activity and the course as a [S5] . · Discuss how the Lower East Side Tenement Museum uses primary documents to help find out information about the people who lived in the building during the early 20th century. Explain how historians also gather information about specific people, places and events. · Explain that today’s lesson will give the students the ability to conduct their own historical research using primary sources. Each group will receive a primary document that will help them learn about a young girl named Victoria Confino. · Common knowledge for all groups Victoria Confino was a resident at 97 Orchard Street, New York, NY for 3 years with her family.
Part 2: 20 minutes · Each group will receive one page of the Confino Primary Source Materials packet along with a set of questions to go with the sources and a large sheet of butcher [S6] . · Teacher instructs each group of students to examine their document, consider the questions, and write as much about Victoria as possible based on their single document. The students will record their observations on the large sheet of butcher paper. · Teacher monitors progress and checks in with individual students as needed · Teacher shares with whole class to consider their prior knowledge about the time period. · Each group will present their document and their findings to the rest of the class. Posting the large sheets of paper on the front [S7] .
Instructional Procedures – Closure
Extended Lesson -
Part 3: 10 minutes · After the presentations, the whole class will come together. The teacher will lead in a discussion to have the students put together a story about Victoria based on all the pieces of information they found [S8] . · Teacher emphasizes to the students that they have just done the work of real [S9] . Historians use primary sources in all of their work. They gather information about a time, place, event, or person based on recorded information. Primary sources are essential to the work historians do. · Historians are important because they help us better understand our culture, our country, the world around us, and most importantly ourselves. · Engage the students to be historians of their own backgrounds and relatives. Handout sheet of paper with free websites about immigration data based from Ellis Island. · Engage students to talk with relatives about when their families came to the United States. · Students may also bring in an example of a primary source document that tells something about their family or town for the next class. For students without internet access, they may come after school to research on school computer by making an appointment with the teacher.
Students will create a wikispace page for their artifacts. SEE EXTENDED LESSON PLAN on wikispace.
Materials/Resources
Confino Primary Source Materials packet. (the documents are attached to the lesson plan)
Larger Pad of paper
Markers
Internet access for websites
Photographs of my relatives
Samples of Primary documents or sources
Assessment
Check for prior understanding with discussion questions in the opening about Ellis Island and Immigration
Formative assessment through questioning during whole and small group activities
Evaluate students on their ability to decipher primary source documents, engage in the process and draw conclusions from the given [S10] .
Engage students with critical thinking question to help them expand their thinking about Victoria.
[S1]I chose this standard because it is important for students to understand how culture affects people’s daily lives, history and ultimately how the students are affected by culture and our cultural society. [S2]The primary source activity is used to challenge the students to be historical detectives. [S3]Students will learn that there are many resources historians use to learn about past cultures, places, and events. The teacher needs to teach students strategies to find the information for issues they are interested in. [S4]Here I have moved the personal connection from myself and allowed the students to connect with primary documents which are tangible to them. [S5]The use of the website allows visual learners to make stronger connections to the text they read for the course. The real world examples illustrate to the students that researching history is signicant. [S6]The student-centered activity allows students to investigate on their own with support from their peers. While identifying primary sources is new, the group can work together to come up with findings. [S7]By viewing each groups artifact, the students can see how their peers deciphered the problem similar or different from the other groups. The style of presentation and organization will differ from each group. [S8]This is where the teacher will pull together all the information the students gathered and guide them to develop a story. Ultimately showing how historians organize information into a accurate well-informed historical narrative. [S9]The activity focuses on making learning about history a hands-on learning experience. [S10]The students are learning how to gather information, check for accuracy and then use the valid information to gain understanding of the past and the present.
Lesson Title
Primary Source ActivityStandards:
NCSS
GLEs/GSEs
RIBTSGLE-HP 1 (7-8) –1.a Students act as historians, using a variety of tools (e.g., artifacts and primary and secondary sources) byidentifying appropriate sources and using evidence to substantiate specific accounts of human activity
RIPTS-5.1 Design lessons that extend beyond factual recall and challenge students to develop higher level cognitive [S2] .
The lesson is designed to last 50 minutes and will build upon beginning readings and lectures about early immigrations to the United States. The lesson will lead to a culminating activity over the course of a week when students will research personal background, culture, and ancestors’ immigration to United States. The students will be using several strategies to develop into investigative historians.
· To build understanding by finding, identifying, and using primary sources/documents to retell [S3] .
· To begin to recognize the different elements that contribute to a person’s culture
· To begin to reflect on how the early 20th Century immigrations affected the American culture then and how it affects the American people today.
· To build an understanding of the process historians use to report history accurately
· Learn from, with, and about their peers
· Work with family members to find their own primary sources or documents from past family members who immigrated to United States or New England.
(Students have prior knowledge of Ellis Island from readings and classroom lectures from the sessions before)
Introduce the Ellis Island Passenger Search http://www.ellisisland.org/search/passSearch.asp
Show the students my great-great grandfather’s and great grandfather’s records.
· Use technology and personal connection to hook the students to the lesson and connection.
· Use website and photographs of my ancestors to demonstrate examples of primary sources.
Show the students a photograph of my great grandfather’s fruit cart.
· Use leading questions to illustrate how the students can find information about a people without meeting them. Ask the students to explain how they would research a person they have not met.
· Discuss what primary sources are; written records, government reports, diary entries, letters, postcards, photographs.
· Teacher makes a holistic connection with the students by asking “What would be a primary document I could use to accurate establish your grade?” Students respond should be “essays, homework, [S4] ”
Part 1: 10 minutes
Divide the students into groups of 3 to 4 students.
Lead in whole group in discussion about Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Ellis Island Immigration.
· Discuss what the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is through the museum website; how it connects with the activity and the course as a [S5] .
· Discuss how the Lower East Side Tenement Museum uses primary documents to help find out information about the people who lived in the building during the early 20th century. Explain how historians also gather information about specific people, places and events.
· Explain that today’s lesson will give the students the ability to conduct their own historical research using primary sources. Each group will receive a primary document that will help them learn about a young girl named Victoria Confino.
· Common knowledge for all groups Victoria Confino was a resident at 97 Orchard Street, New York, NY for 3 years with her family.
Part 2: 20 minutes
· Each group will receive one page of the Confino Primary Source Materials packet along with a set of questions to go with the sources and a large sheet of butcher [S6] .
· Teacher instructs each group of students to examine their document, consider the questions, and write as much about Victoria as possible based on their single document. The students will record their observations on the large sheet of butcher paper.
· Teacher monitors progress and checks in with individual students as needed
· Teacher shares with whole class to consider their prior knowledge about the time period.
· Each group will present their document and their findings to the rest of the class. Posting the large sheets of paper on the front [S7] .
Extended Lesson -
· After the presentations, the whole class will come together. The teacher will lead in a discussion to have the students put together a story about Victoria based on all the pieces of information they found [S8] .
· Teacher emphasizes to the students that they have just done the work of real [S9] . Historians use primary sources in all of their work. They gather information about a time, place, event, or person based on recorded information. Primary sources are essential to the work historians do.
· Historians are important because they help us better understand our culture, our country, the world around us, and most importantly ourselves.
· Engage the students to be historians of their own backgrounds and relatives. Handout sheet of paper with free websites about immigration data based from Ellis Island.
· Engage students to talk with relatives about when their families came to the United States.
· Students may also bring in an example of a primary source document that tells something about their family or town for the next class. For students without internet access, they may come after school to research on school computer by making an appointment with the teacher.
Students will create a wikispace page for their artifacts. SEE EXTENDED LESSON PLAN on wikispace.
Larger Pad of paper
Markers
Internet access for websites
Photographs of my relatives
Samples of Primary documents or sources
Formative assessment through questioning during whole and small group activities
Evaluate students on their ability to decipher primary source documents, engage in the process and draw conclusions from the given [S10] .
Engage students with critical thinking question to help them expand their thinking about Victoria.
[S1]I chose this standard because it is important for students to understand how culture affects people’s daily lives, history and ultimately how the students are affected by culture and our cultural society.
[S2]The primary source activity is used to challenge the students to be historical detectives.
[S3]Students will learn that there are many resources historians use to learn about past cultures, places, and events. The teacher needs to teach students strategies to find the information for issues they are interested in.
[S4]Here I have moved the personal connection from myself and allowed the students to connect with primary documents which are tangible to them.
[S5]The use of the website allows visual learners to make stronger connections to the text they read for the course. The real world examples illustrate to the students that researching history is signicant.
[S6]The student-centered activity allows students to investigate on their own with support from their peers. While identifying primary sources is new, the group can work together to come up with findings.
[S7]By viewing each groups artifact, the students can see how their peers deciphered the problem similar or different from the other groups. The style of presentation and organization will differ from each group.
[S8]This is where the teacher will pull together all the information the students gathered and guide them to develop a story. Ultimately showing how historians organize information into a accurate well-informed historical narrative.
[S9]The activity focuses on making learning about history a hands-on learning experience.
[S10]The students are learning how to gather information, check for accuracy and then use the valid information to gain understanding of the past and the present.