Social Studies Curriculum Unit
Immigration
Unit Essential Question: “How has immigration changed the United States?”
Grade Level: 4/5 Subject Area: Social Studies
Time Needed: 50-60 minutes Topic: Immigration
Lesson Essential Question: “Who are the immigrants?”
NCSS Standards Met:
Materials Needed:
Objectives:
· Students will learn that an immigrant is a person from one country who moves to settle permanently in another country
· Students will learn that a migrant is a person who moves from one part of a country to another part of the same country.
· Students will learn that the immigration story is a part of everyone’s history.
· Students will learn that the people in their class have roots in many diverse countries.
Lesson Context:
This is the introductory lesson for the unit on immigration. This mixed 4/5 class has already done some exploration of their own cultural histories in the beginning of the year. Some students are first-generation immigrants and know their own immigration story well, while others are less familiar with the immigration story of their families. My CT has sent home a questionnaire with the students asking them to identify their family members who have immigrated, from where they immigrated, and when they immigrated, so they are prepared to discuss these more personal aspects of immigration.
Lesson Opening:
Today, we are going to begin a unit on immigration. Please take out your Wisconsin textbooks and turn to page 102. At the top, it reads, “Immigration and Migration: Then and Now”. Does anyone know what ‘immigration’ means? Migration? Immigrant? Migrant?
o Listen to student ideas after each term, clarify what it means and write on board. Repeat definition with hand motions, reminding students to copy if it will help them learn the term. Have students repeat definition in choral with teacher. Make sure students are able to distinguish the terms – which one refers to a person? Which one refers to an action?
Procedure:
Once everyone has finished sharing their countries of origin, I will ask students the essential question for this lesson: “Who are the immigrants?” I will ask them to pair up and discuss the question with their partner for a minute or so, and then I will ask them to share out their partners’ answers.
Assessment:
This class is particularly chatty, so I will be to use classroom management cues to remind them to stay on track. I also plan to ‘wait until they are ready’; the students respond well when they see that the teacher is waiting on them for the lesson to continue.
Immigration
Unit Essential Question: “How has immigration changed the United States?”
Grade Level: 4/5 Subject Area: Social Studies
Time Needed: 50-60 minutes Topic: Immigration
Lesson Essential Question: “Who are the immigrants?”
NCSS Standards Met:
- Individual Development and Identity
- Use map reading skills.
- Standard 2: Understands Social Context of Schooling
- Standard 6: Connects School and Community
- Standard 14: Relates Well With Students, Families, and Communities
Materials Needed:
- Enough Wisconsin texts for each student
- Chart
- Enough maps for each student
- Large class map to write on
Objectives:
· Students will learn that an immigrant is a person from one country who moves to settle permanently in another country
· Students will learn that a migrant is a person who moves from one part of a country to another part of the same country.
· Students will learn that the immigration story is a part of everyone’s history.
· Students will learn that the people in their class have roots in many diverse countries.
Lesson Context:
This is the introductory lesson for the unit on immigration. This mixed 4/5 class has already done some exploration of their own cultural histories in the beginning of the year. Some students are first-generation immigrants and know their own immigration story well, while others are less familiar with the immigration story of their families. My CT has sent home a questionnaire with the students asking them to identify their family members who have immigrated, from where they immigrated, and when they immigrated, so they are prepared to discuss these more personal aspects of immigration.
Lesson Opening:
Today, we are going to begin a unit on immigration. Please take out your Wisconsin textbooks and turn to page 102. At the top, it reads, “Immigration and Migration: Then and Now”. Does anyone know what ‘immigration’ means? Migration? Immigrant? Migrant?
o Listen to student ideas after each term, clarify what it means and write on board. Repeat definition with hand motions, reminding students to copy if it will help them learn the term. Have students repeat definition in choral with teacher. Make sure students are able to distinguish the terms – which one refers to a person? Which one refers to an action?
Procedure:
- Now, we are going to read the section furthest left on page 102. It’s called “Who is an immigrant?” This reading is going to include lots of the vocabulary we just learned, so some of it will sound familiar.
- Read section chorally as a class
- When finished: “Who can remind us what an immigrant is? A migrant?” “Can anyone think of people they know who are immigrants or migrants?” (people in own family, famous people, etc.)
- Now we are going to find out where each person in our class is from. What did the text say about who the immigrants are? Are all of us immigrants? Are all of us related to immigrants or migrants? I’ll be picking chips to choose names. After I pick the chip, you’ll want to fill in the name of your classmate. Then, s/he will share where s/he is from or where his/her ancestors are from. I know many of you are probably migrants – you’ve moved from one place in this country to another – but for this unit, we’re simply going to focus on immigration. That is why you were asked to find out where your ancestors came from. You’ll fill in where that person is from on your chart.
- When you come up here, you are going to show us the country you are from on the map. You can put a dot on the country you are from. If you need some help, there will be a map right here for you to look at, and I’ll also be prepared to help you find your country. We are going to draw a line away from the country into the ocean, and then stick your picture next to the line and write the name of the country you or your ancestors are from. Each person is going to have their own personal map, so they will be able to fill in that information on their smaller map. When we’re done, we’ll have a record of all the countries we are from, a beautiful map for our classroom, and personal maps as visuals to remind us that we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants.
- Students will come up and do procedure. Necessary information = their name and their country of origin; if they know the year that their family/ancestors traveled to the U.S., they can also share that information.
Once everyone has finished sharing their countries of origin, I will ask students the essential question for this lesson: “Who are the immigrants?” I will ask them to pair up and discuss the question with their partner for a minute or so, and then I will ask them to share out their partners’ answers.
Assessment:
- Student participation in whole-class and partner discussions
- Student fills out chart
- Student participates in map-making activity
This class is particularly chatty, so I will be to use classroom management cues to remind them to stay on track. I also plan to ‘wait until they are ready’; the students respond well when they see that the teacher is waiting on them for the lesson to continue.
