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Hayley CunninghamWOK: HistoryLAP 4- Round

I. Content: Describe what it is you will teach. What is the content?

Students will continue their journey of Ellis Island through a simulation of the processing of immigrants at Ellis Island.

II. Learning Goals: Describe what specifically students will know and be able to do after the experience of this class.

Students will further their empathy for the hardships immigrants faced (this is something they have been and will continue building throughout the unit).

Students will be able to identify the different steps it took to gain citizenship in America.

Students will be able to define deportation, naturalization, Ellis Island and citizenship test.

Students will be able to rotate through stations respectfully.

III. Rationale: Explain how the content and learning goal(s) relate to your Curriculum Unit Plan learning goals.

The content and learning goals relate to my essential question: What does it mean to be an American Immigrant in a variety of ways. For instance, the notion that America is a nation built on immigration is a concept that will be addressed numerous times throughout the unit. In order for students to truly understand what that means, it is imperative for students to understand the struggles and hardships that many immigrants faced when coming to America. By immersing students into the processing of Ellis Island, students will be able to capitalize on and reinforce concepts introduced in prior lessons. We have thus far taken the ship journey and now they will be able to experience the processing stations at Ellis Islands in hope of becoming an American citizen. Furthermore, this simulation will give students the opportunity to bring some of the primary source photographs we’ve been seeing to life. In the end, the goal of this lesson is to allow students to empathize with immigrants and when it comes to the conclusion of the unit, to be able to appreciate their own family immigrant stories a little bit more.

IV. Assessment: Describe how you and your students will know they have reached your learning goals.

Students will be assessed informally based off of their performance: their ability to stay on task and their engagement with the lesson. Students will be formally assed with a writing prompt. The will be asked to self-reflect on the lesson using everything we have learned in the unit thus far. I will know that they have met my goals if they are able to apply past knowledge and content into their reflection.

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V. Personalization: Describe how you will provide for individual student strengths and needs. How will you and your lesson consider the needs of each student and scaffold learning? How specifically will ELL Students and students with learning disabilities gain access and be supported?

This lesson was designed to promote learning. My aim was to give the different types of learners in my classroom the opportunity to capitalize on learning. For example, there’s the visual component of exploring the documents, the kinesthetic component where students get to act and experience Ellis Island, and the writing component where students who are able to process learning through writing can have an opportunity to do so. Overall, my aim was to make learning as comprehensible and accessible as it could be. Furthermore, in terms of scaffolding, my lower-level students will be paired with higher-level students who speak the same native language as them. They will also be receiving worksheets with sentence stems in order to help them achieve success with the writing reflection.

VI. Activity description and agenda: a. Describe the activities that will help your students understand the content of your

class lesson by creating an agenda with time frames for your class.

Time Teacher Activity Student Activity Materials NeededBefore Class Pre-set needed

materials on student’s desks.

Pre-pack backpacks for the end of the day

BackpacksRole CardsId TagsMoney

1-5 MinutesBefore class

Facilitate whole-class discussion:

Recap of our ship journey: What was the journey like? How did the immigrants feel?

Engage in whole class discussion

Pre-made Anchor Charts

5-10 Minutes Allow first class passengers the opportunity to get off the ship first.

Call students by the manifest & give them their id card

Collect materials on desk, passport, money, and role cardand come make a line to get off the ship

Pre-set materials

10-40 Minutes Students will rotate First group will go to Stations set up:

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through stations:

Detain students for further questioning

Deport Students

Admit students as American Citizens

medical station; second group will go to citizenship station; third group will be questioned

-Some students will be submitted for further questioning or further medical exams.

Those who are deported will proceed to the deportation waiting room where they will be able to write about how they feel about being deported.

Acuity testCitizenship testDeportation FormsNaturalization Forms

40-45 Minutes Hand out Citizenship Oath

Conduct Recitation

Those students who are naturalized read in unison the citizenship oath.

Citizenship Oath

45-60 Minutes Give writing prompt:What was your Ellis Island experience like? Thinking about the character you played, the reason why your character left their homeland, the ship journey, and the processing at Ellis Island, would you have taken the trip to Ellis Island?

Answer writing prompt.

Lined PaperPencils

b. What particular challenges, in terms of student learning or implementing planned activity, do you anticipate and how will you address them?

The biggest concern that I have for this lesson is student behavior if they get deported. One, I need to make sure that students that I choose to be deported do not have traumatic experiences with deportation. I also need to make sure that they are able to handle being

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deported in the simulation; that they won’t freak out. I will strategically choose students for this purpose.

Behavior throughout the activity is also something I am worried about. I anticipate students getting rowdy. I plan to provide a reminder at the beginning of class and continually address this as needed throughout the lesson. Those who can’t maintain self-control will be asked to sit at their desks, take a moment to regroup and then be asked to rejoin when they feel that they can be respectful and responsible.

VII. List the Massachusetts Learning Standards this lesson addresses.

4.15 Describe the diverse nature of the American people by identifying the distinctive contributions to American culture of: Major European immigrant groups who have come to America, locating their countries

of origin and where they tended to settle in large numbers

W.4.1 Write opinion piece on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

SL.4.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas

or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

I. Reflection

a. In light of all areas of planning, but especially in terms of your stated purpose and learning goals, in what ways was the activity successful? How do you know? In what ways was it not successful? How might the activity be planned differently another time?

Overall, in my opinion this lesson went great. Students were involved and eager to participate. They were rowdy, but this is something I had anticipated. I had wanted the rowdy component because the Great Hall was a loud place with thousands of languages being spoken at once. Looking back at my rounds video, most of the talk was also very productive. Students were talking about their characters and what tests were coming next and what questions they were asked during the citizenship test. They were also excited about their money!

Students also were great at staying with their family/friend groups and making sure everyone got through the station and into America. Looking at my immigrant interviews from my video, the Italian family group was very happy to be traveling and stated that they were excited for the opportunities and jobs America had! It was amazing that most students knew whom they were playing and why they were coming to America. They understood that it wasn’t an easy task to become a citizen. Throughout the simulation, you could hear kids saying “Wish me luck!” and “Oh man that was hard!” One girl, Alma, even had a breakdown because she couldn’t pass the eye test. When she was asked how she felt, she exclaimed, “Being an immigrant is too hard”. She really got the emotion of the situation and used that throughout the rest of the lesson. In the end, the simulation aspect couldn’t have gone any better. Students moved through quickly and

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behaved appropriately. They reached my goal of understanding the processing and also at becoming empathetic towards the immigrant plight.

In terms of the writing prompt, students seemed to really gauge the immigrant experience. Many students used knowledge from past lessons to help form their opinion of whether or not they would come to Ellis Island. In student sample 1, Alkwathar focused on the fact the journey was hard. She understood that immigrants emigrated for better jobs and opportunities and stated that if her country had the same opportunities she would’ve stayed. Tayen and Sebastian Delgado (student samples 2 & 3 respectively) focused their answers on the fact that they could be deported and sent back to their country. They understood that the harsh conditions would be unbearable to experience again if they had to go back on the ship home. Kevin, student sample 4, is my level 1 ELL student who got a different prompt. In his work, he understood that he was playing a character by citing his name as Liam. He drew the ship with lots of people on it and circled that he would have taken the trip. This was very impressive to me as Kevin is typically unmotivated and does not do work. When looking back at my video, he was questioned about the journey and he said it was hard to come to America! He also went through all the stations. Overall, my learning goals were definitely met and exceeded for this lesson.

One aspect of my lesson that I changed was deportation. I realized at the last minute that it was just not something I wanted to subject my students too. Within this community, I didn’t want to take the chance of some students had traumatic experiences that weren’t disclosed or had known someone who had one. I decided to play it safe so that all students could participate and engage in the lesson in a fun way.

Overall, the major aspect of my lesson I would have changed was to make this lesson 5 in my unit sequence. I had anticipated doing more prep work regarding Ellis Island through a step into the picture activity, but because my rounds presentation was assigned to November 18th and due to scheduling conflicts within the classroom, I had to nix the lesson to accommodate the round- I was very adamant about the simulation being the round. Students had ample time to prep for the ship/journey simulation and were able to excel throughout it, but I felt that the prep component was lacking from the lesson. We had discussed Ellis Island and the process of becoming a citizen, but not to the extent that I had wanted to or had anticipated. Students hadn’t been formally assessed on it. I feel that if they were assessed on the components and briefed on the simulation, they would’ve achieved greater understanding.

Furthermore, due to time constraint and a limited number of lessons to implement, I would have loved to do a lesson on specific immigrant groups. I think by studying the patterns of a couple different European immigrant groups and their specific reasons for fleeing their country, student understanding would have been marginalized. Student purpose and understanding for going through the Ellis Island stations would have been enhanced. I would definitely incorporate this type of a lesson into the unit if I had the opportunity to implement it again.

Another aspect of my lesson I would change is the part after students were done and had become citizens. I had them sit on the rug with nothing productive to do. I had a few cartoons about citizenship out, but other than that there was no structure. If I were to implement this again, I would have had students either start their writing prompt or I would have had a selection of children’s books on immigration for them to sift through.

I would’ve also changed the format of the loyalty oath. I would have done a repeat after me style instead of a free for all. I wasn’t thinking in the moment and the minute they opened their mouths to speak I had realized what I had done. Finally, the last thing I would have changed is adding more time to debrief one the experience orally. I initially wanted to do this, but being

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given 45 minutes it was too ambitious. I had to get their oral debriefing through the form of immigrant interviews, which can be seen in my round presentation.

b. What did you learn from the experience of this lesson that will inform your next LAP?

From this experience, I learned that my students work great collaboratively. They were able to work in groups to complete their stations. They all worked well together and there were no arguments among students. I also learned that if my students are passionate about something they can exceed my expectations in regards to behavior. I learned that they do work with materials such as the role cards, id tags and money appropriately and that I should not be afraid to attempt something like this again.

Additionally, I learned that a simulation such as this one was a huge undertaking. I could’ve stretched the lesson into weeks and enhanced it with more props. But I think my students did great with the time they were given. They were able to come away with a new understanding and appreciation for the immigrant experience. I will definitely not hesitate to implement something like this again. The prep work was grueling, but it was an experience my students and I will never forget.

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Appendix

Student Sample 1

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Student Sample 2:

Student Sample 3:

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Student Sample 4:

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