Lesson For Change

 This lesson can be adapted to fit multiple lessons on diversity and the history of any state or nation.

Subject: 8^th & 11^th Grade U.S. History

Lesson and Unit: 1903 Immigration Forum: The Progressive Era 1900-1917

Objectives:

• Help students to understand the immigration issues in the early part of the 20^th century.
• Give students a sense of safety and of respect within the classroom, and then  compare some of these issues with immigration today

State Standards
Idaho: US2 1.2 / 1.4 / 4.3
Utah: US2 3.1 / 5.2
  

Materials needed:

• Five newspaper covers from five big cities in the 1903 dealing with immigration - five copies of each
• Magnifying glass for each student
• Overhead or power point of the Immigration Act of 1917
• Markers/ chalk for the white/chalk board

Lesson:

            Before beginning remind the class of the first rule of the classroom: respect. Tell them that we will be discussing a matter that is in the news today, but we must be respectful of other people’s opinions. Remind them that we all came from immigrant families, either now or in the distant past.

            Divide the class into five groups of four or five and have them read newspapers from the early 20^th Century (pre-printed from The Library of Congress :National Endowment for the Humanities http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/) from large cities on the east and west coasts where immigration issues were their highest. Have each group member take notes so that they can present a one minute overview of their article (10-15minutes)

            Have the groups separate into five new groups with one group member from the five articles. This way there are members representing each of the old groups. Prompt each group to share a one minute overview of the articles that they had read, after which the groups are to discuss the similarities among the articles and identify at least ten issues that were related to immigration in the early 20^th Century. (15 minutes).

            Bring the class back together and have a group discussion, by first listing several of the issues that they had found from their small groups. Have the students expound on the list and bring up issues that appear in the news today. Bring in newspapers with headlines on immigration today. Pose these questions as discussion: are there solutions? What could be done to help immigrants transition into life in the USA?  (This discussion could go on for 10 or 15minutes depending on the class.)

            Have each student write a reflection in their History Journals on the following prompt: “Put yourself in the shoes of an immigrant in the early 20^th Century in a large city from one of the articles you read. How would reading those newspapers make you feel about the city you are living in?” (5-10 minutes).

            Once they have all finished with their journals ask what they know about what happened with immigration during the Progressive era and the early 20^th Century. If there is no comment have them open the book to the chapter on the early 20^th Century and immigration. Pose the question again and point out certain paragraphs on the subject. End with the Immigration Act of 1917, reading the first section on the overhead together. Discuss how this limited the amount of immigrants and stopped certain immigrants from entering the country for several reasons. List some of these reasons as a class from the Immigration Act of 1917.

            Before the bell rings ask the students if they know what was going on in Europe in 1917 which may have contributed to the influx of immigration. WWI and Pogrom in Russia (Discrimination against Jews such as Fiddler on the Roof).

Lesson Analysis:

            This lesson covers a wide variety of Multi-Cultural topics that are applicable to diverse teaching. The lesson is tailored to a wide variety of learners by including group work, large group discussion, visual aides such as overheads and written lists, and journal writing for those that do not feel inclined to speak out. This lesson also builds a supportive teacher-student and student-student relationship by giving the students the opportunity to learn and teach each other using some of the materials provided.

            At the beginning of this lesson, before the group discussion, I refresh the students’ memories on the first rule of the classroom: respect. This is appropriate for the possibly of prejudice stereotyping of immigrants in the 20^th century and today, and there may be classmates that are immigrants or come from immigrant families that must be considered. My lesson also fosters cross group communication by mixing up the classroom twice and creating a topic of discussion.

            Within my lesson are several newspapers that have articles that express a dislike for new immigrants from Eastern Europe and show how the power and privilege that Americans had over these new immigrants and how it can be related to today’s immigration issues. The curriculum is most definitely relevant to mainstream and non-mainstream students by discussing an issue that has been debated for decades and applies to all groups in the USA whether they are new immigrants or have immigrants in their heritage.

            By having each group read articles written by the established citizens of the different cities they can see their opinion of the new immigrants and yet they know that many of these people were their grandparents. To be treated the way that they were was a true injustice, and yet today there are some of the same injustices being committed against immigrants. The goal is to make a new way to think about the issue of immigration. My lesson also encourages students to analyzing what they read in newspapers and the oppression that came during the early 20^th century.

            All of these multicultural objectives are crucial to my lesson without them we would probably read the book and watch a documentary of immigration in the early 20^th century.