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Jasmine Testa

SUNY Albany

Lesson Study: Late Nineteenth Century Immigration

Introduction

The unit that I have chosen to focus on for this assignment is my Late Nineteenth Century

Immigration Unit that I taught at Farnsworth Middle School towards the end of my stint there as

a student teacher with veteran teacher, Mr. Mark Banovic. The unit included a two week long

project that had students select an immigrant group and write a 2-3 page essay in incremental

steps, with heavy emphasis on utilizing proper MLA citation.

Farnsworth Middle School is located in the Guilderland School District in Upstate New

York. The school has a largely Caucasian population of about 85%, followed by an Asian

population of about 8%, with the rest of the school body composed of a combination other ethnic

groups. The school has an innovative and unique composition in that it is composed of four

different houses: Tawasentha, Hiawatha, Mohawk, and Seneca. Each student is assigned a house

and a team, which allows them to have the same peers and teachers throughout their middle

school experience. I was in Seneca house, which is color coded yellow to allow students and

teachers to easily navigate the building and find their classrooms and lockers. Our “Super Team”

used block scheduling, which means that each class period was 80 minutes long, providing more

time for meaningful instruction. On occasion, students had non-block scheduling, meaning that

they had each core class for 40 minutes each, but this was a rare occurrence reserved for unusual

days and scheduled far in advance. Class days were also broken up into “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D”

days.

The Students

Working with Mr. Banovic, I was fortunate to have a fantastic mix of students ranging

from accelerated to those who had Individual Education Plans (IEP’s), 504 plans, those who

were Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH), and students who were classified as English as Second

Language (ESL) students. Since our student body represented a wide range of different

educational needs, I was able to gain experience using differential instruction and creating

lessons that used varying modes of entry to ensure that all students had the opportunity to learn.

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Students also represented a wide range of socioeconomic and demographic groups, making for a

highly diversified classroom, which was beneficial for all children.

Overview

My unit plan was focused on late nineteenth century and early 20th

century immigration.

This unit followed a unit on the American industrialization revolution. The unit’s essential

question was “How did industrialization in American cause immigration and urbanization?”

Following from that essential query, our immigration unit focused on the main push and pull

factors that influenced immigration from Europe and elsewhere during the late nineteenth

century, paying special attention to the Italians, the Irish, Russian Jews, the Chinese, and

Mexicans as these groups were featured most prominently in the text book. Throughout my

student teaching experience, I was fortunate to have a cooperating teacher who inspired me to

create my own lesson plans and materials. He also let me structure my unit in the way that I saw

most fit, which encouraged me to try new ideas. To formulate my unit, I referenced the New

York State core social studies standards, New York State middle school Learning Standards, our

core text book, and other supplemental materials that I found in the classroom and online.

Ultimately, I created all my own materials, although I found inspiration in a variety of places.

Lesson 1- The Great Wave of Immigration (2 Class Periods)

Lesson Structure:

Our first lesson was an introductory class entitled “The Great Wave of Immigration,”

which examined the concept of “push” and “pull”. In this lesson, we examined America’s who

main waves of immigration: the first wave (1840-1880) where immigration mainly stemmed

from Central and Europe (countries like Ireland, England, Germany, and the Netherlands etc.).

In contrast, the second wave of immigration started in 1880 and extended into the early 1900s.

In this second wave, more immigrants began emigrating from Southern & Eastern Europe, Asia,

and Mexico. During this wave, many immigrants came to American to escape unfavorable

social, political, and economic circumstances in their countries of origin.

Each of the two classes consisted of a Power Point slide punctuated with a series of

didactic, reflective and affective questions designed to get students thinking critically about the

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reasons that immigrants wanted to come to America including a movie clip (Figure 1). During

the first of the two class periods I introduced the two-week long immigration project, which was

presented in incremental steps to allow students to do their work in manageable pieces (Figure

2). I figured that most students had not completed an extensive research paper of this magnitude

before, so I wanted to ensure that I thoroughly walked students through each part of the project

to avoid confusion.

The extended immigration project required students to write a 2-3 paged paper on an

immigrant group of their choice. The paper was also supposed to have three reliable sources,

MLA in-text citation and a matching bibliography. As these were new skills for many students,

subsequent lessons involved walking students through the tedious step by step process of

creating a well-structured essay and formulating a MLA style bibliography with matching in-text

citations.

As part of the first immigration class period, I presented students with a demo that

showed them how to use MLA template to create in-text citations and bibliography citations. We

also had a brief discussion about why in-text citations and bibliographies were important when

writing an academic research paper. As part of this lesson, I had students practice citing a

website and citing their text book.

For homework, students were required to bring in five “brainstorm” questions that they

had come up with regarding their chosen topic. Questions could have been wide ranging such as:

Why did my chosen immigrant group want to leave their country of origin? Why did my chosen

group want to come to America? Students were also required to bring in three reliable sources,

whether internet print-outs or books from the library to work during the following class period.

Implications:

Overall, I was happy with the way these two introductory classes progressed and I think

that students got a good feel for the extended project that they were to undertake. Although many

of the students were apprehensive at first, I also saw that many of them were thoroughly excited

to get started and learn new skills, which made me glad. However, in retrospect, I might have

dedicated even more time to explaining the usefulness of in-text citations and a bibliography,

because even at the end of the second class, I could tell that some students were still confused

about what and why these items were needed in their research paper.

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When I received the final papers, I noticed that many students did not understand that an

in-text citation is meant to go at the end of a sentence before a period, instead putting their period

and then including the in-text citation before the start of the next sentence. Since this was a

common formatting mistake, I think that many of the students probably needed more

clarification during the introduction of the assignment.

Lesson 2-Italian Immigration (1 Class Period)

For the second lesson of the unit, I began class by showing students “The Hamburger

Helper- Through the Meat Grinder” Power Point (Figure 3). This Power Point presented students

with a model on how to create a well-structured 5 paragraph essay using the “Hamburger

Model,” where the top bun is the introduction, the meat, cheese and vegetables are the three body

paragraphs, and the bottom bun is the conclusion. The Power Point walked students through how

to create an introduction complete with a broad topic statement, a thesis, and an organizational

statement that navigated a reader through the body paragraphs of the essay. It also outlined how

to create well-structured body paragraphs and an analytical conclusion.

As part of this presentation, I created my own example on the white board, pretending

that I was doing my paper on Jewish emigration from Russia. Using this example, I created an

introduction with a clear three part organization statement and broad topic sentences for each

body paragraph meant to show the reader exactly what each paragraph would specifically

address. During class I had students turn their notebooks sideways and write down the example

so that they could follow it clearly when writing their paper. Students seemed to understand this

example and I saw that more than half of students followed the template well during their final

submissions.

I then transitioned into a Power Point slide show on Italian immigration (Figure 4).

Students took notes and answered a series of didactic, reflective, and affective questions meant to

stimulate analysis and global awareness. Since many of the students in class were of Italian

origin, they were especially interested in learning about the Italian experience in America.

For the last 25-30 minutes of class, students took out their five “Brainstorm” questions

and the sources that they were supposed to have found for homework. Most of the students had

their homework, but some of them had neither come up with questions of brought sources to

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class. For those who had completed their entire assignment, I grouped students together based on

research topic (for example, all students who had chosen Italian immigration were placed at a

cluster of tables together). I then gave each student a “Brainstorm Question” sheet, so they could

write down their homework questions and use the resources they had brought to class to answer

their queries. As part of the assignment, I also wanted them to look at other students’ resources

to determine if they wanted to use certain books, websites etc. While students were answering

their brainstorm questions, I also handed out graphic hamburger organizers so students could

start outlining their papers (Figures 5 & 6). For homework, the students were to complete their

rough draft assignments.

Implications:

I think that the Power Point and “Hamburger Model” worked well for describing how to

create a well-structured 5 paragraph essay. However, the next time I teach students how to do a

5 paragraph essay, I will be sure to reserve more time in order to give students practice in

creating very basic 5 paragraph essays using short documents and graphic organizers. I think

that I would also have created a color coded graphic organizer that aligned organizational

statements in the introduction to the three body paragraphs to illustrate how a 5 paragraph essay

is supposed to naturally flow.

In addition, when doing this assignment with another class I would have been very

explicit in the instructions for this first step. Many students thought that they only had to bring

in questions and sat through much of the activity thinking that they did not have to actually

answer their questions. Some also thought that bringing in sources meant just writing down

URL’s or names of book, and thus did not actually bring in hard copies of sources. Textbooks

were given out to these students so that they could properly complete their assignments.

For homework, students were required to complete their rough drafts and bring them to

class during the next period.

Lesson 3-Jewish Immigration (1 Class Period)

For this class, students were expected to have their rough draft ready for peer editing.

This activity was designed to help students receive useful comments and criticism from their

peers and in an effort to improve the quality of their papers before handing in final drafts. We

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began class by reviewing and recapping material from previous classes and then made our way

into a lecture/ discussion on Eastern European immigration during the late nineteenth century,

paying special attention to Jewish immigration from Russia to America (Figure 6). Students

were very interested in discussing the notion of “religious and political persecution” and we

entered into an engaging conversation about the pogroms and how they were similar in some

ways to the hate crimes seen in America during Reconstruction in the South. We also discussed

the idea of “social mobility” or the ability to work hard and raise your socioeconomic status

through one’s own merit. We discussed how Jews in Russia lacked social mobility and how

Eastern Europeans sought social mobility in America, even though they still faced many

challenges and obstacles.

For the second part of class, students paired up (the teacher chose pairs) and had each

student give the other their paper. Students were first asked to quietly read each other’s papers.

After most of the class appeared done, I passed out “Peer Editing” sheets that each student was to

fill out using constructive criticism that was clearly defined orally and on the peer editing sheet

(Figure 8). Students worked in pairs editing each other’s papers. After they were finished with

one peer’s papers, they switched papers and assessed another group member’s essay. Most

classes got through two papers each, giving their peers constructive criticism using a structured

rubric on the assignment sheet. For homework, students had to edit their drafts in preparation for

handing in their final paper.

Implications

I think that, in all, this class went very well. Students were very interested in discussing

persecution and the idea of social mobility. This topic was particularly resonant for the children

because it let them draw parallels between history and modern day America. I also made a point

of asking students who had done their research on Jewish immigration if they had learned

anything in their reading that would further inform the class. Students seemed to like sharing this

information and I think in the future, I might structure the unit so that as we discuss different

ethnic immigration groups, students will have already done their research and can thus add their

own learning to class discussions. We also did a reading on “The Bintel Brief” where students

were able to read about the challenges and obstacles that Jewish immigrants to America faced in

their quest for better opportunities in the land of the free.

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As for the peer editing, I found that most students benefited tremendously from this

exercise. However, in some of my sections, there were a fair amount of students who had not

brought in their assignments and were not able to participate in the peer editing process. These

students were put at the back table and I asked them to take out their materials and work on their

papers using their hamburger organizers. Even though they were supposed to be working, I

found that some of these students kind of sat there and did little in the way of meaningful work.

In retrospect, I would have brought in some more resources for these students and created a

better research station for them to work at. I might also have tried to find space in the learning

center so I could send some of the kids down to work on computers complete with resources for

them to use for research.

Lesson 4-Chinese Immigration (1 Class Period)

During this class period, students’ final papers were due. Before we started in on our

topic for the day, Chinese Immigration through Angel Island, I asked students to share

interesting facts that they had learned while researching their chosen immigrant group. We went

through all of the different choices and students seemed very proud to share their findings with

the class. During this show and tell session, I even learned a great deal about different groups of

immigrants and students were able to ask each other questions. I really like how this segment of

the class went. For the rest of class, we examined Chinese immigration and “paper relatives”

through a Power Point and a series of didactic, reflective, and affective questions (Figure 9). As

part of the lecture, students also watched a video clip about the poems carved into the walls of

Angel Island by Chinese and other Asian immigrations by “paper relatives” who were detained.

After watching the video, we entered into a discussion about why the government might have

wanted to cover up the poems and what the poems uncovered about immigrant treatment on

Angel Island.

Implications

I think that students enjoyed sharing their research papers so much that if I did this

assignment again, I would give students a full class period to formally present their work,

perhaps using Power Point or some other form of media. I saw that students became very excited

and happy when sharing new information that they had learned and students had a great time

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discussing the push and pull factors present for each other immigrant groups. Through listening

to students discuss their research papers, I found that there were some important points that I

should actually have each student record in the future. For example, many students discussed the

Irish Potato Famine and the natural disasters that made life in Italy so challenging during the late

nineteenth century. Next time I do this unit, I will have students fill out a chart where they can

record important points like these, as they do not come up in regular 8th

grade core curriculum.

Lesson 5-Mexican Immigration (1 Class Period)

For the last class in the unit, we discussed Mexican immigration, using a Power Point

lecture and a series of questions designed to have students think critically and analyze push and

pull factors. We also briefly discussed how Mexican immigration differed in the late nineteenth

century from today in many ways. Students found the connections between history and present

day current events especially interesting. We then read an excerpt from Jacob Riis’s “How the

Other Half Lives” and discussed Riis’s latent bias towards differently ethnic groups as presented

in the book. I had students answer some questions and we had a lively discussion about the

answers. Students thought that the excerpt quite interesting as Riis offers very colorful and

vibrant descriptions of each ethnic group he observes in the Fourth Ward.

Implications

This last class period went very well and students were especially interested in discussing

the connection between late nineteenth century Mexican immigration as compared to current

events that they heard about in the news during the recent presidential election. I think that this

discussion was engaging and involved much critical thinking but some of the students began

bringing up inflammatory arguments rooted in fiercely partisan opinion, likely grounded in

viewpoints they had heard their parents express at home. I let students express their opinions but

I had to be very mindful to not let any of the perspectives offend Hispanic students in the

classroom. I think that I might have created specific questions based on immigration to keep the

conversation a little more streamlined, allowing me to reign back in any perspectives that might

be deemed offensive to some students.

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Final Papers- Reflections

The last class of the unit, students gave in their final papers and I graded them using the

structured rubric included in the immigration project packet. Overall, I was very happy with the

caliber of papers and saw that many students had gained much from the unit overall. Some

students did not clearly align their three body paragraphs with their introduction points.

Furthermore, many students had trouble with proper citation usage. However, some students did

remarkably, even offering some of their own unique voice and analysis, which I was especially

pleased to see (Figure 10).

Figure 1

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Figure 2

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Figure 3

Hamburger HelperEssay Presentation

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The Meat Grinder!

Hamburger Method

AppetizingIntroduction

Tasty points of argument

Conclusion, holding the burger together

The Hamburger Method in Action-Through the Meat Grinder

Introduction and Thesis

Introduction:1) A broad topic statement that is creative- do not simply restate the question!!

2) Thesis statement: The position you want to PROVE (your unique view or opinion based on facts)

3) The Organization Statement- 3 points you want to prove that make up the ESSAY BODY

3 Paragraph Body:

Each paragraph should contain:• Topic sentence• Evidence to prove topic• Analysis of fact and transition to the next body paragraph

Conclusion

Conclusion:1. Restate your thesis2. Recap your points3. Analysis/ Closure

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Introduction

The Key to a Great History Essay! Your introduction should state what you will show readers in your essay. To do this effectively, you should have a Thesis Statement that directly answers the prompt. YourThesis Statement can be a sentence or several sentences. Your thesis statement should NOT merely restate the question, but reflect your unique understanding of the topic at hand.

What is a Thesis Statement?A Thesis Statement:

• tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion

• is a road map for the paper. In other words, it tells the reader what to expect from your essay.

• directly answers the question or subject, not the subject itself.

• makes a claim that others might dispute

• is usually a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of your paper, the body of your essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

Body Paragraphs

Here is where you offer historical evidence (specific factual information that you found in your class sources) that supports your thesis statement. Each new paragraph should have a topic sentence which supports your Thesis Statement. The sentences in the paragraph should support the paragraphs’ topic sentence.

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ConclusionDo NOT Skimp on your

Conclusion!!This is where you “quickly remind

the reader of the points you have made and how they support your Thesis Statement. A good way to remember “So, what was the point I was trying to make?” Also offer the reader your own unique perspective and concluding statements on the issue only drawing upon the evidence that you have presented in your essay.

Things to Avoid!!• Unnecessary flowery language

(use concise language and get to the point).

• Irrelevant facts. They should all directly relate to the points you make.

• Strong and highly opinionated statements without adequate factual support.

• Dumping huge amounts of information rather than reasoning historically. Be sure to analyze.

• Avoid “I” statements. Instead say things like “Research shows…” or “Scholars believe….”

Avoid Fluff!

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Figure 4 & 7

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Figure 5

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Figure 6

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Figure 8

Figure 9

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What message is this cartoon trying to convey?

• The Chinese Exclusion Act

• The Immigration Act of 1917

• Paper Relatives

•The Mexican Revolution

•Barrios

• The earliest Chinese immigrants came to California to seek gold. Many later returned to China

• As the Chinese emigrated to America , labor leaders warned that they would work for less pay than whites

•1882- Congress passed an Exclusion Act that banned Chinese labors from immigrating to the US

•The law also denied Chinese immigrants the right to become citizens

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• Chinese immigration slowed to almost nothing

•1906- An earthquake and fire destroyed birth records and many could now claim to be American citizens

• Citizens could bring wives and children over to the U.S.

•“Paper Relatives” landed on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay

•Immigration officials kept many there for years in makeshift jails

• Many Chinese immigrants started laundries because it required little capital

• Many also settled in “Chinatowns” like San Francisco

• Other Chinese businesses sprouted up like herbalists, newspapers, and groceries

•1900- only 1 in 20 Chinese immigrants were female. The Chinese-American population began to decline

•Slowly more women and children arrived. Chinatown became a tourist attraction.

• Chinese relatives on Angel Island passed their time in captivity by carving poems onto wooden walls with silverware:

•“Why do we have to sit in jail? It is only because my family is poor. My parents wait at the door in vain for news. My wife and child wrap themselves in their quilt, sighing with loneliness”

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_EQY-

0ThOM&feature=related

• The bloody Mexican Revolution lasted for 10 years

•Between 1910-1920, about 500,000 Mexicans entered the U.S. freely

• Many Mexicans walked hundreds of miles to reach the borders and some even traveled by rail

•1900- railroad lines connected American and Mexican cities,providing Mexicans with transport and jobs

•Many Mexican men also came to the U.S. to work on rail lines.

• Some Mexicans worked on railroads, in mines, in factories, and in canneries. However, most worked in agriculture.

• Farm work paid little and children helped parents in the field, receiving hardly any formal education

•Farm workers lived in camps they built near fields- shelters of burlap, canvas, palm branches

•Homes lacked water and basic sanitation

•After harvest, many moved to towns at the edge of major cities-Los Angeles, California, and San Antonio, living in Barrios

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• In the Barrios, neighbors took care of each other and participated in religious ceremonies like festivals supported by the Catholic Church

•Many whites worried that Mexicans were taking their jobs

•Mexicans in the U.S. faced discrimination

•They earned low wages, had little say in working conditions and Mexican children were taunted in schools

•Many returned to Mexico, but some stayed hoping for greater opportunities

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Figure 10

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