Lesson Plan Two
“To Leave or Not To Leave”
This lesson is adapted from an immigration lesson from "The Curricular Value of Teaching About Immigration Through Picture Book Thematic Text Sets". The original lesson focused on the question of "What motivates someone to make the momentous decision to leave their country permanently and come to the United States?" It provided students wil two books "Bound For America" by Milton Meltzer and "Immigrants" by Martin W. Sandler. Students were to read these books to "open the door to more learning and encourage further inquiry." From the information gathered in these books students were to come up with and discuss different reasons why people would immigrate. I felt that this original lesson had a strong essential question so I kept this question as the essential question to my lesson. With my adapted lesson I chose to focus on push and pull factors of immigration. To teach these factors I would first clarify what these factors are and provide examples for the students. The students would then explore these factors further by researching the lives of immigrant children and analyzing their reasonings for immigrating to the United States. I felt that the adaptation that I made to the original lesson allowed for a clearer explanation of the factors and also involved the students more in their learning and understanding.
Grade Level: 3rd
Time Needed: 60 minutes (split between two 30 minute class periods)
Subject Area: Social Studies
Topic: Immigration
Sub Topic: Why do people immigrate to the United States?
Standards addressed in this lesson:
NCSS Standards-
Thematic Standard II- Time, Continuity and Change
Thematic Standard III- People, Places, and Environments
MMSD Standards-
Behavioral Science- 6. Demonstrates an ability to interact within a group while performing various group roles (i.e. organizing, planning, and goal setting).
Political Science and Citizenship- 3. Give examples of how government does or does not provide for the needs and wants of people, establish order and security, and manage conflicts.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas- 4. Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
Essential Questions:
· What motivates someone to leave his or her country permanently and immigrate to the United States?
Materials Needed:
· Stories of immigrant children, past and present
· Student social studies notebooks
· Poster size paper
Objectives:
· Reserve computer lab/library computers
· Find credible/good sources for stories of child immigrants
o Books, websites, blogs, etc.
Lesson Context:
This lesson is the second lesson in a social studies unit dedicated to immigration. The students have previously discussed what immigration is and who immigrates to the United States. The students will now be discussing the factors that influence individuals to immigrate to the United States.
Lesson Opening:
· Pose students with the question of the day:
o Imagine that you are living in another country, why would you want to immigrate to the United States?
o Have students express their answers in the social studies notebooks
· Turn and Talk
o Have students share their ideas with a partner
Procedures:
· Part One: Introducing push and pull factors
o Students share their ideas with the class
§ Does anyone have any ideas of why people might choose to immigrate to the United States, permanently leaving their home?
§ List students reasoning’s on board
o Explain that there are things that happen in peoples home countries that make them want to leave and things in the United States that make people want to move here
§ Push Factors: characteristics of home country-Why would you want or need to leave?
- These are usually negatives
- Conditions so poor that they are pushed out, they no longer want to be there
- I.e. Jew left Russia to escape the pogroms, Hmong left refugee camps in Southeast Asia
§ Pull Factors: characteristics of new country- why would you want to come?
- These are usually positives’
- Better opportunities
- Give students time to write this terminology into their social studies notebooks
o As a class now organize the ideas listed into push factors and pull factors on an anchor chart
§ An example could look like this
“To Leave or Not To Leave”
This lesson is adapted from an immigration lesson from "The Curricular Value of Teaching About Immigration Through Picture Book Thematic Text Sets". The original lesson focused on the question of "What motivates someone to make the momentous decision to leave their country permanently and come to the United States?" It provided students wil two books "Bound For America" by Milton Meltzer and "Immigrants" by Martin W. Sandler. Students were to read these books to "open the door to more learning and encourage further inquiry." From the information gathered in these books students were to come up with and discuss different reasons why people would immigrate. I felt that this original lesson had a strong essential question so I kept this question as the essential question to my lesson. With my adapted lesson I chose to focus on push and pull factors of immigration. To teach these factors I would first clarify what these factors are and provide examples for the students. The students would then explore these factors further by researching the lives of immigrant children and analyzing their reasonings for immigrating to the United States. I felt that the adaptation that I made to the original lesson allowed for a clearer explanation of the factors and also involved the students more in their learning and understanding.
Grade Level: 3rd
Time Needed: 60 minutes (split between two 30 minute class periods)
Subject Area: Social Studies
Topic: Immigration
Sub Topic: Why do people immigrate to the United States?
Standards addressed in this lesson:
NCSS Standards-
Thematic Standard II- Time, Continuity and Change
Thematic Standard III- People, Places, and Environments
MMSD Standards-
Behavioral Science- 6. Demonstrates an ability to interact within a group while performing various group roles (i.e. organizing, planning, and goal setting).
Political Science and Citizenship- 3. Give examples of how government does or does not provide for the needs and wants of people, establish order and security, and manage conflicts.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas- 4. Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
Essential Questions:
· What motivates someone to leave his or her country permanently and immigrate to the United States?
Materials Needed:
· Stories of immigrant children, past and present
· Student social studies notebooks
· Poster size paper
Objectives:
- SWBAT critically think of why people leave their country
- SWBAT identify ‘push factors’ as factors that push people out of their home countries to move somewhere else
- SWBAT identify ‘pull factors’ as factors that influence people to come to a new country
- SWBAT name several examples of push and pull factors
· Reserve computer lab/library computers
· Find credible/good sources for stories of child immigrants
o Books, websites, blogs, etc.
Lesson Context:
This lesson is the second lesson in a social studies unit dedicated to immigration. The students have previously discussed what immigration is and who immigrates to the United States. The students will now be discussing the factors that influence individuals to immigrate to the United States.
Lesson Opening:
· Pose students with the question of the day:
o Imagine that you are living in another country, why would you want to immigrate to the United States?
o Have students express their answers in the social studies notebooks
· Turn and Talk
o Have students share their ideas with a partner
Procedures:
· Part One: Introducing push and pull factors
o Students share their ideas with the class
§ Does anyone have any ideas of why people might choose to immigrate to the United States, permanently leaving their home?
§ List students reasoning’s on board
o Explain that there are things that happen in peoples home countries that make them want to leave and things in the United States that make people want to move here
§ Push Factors: characteristics of home country-Why would you want or need to leave?
- These are usually negatives
- Conditions so poor that they are pushed out, they no longer want to be there
- I.e. Jew left Russia to escape the pogroms, Hmong left refugee camps in Southeast Asia
§ Pull Factors: characteristics of new country- why would you want to come?
- These are usually positives’
- Better opportunities
- Give students time to write this terminology into their social studies notebooks
o As a class now organize the ideas listed into push factors and pull factors on an anchor chart
§ An example could look like this
Part Two: Research and Presentation
o “We will be exploring stories of child immigrants and discovering the reasons that they immigrated to the United States. We will then be determining if their reasons were push factors or pull factors.”
o Students partnered up
§ With partner students research story of child immigrant (past or present)
§ This information can be found in books or online
- Websites could include
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/young_immigrants/
http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Present.html
§ Students will be focusing on capturing the persons story of their immigration
- Why they left, how they got here, etc.
§ Students will prepare a 5 minute presentation about the individual they researched
- This presentation will focus on why this individual immigrated to the United States and the students can also include any other information they find important
§ The students can choose how to present the information:
- Poster presentation
- Summarizing the story
- Role-playing/skits
§ After each group completes their presentation the class will identify whether the child’s reason for immigrating was a push factor or a pull factor
Closing:
· If applicable, add any new push or pull factors that the class identifies from the presentations
· Then review the examples of push and pull factors that the class has come up with throughout the lesson
· Homework: Where did you or your ancestors immigrate from and what were the reasons for immigrating to the United States? Were these reasons push factors of pull factors?
o This is a question that can be answered with the help of students’ parents.
Assessment:
The students will be graded both formally and informally. For the first part of this lesson I will be grading students informally based on their participation in the class discussion about push and pull factors. I will also be looking to see that they are able to identify examples of the different factors. I will be formally assessing the students’ presentations of the research that they have done. This assessment will be done with a rubric. This rubric will be broken down based on student participation- during the research process and during the presentation, the students ability to identify the factors for the child to immigrate to the United States, and the creativity of the presentation. (See rubric below)
o “We will be exploring stories of child immigrants and discovering the reasons that they immigrated to the United States. We will then be determining if their reasons were push factors or pull factors.”
o Students partnered up
§ With partner students research story of child immigrant (past or present)
§ This information can be found in books or online
- Websites could include
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/young_immigrants/
http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Present.html
§ Students will be focusing on capturing the persons story of their immigration
- Why they left, how they got here, etc.
§ Students will prepare a 5 minute presentation about the individual they researched
- This presentation will focus on why this individual immigrated to the United States and the students can also include any other information they find important
§ The students can choose how to present the information:
- Poster presentation
- Summarizing the story
- Role-playing/skits
§ After each group completes their presentation the class will identify whether the child’s reason for immigrating was a push factor or a pull factor
Closing:
· If applicable, add any new push or pull factors that the class identifies from the presentations
· Then review the examples of push and pull factors that the class has come up with throughout the lesson
· Homework: Where did you or your ancestors immigrate from and what were the reasons for immigrating to the United States? Were these reasons push factors of pull factors?
o This is a question that can be answered with the help of students’ parents.
Assessment:
The students will be graded both formally and informally. For the first part of this lesson I will be grading students informally based on their participation in the class discussion about push and pull factors. I will also be looking to see that they are able to identify examples of the different factors. I will be formally assessing the students’ presentations of the research that they have done. This assessment will be done with a rubric. This rubric will be broken down based on student participation- during the research process and during the presentation, the students ability to identify the factors for the child to immigrate to the United States, and the creativity of the presentation. (See rubric below)