Lesson Title: Immigration

Day Number: 1
Author: Jenna Doudrick
Unit: American Culture and Cultures around the World
Grade Level: 3rd
Background Information
This lesson is about immigration and how different cultures come together. Throughout the
lesson students will learn the hardships immigrants faced and what it was like for them to
come to America. The lesson also includes what immigration was like in the past versus
what it is like now.
Expected Duration 1 hour
Concepts
- Culture
- Places
- Economics
Vocabulary
- Immigrant/ Immigration
- Prejudice
- Citizenship
Skills
- Comparing
- Contrasting
- Public speaking
- Active listening
- Analyzing
- Synthesizing
- Identifying

Integration of Learning Outcomes

Students will compare and contrast immigration in the past versus the immigration
process today in America.
Students will create an animated short story about the life of an immigrant coming to
America.
Students will demonstrate, through discussion, their understanding of the hardships
that Immigrants faced.

Standards
PA Standards
Econmics-5.2.3.A: Identify personal rights and responsibilities.
Geography-7.3.3.A: Identify the human characteristics of places and regions
History-8.3.3.C: Identify and describe how continuity and change have impacted U.S. history.
History-8.3.3.D: Identify and describe how conflict and cooperation among groups and
organizations have impacted the history and development of the US.

NCSS:
Standard 1- Culture and Cultural Diversity
-guide learners as they predict how experiences may be interpreted by people from
diverse cultural perspectives and frames of reference;
-encourage learners to compare and analyze societal patterns for transmitting and
preserving culture while adapting to environmental and social change
Standard 2- Time, Continuity, and Change
- Enable leaners to identify and describe significant historical periods and patterns of
change within and across cultures, including but not limited to, the development of
ancient cultures and civilizations, the emergence of religious belief systems, the rise
of nation-states, and social, economic, and political revolutions
Standard 3- People, Places, and Environments
-Guide learners in exploring characteristics, distribution, and migration of human
populations on Earths surface;
Standard 10- Civic Ideals and Practices
- Assist learners in understanding the origins and continuing influence of key ideals of
the democratic republican form of government, such as individual human dignity, liberty,
justice, equality, and the rule of law.

Anticipatory Set
To start the teacher will say, Boys and girls, we are starting our next unit on Our American
Culture and Cultures Around the World. I hope you all are as excited as I am for this unit
because we have many interactive activities to do so we can learn more about American culture
and other cultures. Today we are going to dive right in and talk about immigration!
The teacher will put up a few pictures on the interactive whiteboard of immigrants in the past
and immigrants today. The teacher will have the students write down what they think
immigration is. She will write the word on the board with its definition so students can copy it
down. The definition is, A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.

Procedures
1. The teacher will ask, What do you see in these pictures of these immigrants? What do
you think times were like for them? Do you think they were happy they came to
America? Why? The teacher will allow students to share their answers to these
questions based off of the pictures. They will also compare and contrast the pictures
from the past to the pictures of today. The teacher will explain to them that she is going
to read Grandfathers Journey by Allen Say so they can get a better perspective on what
immigration was like.
2. The students will come to the carpet for the teacher to read Grandfathers Journey to
them. Before the teacher starts reading the book she will ask the students if they know
where their ancestors are from or if they had any family that came here from another
country. She will inform them that Grandfathers Journey is about a boys grandfather
who shares his experience about his journey to America.
3. The teacher will read Grandfathers Journey, stopping a few times throughout the book

4.
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to check for understanding by asking discussion questions. On page 4 the teacher will
ask the students, Who is telling the story? On page 6 she will ask, Where is
grandfather going? On page 16 she will ask, Why does he leave North America and go
back to Japan? At the end of the book she will ask someone to briefly summarize the
book. (This serves as a formative assessment during the read-aloud to see if students
are understanding the story)
After the book is over students will go back to their seats and the teacher will show a
brief PowerPoint on Immigration and the hardships immigrants faced in the past.
During the PowerPoint, the teacher will stop when they learn about the citizenship tests
to have students take a citizenship quiz online. She will give them a few minutes to
complete as much of the quiz as they can. After they are done with the test, she will ask
the students what they through about it. Did you think it was hard or easy?
The teacher will bring in documents and letters from immigrants. She will read one
letter aloud to the class using the doc cam and have a brief student-led discussion about
the letter. The rest of the documents and letters will be available for them to read
during silent reading time.
The teacher will transition and say Now that weve learned about what it was like for
immigrants in the past, I would like you to take time to think about where your
ancestors/ family members are from and what their journey might have been like. This
will require you to do some research about the country they came from and how
America would have been different for them.
The teacher will then explain the directions and hand out a rubric for the students to
introduce the mini project they will be doing for the reminder of the class period. The
directions are to create a short animated website using Storyboardthat.com. Students
should include at least 6 different scenes covering where they came from, how they got
to America, where they settled in America, the hardships they were faced with, and the
occupations they may have had. The teacher will show them on the interactive
whiteboard how to create a storyboard.
The students will make a short animated story on the website Storyboardthat.com
about the journey that their ancestor/family went through while the came to America.
The teacher will give them approximately 25 minutes to start this. They will then share
their stories to the class tomorrow to start off the next lesson. They will need to finish
their projects for homework. The teacher will grade them using the checklist. (This
serves as a formative assessment of the lesson to assess if the students understand
what immigration was like.)

Differentiation
For ELL Students- For students who are still learning English, there will be extra support and
accommodations for them. The teacher can modify the animated story assignment for them,
but allowing them to have brief text on each block and not as detailed as other peoples stories.
They will use their pictures to really emphasize the meaning of the story.
For gifted students- For gifted students, the teacher will have the other documents and letters
from immigrants available for them to read if they get done the assignment early. They can also
make another animated story based off of the letter they read if they choose to.

Closure
After the teacher stops them where they are during their project, they will clean up all of their
materials and return to their seats. To sum up the lesson, the students will write down one
interesting fact they learned today about immigration that they did not know before. The

teacher will call on a few students to share their answers out loud.
Boys and girls, I hope you all learned interesting facts about immigration today. I encourage
you to go home and talk to your parents about where your ancestors came from. You can even
teach your parents how immigration in the past is different from immigration today! You can
also teach them the hardships immigrants faced when they first came to America. Thank you for
being active listeners today and for all of your participation!

Formative / Summative Assessment

Formative assessment will occur several times throughout the lesson. She will ask the questions
stated in the procedure throughout Grandfathers Journey to check their understanding of the
book. During the student led discussion about the immigrant letter, the teacher will listen to
what the students have to say to understand their way of thinking. The teacher will be walking
around while the students complete the animated stories to ensure they are including the
necessary parts about immigrations in their stories.
Formative assessment will occur using a checklist to grade their presentations at the end of the
lesson. The summative assessment checklist will help the teacher check to see if they
understood the lesson as a whole by including the main parts of immigration in their stories.

Materials / Equipment/ Resources

A. Student Materials/ Reading Resources:
Immigrants in the 1800s:

Immigrants today:

Grandfathers Journey by Allen Say: Book (See References)

Citizenship test website: https://my.uscis.gov/prep/test/civics (See References)
Immgration Letter:

Websites:
https://hsp.org/education/unit-plans/irish-immigration/irish-immigrant-letters-home
http://www.jaha.org/edu/discovery_center/push-pull/letterstohome.html
www.storyboardthat.com/

B.

Teacher Resources
Harcourt 3rd- Chapter 9: Our American Culture (See References)
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/ellis-island-1.htm
Power Point:

Teacher checklist for understanding of animated story assignment:

References:
Education: Heritage Discovery Center. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2015.
Irish Immigrant Letters Home. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2015.
Our American Culture. (2010). In Harcourt social studies. Orlando, Fla.: Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing.
Say, Allen. Grandfather's Journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.
Storyboard That: The World's Best FREE Online Storyboard Creator. (n.d.). Retrieved November
10, 2015.
USCIS - Civics Test Introduction. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2015, from
https://my.uscis.gov/prep/test/civics

Technology

The laptops will be used for the citizenship test and animated short stories.
The doc cam will be used to read the letter.
The interactive whiteboard will be used for a PowerPoint presentation.

Reflection on Planning
Planning this lesson was very time consuming. I was able to come up with a lot of fun ideas, but
it took a lot of work to put it all together.
A concern I have for my lesson is the time limit. I feel that I have a lot of information and
activities to fit into an hour. Another concern of mine is the choice of letter that the teacher will
read to the class. I fear the vocabulary might be too difficult for them to comprehend.
I love my idea of the animated story activity. I think students will love to create this and it will
also help develop their understanding on immigrants and why they came to the United States.

Content Outline
Chapter 9- Our American Culture
Lesson 1- Moving to New Places
Activate background knowledge
- What do you think times were like for them? Do you think they were happy
they came to America? Why?
A Nation of Immigrants
- People do not always live in the same place all their lives.
- Immigrants come to U.S. for opportunity
- Grandfathers Journey by Allen Say
Power point presentation: A Nation of Immigrants
- Vocabulary:
o Immigrant- A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign
country.
o Opportunity- A chance to have a better way of life.
o Prejudice- Unfair feeling of hate or dislike for people of a certain group,
race, or religion.
- Immigrants Face New Problems
o Crowded Apartments
o Immigrants were often paid less than others
o Faced prejudice
- Beginning New Lives
o Between 1820-1920 millions of immigrants arrived to the U.S.
o Once they arrived: long lines, health checks, questioned, citizenship test
o Students complete citizenship test
- Popular Immigration Areas
o Angel Island
o Ellis Island
- Immigration Today
o The U.S. government limits the number of immigrants that can enter
each year
o Immigrants arrive from all over the world
Letter from immigrant

Animated Story Project

- Storyboardthat.com
- Journey of what their ancestors might have went through coming to U.S.
Closure
- Interesting fact they learned about immigration

Lesson Plan Elements

Lesson Plan Details
Integration of Learning Outcomes/Objectives
Standards PA Civics, History, Economics, Geography. PA Common Core
(Language Arts and/or Math), NCSS
Anticipatory Set
Procedures
Differentiation
Closure
Formative/Summative Assessment of Students (P-12)
Materials/Equipment, Resources, Citation of Sources
Technology
Reflection on Planning
Submitted peer feedback and final on time
Content Outline
Total

Point Value
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