*At Home Before

Before I started the first lesson, I told my students about the upcoming unit and showed them the take home interviews for them and their parents or other family members to complete. Once I had received most of the letters, I could plan the final two lessons. 

Lesson 1: The Statue of Liberty and the Nation of Immigrants.

Students started this unit with an introduction to what immigration is and who immigrants are. We read Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers aloud and discussed why the statue of liberty is “moving.” We discussed how America is a nation of immigrants and how we welcome them into our country and how we have throughout history. Students also read “The New Colossus,” the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty and talked about who the poem is about and who is it written for. After reading the poem a few times, students completed a vocabulary matching activity. 

• Students will be able to notice and wonder about the characteristics of the Statue of Liberty.
• Students will be able to reason what the Statue stands for and why. 
• Students will be able to explain how America is a nation of immigrants. 
• Students will be able to read and dissect “The New Colossus” as a poem.
• Students will be able to match definitions to vocabulary words found in “The New Colossus.”
• Students will be able to connect main ideas from “The New Colossus” and Her Right Foot. 

Lesson 2: What is culture and where can we find it?

In this lesson, students will be defining culture and identifying elements of culture. Then we will be reading a new text, The Talking Cloth by Rhonda Mitchell, a book about Ashanti culture, as a read aloud. Some of my students are part of the Ashanti culture (as determined by the take home interviews) and this book resonated with them personally. After reading the new text and defining culture and its elements, students will act as researchers looking for evidence in familiar texts for elements of culture. The other books we will be using, Grandfather Counts by Andrea Cheng, Have A Good Day Cafe by Frances Park, and Home At Last by Susan Middleton Elya, were all part of a previous text set we used in class so students are familiar with the plot and the meaning of each story. After each group of four finds as many examples of cultural elements in their text, students got to share-out their findings. The class’s answers were recorded on chart paper. Students will turn in their recording sheets as a form of assessment.

• Students will be able to actively engage with The Talking Cloth as a cultural text.
• Students will be able to define what “culture” means. 
• Students will be able to identify elements of culture.
• Students will be able to find evidence of culture in familiar texts (Grandfather Counts, Have A Good Day Cafe, Home At Last, etc.)
• Students will be able to collaborate in recording the evidence found in the assigned text.
• Students will be able to co-construct a running list of evidence of culture found in text.

Lesson 3: Why do people move? Reasons for migration.

This lesson focuses on migration and what causes people to migrate. Students will participate in read alouds of both The Journey and How Many Days To America?  Students will have a deeper understanding of what might make someone need to move through literature. Many students have prior knowledge and experiences moving around but do not always know the involuntary reasons why people move, especially to a different country. After each read aloud, students will write in their Reader’s Notebooks about new reasons why people might move and how that would be for them. This allows for empathetic reflection surrounding the potentially triggering and personal connection to immigration my students may have. 

• Students will be able to list reasons why people might move, both voluntary and involuntary.
• Students will be able to actively engage with texts during a read aloud.
• Students will be able to empathize with the emotions associated with moving and immigrating. 
• Students will be able to reflect in writing their thoughts about why people might need to move.

Lesson 4: Exploring the Cultures in Our Class: Ashanti (Ghana).

This lesson will familiarize students with the Ashanti culture. In this lesson, students will investigate four aspects of the Ashanti culture, their food, their language, their geographical location in the world, and one of their traditions. Students will each be responsible for becoming and “expert” on one aspect of the culture. They will work in small groups of three or four when investigating the aspect. After the initial exploration of their aspect, students will be put into mixed groups and interview each other on the aspects they did not explore themselves. They will then fill out a questionnaire about each of the four aspects. This way, all students will get a glimpse of all the aspects and get a deep understanding of one aspect. They will have to collaborate and share effectively in order to successfully answer the assessment. 

• Students will be able to investigate one aspect (food, location, language, or traditions) of a culture.
• Students will be able to record their findings to refer back to on worksheets.
• Students will be able to interview one another to find out more about the other aspects of a culture. 
• Students will be able to make connections between themselves and content through personal experience or connection to classmates.

Lesson 5: Exploring the Cultures in Our Class: Carribean (Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic).

Like the previous lesson, this lesson will familiarize students with the Carribean culture. In this lesson, students will investigate four aspects of the Carribean (Puerto Rican and Dominican) culture, their food, their language, their geographical location in the world, and their national flags. Students will each be responsible for becoming and “expert” on one aspect of the culture. They will work in small groups of three or four when investigating the aspect which will be different from the type of aspect they investigated in the previous lesson. After the initial exploration of their new aspect, students will be put into mixed groups and interview each other on the aspects they did not explore themselves. They will then fill out a questionnaire about each of the four aspects. This way, all students will get a glimpse of all the aspects and get a deep understanding of one aspect. They will have to collaborate and share effectively in order to successfully answer the assessment. 

• Students will be able to investigate one aspect (food, location, language, or national flags) of a culture.
• Students will be able to record their findings to refer back to on worksheets.
• Students will be able to interview one another to find out more about the other aspects of a culture. 
• Students will be able to make connections between themselves and content through personal experience or connection to classmates.

*After the Unit Assessment

There will be a brief 3-2-1 style quiz to assess students for a conclusion of the unit. Before assessment, we will go over each lesson and what we took away from each activity. 

 

*Click on the Lesson Titles to see the full PDFs.