|
Summary and Objective
GOAL: Students will examine items from the digital collection. Students will identify the fact that many items which seem simple to us may have had the most value to immigrants and will consider why this might be true. Students will create and share a plausible story about why one item was protected or cared for to be available to us over 100 years later.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
PRE-ACTIVITY: Students will read books highlighting the items that immigrants have chosen to travel with, such as "Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel" by Leslie Connor and Mary Azarian and "The Keeping Quilt" by Patricia Polacco. These will be read aloud together in class. Discussion will focus on the idea of limited space when travelling and of the need to choose carefully when preparing for that sort of journey. Preparation for teaching: In-Focus digital presentation setup or make transparencies of digital items for overhead projector. Make individual copies of the details for each item for individual student reading/review.
Step 2.
Introduce items from the digital collection in chronological order, noting that the items that are over 100 years old are still available to be examined (so, they were obviously were cared for). Discuss which items were brought from another place and why they might have been chosen. As a class, brainstorm of the types of items that people might have cherished and made room for on their journey. (see basket and consider the bringing of skills such as basket-making, and point out that immigrants could have brought a basket from home like the one pictured)
Step 3.
Next, guide students to identify some of these items that would have been available to immigrant workers here in the United States and that became valued by them (such as necessary tools). Additionally, the class should brainstorm the types of things that immigrants may have procured and then valued for new reasons once they settled.
Step 4.
Review the pictures of 'Sophie Dahowski and Infant" and "Onion Harvest" asking students to put themselves in the shoes of a person pictured. What may have been valued by such immigrants at that time period. Possibly read "Dia's Story Cloth" by Dia Cha and discuss why a family created a treasure later. What types of things would an individual or family create and why?
Step 5.
As a class, note that these items lean toward the simpler side. Create a list of simple items and the various reasons that someone, leaving the life that they know, might value them. Utilize the Ellis Island website to examine photos of immigrants in their clothing worn for the journey. Question: What do you notice about their clothing? What might be in a bag they carry? etc.
Step 6.
Students choose a listed item (or determine another) and write a short diary entry or story similar to "Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel" to describe the thoughts that they went through in choosing to carry it, in place of other things that must be left behind.
Step 7.
Students come together to share their stories and discuss if they are feasible and why.
Step 8.
A possible follow-up activity could be for students to create a personal list of items or to fill a bag with items they would pack to take if they were to move to another country. Possibly there could be a specified number of items or space limit utilized for their 'packing' for immigration. Students could then share and explain their choices to the class.
|
