Lesson Overview:
Students will learn about what it was like for new immigrants to come through Ellis Island—a symbolic heart of American immigration—at the turn of the century. Through first-hand accounts, students will discover where the immigrants were from, the reasons they fled their homelands, and why they came to America. By performing dramatizations and taking an interactive tour of Ellis Island, students will relive the immigrant experience.
Length of Lesson:
Eight 45-minute class periods
Notes:
This lesson is particularly suitable for grades 3-4.
Instructional Objectives:
Students will:
- locate on a world map the countries from which their ancestors immigrated, and the countries from which Ellis Island immigrants traveled.
- locate on a U.S. map immigrant ports of entry.
- explain procedures immigrants followed at Ellis Island.
- illustrate the experiences immigrants went through leaving their home countries and coming to America, via in-class dramatizations.
- express the experiences of an immigrant through journal writing in the voice of an Ellis Island immigrant (in Extensions section).
- use research skills to find out about their family history (in Extensions section).
Supplies:
- World map (available on National Geographic's Xpeditions site)
- U.S. map (available on National Geographic's Xpeditions site)
- Thumbtacks
- Yarn
- Costumes and props as needed for dramatizations (optional)
- Markers
- Posterboard
- Citizenship Test for students found in Immigration: Then and Now(optional; see Teacher References section for bibliographic information)
Instructional Plan:
Part 1: A Nation of Immigrants
Ask students who the first immigrants to America were. Make the point that even before our nation was a nation, people immigrated (define immigrate and emigrate; refer to Vocabulary Handout if necessary) from other places around the world to make new lives for themselves and their children.
Point out that America is a nation made up of immigrants (define immigrants) because nearly everyone in America (except Native Americans) originally came from somewhere else.
Explain to the class that most immigrants fled their homelands to escape hardship in their homelands, including religious and political persecution (define persecute), war, starvation, poverty, lack of opportunity, etc. They came to America by choice for freedom and opportunity. But some immigrants were brought here against their will. Ask students to name one group of people brought against their will. Explain that slaves were forced to come here from Africa on slave ships. For more on the forced immigration of African Americans to America, see the ARTSEDGE lesson Harlem: The Great Migration.
Distribute the American Immigration Timeline Handout and discuss each date. Emphasize the three major waves of immigration (1700-1776; 1820-1870; 1881-1920). Tell students that the greatest wave of immigrants came between the years 1881-1920 and that the majority (90%) of those immigrants came into New York Harbor and went through the Ellis Island
Immigration Center. Mention other ports of entry in America, including the East Coast ports of Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; southern ports in New Orleans and Galveston; and the West Coast port of San Francisco. Invite students to find all these cities on a U.S. map, pointing out that they are all on the water.
Tell students that because 50% of the U.S. population can trace its roots to Ellis Island, this landmark has come to symbolize the immigrant experience in America.
Prompt students to discuss where their families/ancestors are from. (You will want to assign this ahead of time so students can go home and ask their families about their ancestry and ethnic backgrounds.) Ask them to find these countries on a world map. Model this activity for students by identifying on the map where your family is from and marking it with a thumbtack. Point out that whether their family has been here for one generation or many, their ethnic heritage (define "ethnic"; refer to Vocabulary Handout if necessary) has helped to shape today's "all-American" culture. Have students place photographs of themselves around the border of a world map and, with thumbtacks, attach yarn from their images to the countries of their ancestry. This will provide a picture of your class's heritage.
Part 2: Coming Through Ellis Island
Display images of Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and the mass of immigrants pouring into America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Images are available at the following sites:
Write the words of Emma Lazarus's quote "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses …" on a sheet of poster board and read it aloud
to the class. Explain that these are lines inscribed on a plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and that this statue, which represents freedom and democracy, filled immigrants with hope as they sailed by it in New York harbor.
Describe who the millions of immigrants were—their ethnicities, countries of origin, and why they were fleeing their homelands. For background information, refer to "The Peopling of America" section of the American
Family Immigration History Center Web site. Talk about America's varied response to waves of immigration: Immigrants have been viewed as positive during times of prosperity, negative in times of economic downturn. Also, some groups were welcomed more than others; for example, see the section on Asian immigrants. Then have students identify the immigrants' countries of origin on a world map.
Share facts about Ellis Island, including the following:
- It is a 27.5 acre patch of land in New York Harbor.
- It was selected to be the new immigration processing center to handle the millions of immigrants coming to America between 1892-1954.
- The immigration center on Ellis Island opened in 1892, and for the next 50 years more than 12 million people came through the island on their way into the United States.
For more on the history of Ellis Island, invite students to click "Timeline" on the History Channel's Ellis Island site.
Have students explore Scholastic's virtual tour of Ellis Island to relive the path all immigrants followed in order to enter the United States and the processes immigrants went through upon arriving there, as well as to learn some of Ellis Island's history.
Assign students different aspects of the Ellis Island process to research in more depth (e.g., medical examination, literacy test, legal interview, detainment, etc.) and provide sites where they can find more information about these processes, including:
Have students write a mini-research report describing what they learned and ask them to share it in an oral presentation with the rest of the class.
Part 3: In an Immigrant's Shoes
Prompt students to imagine what it would be like to leave their hometown, including their friends, family, home, possessions, etc. Ask what they think it would be like to come to a new country where they don't know the language or the geography, and where they don't have a job. How would they feel arriving at a new life full of change and uncertainty? Invite students to discuss how they would feel, what they would do, etc.
Now invite the class to explore online accounts of different Ellis Island immigrants, both real and fictional, through various media, including audio, video, and text. Here are some suggested sources:
Print:
- Bierman, Carol. Journey to Ellis Island: How My Father Came to America. New York: Hyperion Press, 1998.
- Bunting, Eve. Dreaming of America: An Ellis Island Story. New York: Troll Communications L.L.C., 1999.
- Coan, Peter Morton. Ellis Island Interviews: In Their Own Words. New York: Facts on File, 1997.
- Tarbescu, Edith. Annushka's Voyage. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.
Web Sites:
Divide students into two groups and ask them to stage the play First Stop, Ellis Island! by Michael Peros. One group will be responsible for the scenery, lights, costumes, etc., and the other group for directing and acting. (If there are many students in the class, you can assign understudies so that everyone gets a turn to rehearse and be part of the production. You can also assign poster-making and other promotional tasks, as though the play were to be performed on Broadway.)
Explain that the play tells the fictional story of people coming to this country during Ellis Island's peak years. Have students work together to decide who will play which roles and who will be responsible for gathering the costumes, finding and collecting props, etc. After several days of rehearsal, the students can perform their play for other classes and/or parents.
Assessment:
Assess student performance using the following rubrics:
Extensions:
Extension 1: Dear Diary…
To help students get into character for performing the play, invite them to write a journal entry from the point of view of the character they're playing, especially if that character is an immigrant. For help getting started, they can use prompts provided in the Journal Writing Prompt Questions handout. If the student is not playing the part of an immigrant, invite him or her to make up a fictional immigrant and use information learned through the lesson to create a story around the character.
Extension 2: Tracing Your Roots
In this activity, students use the Ellis Island Family Immigration History Center site to search for their ancestors.
NOTE: You will need to modify this activity for students whose ancestors did not come through Ellis Island by having those students conduct oral interviews of family members. Share tips for conducting an oral interview by distributing the following handouts:
Extension 3: Citizenship Test
Tell students that all immigrants who want to become U.S. citizens must pass a citizenship test showing their knowledge of the language, history, and government of America. Give out the sample Citizenship Test (found on page 76 of Immigration: Then and Now by Karen Baicker [Scholastic Inc., 1997]) and challenge your students to test their knowledge of the United States. They can work in small groups and quiz one another as if they were really taking the oral examination.
Sources:
Print:
Authors:
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Scholastic Inc.
New York, NY
