Title III Technology Literacy Challenge Grant

Learning Unit

Overview | Content Knowledge | Essential Questions | Connection To Standards | Initiating Activity | Learning Experiences | Culminating Performance | Pre-Requisite Skills | Modifications | Schedule/Time Plan | Technology Use

OVERVIEW

 A three-week unit covering various aspects of immigration to the United States through Ellis Island. Included in this unit will be experiences that involve the exploration of pertinent traditions, literature, and geography. Also included will be a visit to the historic site of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

 1. What are some common experiences and traditions of American families, which unite various ethnic cultures?

2. How can reference sources (personal interviews, literature, and memorials) help in understanding interpretations of historical events?

3. How does geography influence decisions people make?

4. How can technology assist in effectively processing and communicating personal and social history?

CONNECTIONS TO NYS LEARNING STANDARDS
List Standard # and Key Idea #: Write out related Performance Indicator(s) or Benchmark(s)

Social Studies Standard # 1 History of the United States and New York:

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

#1 The study of New York and the United States history requires an analysis of the development of American culture, its diversity and multicultural context, and the ways people are unified by many values, practices, and traditions.

• know the roots of American culture, its development from many different traditions, and the ways many people from a variety of groups and backgrounds played a role in creating it

Social Studies Standard # 1 History of the United States and New York :

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

#2. Important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs, and traditions from New York State and

United States history, illustrate the connections and interactions of people and events across time and from a variety of perspectives.

• gather and organize information about the traditions transmitted by various groups living in their neighborhood and community

Social Studies Standard #3 Geography:

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the interdependent world in which we live – local, national, and global – including the distribution of people, places, and environment over the earth’s surface.

#1.Geography can be divided into six essential elements, which can be used to analyze important historic geographic, economic, and environmental questions and issues. These six elements include: the world, spatial terms, places and regions, physical settings (including natural resources), human systems, environment and society, and the use of geography.

• identify and compare the physical, human, and cultural characteristics of different regions and the people.

M.S.T. Standard #2 Information Systems:

Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.

#1: Information technology is used to retrieve, process, and communicate information and as a tool to enhance learning.

• use a variety of equipment and software packages to enter, process, display, and communicate information in different forms using text, tables, pictures, and sound.
• access needed information from printed media, electronic data bases, and community resources.

E.L.A. Standard #1 Language for Information and Understanding:

Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

#1: Listening and reading to acquire information and understanding involves collecting data, facts, and ideas; discovering relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and using knowledge from oral, written, and electronic sources.

• Students gather and interpret information from children’s reference books, magazines, textbooks, electronic bulletin boards, audio and media presentations, oral interviews, and from such forms as charts, graphs, maps, and diagrams.
• Support inferences about information and ideas with reference to text features, such as vocabulary and organizational patterns.

Standard #2 Language for Literary Response and Expression:

Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.

#2 Speaking and writing for literary response involves presenting interpretations, analyses, and reactions to the content and language of a text. Speaking and writing for literary expression involves producing imaginative texts that use language and text structures that are inventive and often multi-layered.

• Present responses to and interpretations of literature, making reference to the literary elements found in the text and connections with their personal knowledge and experience.

INITIATING ACTIVITY

 Show a 5 minute clip from the video "The Statue of Liberty." For the next 5 to 10 minutes, do K. W. L. activity with a partner, listing what is known and what the students would like to know about the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. This must be saved in order to add what is learned at a later date. Announce an upcoming field trip to Liberty and Ellis Island.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES
In chronological order including acquisition experiences and extending/refining
experiences for all stated declarative and procedural knowledge.

 Day 1: Define major terms in vocabulary overview guide (see inclusion) using a central idea graphic organizer(ref to DOL). The teacher will introduce the students to the word map and questions to be asked to determine, What is it? What is it like? What are some examples? The teacher will show an example on the board. The students will construct maps for each vocabulary word and will write them in their notebooks using the word map graphic. These will be shared later. This will be assessed by observation.

Day 2: A) The students will share the meaning of vocabulary words

B) The students will work in the computer lab to locate information on the number of people that have passed through Ellis Island between 1840 and 1920, using Encarta CDs. The students will use "numbered heads", a co-operative learning strategy (ref to DOL), and a pictograph. The students will work in pairs. Student #1 will locate the information and #2 will do the pictograph showing the important information in symbolic pictures. The teacher assesses the strategy and participation by observation.(see checklist) Students save collaborative notes.

Day 3: A) The teacher will give a quiz on vocabulary words and assess by grading collected work.

B) The teacher will explain scale measurement as found on maps and model how to measure distances. Students will measure on a world map the approximate distance traveled by one of their ancestors from the country of their origin to Ellis Island. This information will be saved with the previous notes. The teacher will assess this activity through observation.

Day 4: The students will use a poetry book from the school library to read The New Colossus by Emma Lazaras. Using the "think, pair, share", a co-operative learning strategy (ref to DOL), explained by the teacher, the students will think about the poem, then discuss their ideas with a partner, and finally share these ideas with the entire class. The students will then be asked to memorize the last four lines of the poem. The teacher will assess this activity by hearing the shared responses. Recitation of the learned poem will take place at later date.

Day 5 and 6: The class will visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to gather information from brochures and guided tours or talks, take photographs and experience the sites in order to complete individual scrapbooks. Teacher will assess the scrapbooks when completed and turned in during the third week of the unit.(See checklist)

Day 7: Using previously learned library skills the students will look up the flag and native costumes of an ancestor’s country of origin. Using the advanced questions: What are the colors and designs of the flag? Does it have any unique features? Is the native costume similar to one you have seen before? What are the individual parts of the costume? The students will then sketch the flag and the costume and keep the sketches with the other notes for later use.

Day 8 and 9: The students will draw and color a representation of the flags they have researched with the art teacher. They will construct a clothespin doll depicting the native costume they have chosen. The teacher will assess these projects by observation and comparison to examples.

Day 10: The teacher will read to the students An Ellis Island Christmas by Maxine Rhea Leighton. Following the reading, the students will discuss what was necessary or not necessary for the immigrants to bring on their voyage to the United States. The teacher will show examples of passports.(Ref: Immigration)

Day 11: The students will construct a mock passport indicating all the vital information needed to enter the country at Ellis Island. The teacher will assess these passports by observation and comparison to the examples of the passports. (see checklist)

Day 12: The teacher will show students a picture of an immigrant family (ref: Immigration). Expressing responses from all their senses, the students will write at least a three paragraph essay describing what these people may have thought, felt, seen, heard, or even smelled as they approached The Statue of Liberty at the end of their long and perhaps difficult journey. The teacher will assess these essays by checking for clarity and relevancy.(see checklist)

Day 13: The students will write the last four lines of the poem The New Colossus as previously memorized. The teacher will explain and model interviewing techniques and questions in preparation for their extending projects.

EXTENDING AND REFINING EXPERIENCES

1. The teacher will explain the project to extend and refine knowledge gained during the previous days. The students will be asked to research their own family history by interviewing an older family member. With information gained through their interviews and previous notes the students will construct a family tree (3-D or poster board) showing as many ancestors and their places of origin as possible. After these have been handed in the students will be paired and using the skill of "compare and contrast" (ref: DOL), a co-operative learning strategy and a graphic organizer, they will determine the ways in which their families are alike or different. Each student will write a summary concerning his/her family and that of his/her partner. The teacher will assess this task using a Comparison Task Rubric. Students will then orally share their summaries with the class.
2. Using the skill of constructing support, the students will develop support for the theories that immigrants would have had responses to the Ellis Island experience that differed from those of today’s visitors to the site. The teacher will model the steps in presenting a persuasive argument using a constructing support organizer. The students will write and word process an essay entitled "Ellis Island Could Be Both a Wonderful or a Terrifying Experience." Assessment will be by the use of a Constructing Support Task Rubric.(see example)(ref: DOL)

CULMINATING PERFORMANCE
Include rubric(s)

 The teacher will present a decision making matrix. Students will be asked to plan a fictional trip to America, entering at Ellis Island. What would be necessary to bring and why? What items would they like to bring but cannot and why? Also, in what situations today might they have to make the same kinds of decisions? Use the computer lab or home computers to write this activity. Teacher will assess this task using the Decision Making Task Rubric. ( see example )(ref:DOL)

PRE-REQUISITE SKILLS

  The students have acquired the skill of accessing information using Encarta encyclopedia, other software, and some use of the internet.

1. The students have acquired some of the skills necessary in order to use the reference sections of the library.
2. The students have acquired the basic word processing skills.
3. The students have acquired the skills necessary to use the stated graphic organizers.
4. The students have developed the skills necessary to use compare and contrast strategies.
5. The students have acquired some skills necessary to give oral presentations.

MODIFICATIONS

1.  Learning-disabled students with follow programs identified by IEP’s
2. Native American students will research origins of their particular tribes and adapt learning experiences.
3. Modifications for other students will be made as needed.

UNIT SCHEDULE/TIME PLAN

 Scheduling: One 40 minute period per day, one all day field trip, and four or five project completion days. This unit requires about three weeks of teaching time and four weeks for completion by students.

TECHNOLOGY USE

1.  Computer skills
2. Word processing skills
3. Software use: Encarta and other informational software
4. How to access the internet
5. Find and use reference materials in the library

www.ellisisland.org. (Ellis Island Immigration Museum)

www.swyrich.com (research family names)

www.genhomepage.com/FHC/fhc.html (Family History Library – Salt Lake City)

www.CyndisList.com. (Genealogy sites)

http:/165.90.42.35/features/ellis/(immigrants’ journey, processing, audio clips, cookbook)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

0. Dimensions of Learning(DOL): Guide to constructing learning units
1. Immigration: Thematic Unit from Teacher Created Materials, Inc.
2. An Ellis Island Christmas by Leighton, Maxine Rhea
3. Video, "The Statue of Liberty" by A+E home Video

 Checklist for Assessment by Teacher Observation

1. Student follows directions. Yes ____ No ____

2. Student works well with others. Yes ____ No ____

3. Students grasps idea of assignment. Yes ____ No ____

4. Student follows through to completion of assignment. Yes ____ No ____

5. Student writes neatly and expresses ideas clearly. Yes ____ No ____

COMPARISON TASK RUBRIC

CONSTRUCTING SUPPORT TASK RUBRIC

DECISION MAKING TASK RUBRIC