Related Activity #4. "Family Time Line" Interview
Time Frame: Weeks 6 and 7 (3 days a week, 50 minutes per session)
Focus Question: Americans have undertaken different journeys to be deemed citizens. What was your family's journey to America? Were they immigrants or American born? How did they come to reside in the city and state in which they currently live? Explain.
Have students interview parents and/or grandparents to determine how they came to live in their current city of residence. Provide parents with an announcement letter to communicate background information regarding the assignment. Clarify that information gathered will be used for a classroom writing exercise in correlation with our study of immigration and what it means to be American. Emphasize that the activity is interdisciplinary in that it (1) allows children to make text-to-world connections regarding our Social Studies unit of study; (2) helps children gain insight into understanding the similarities and differences experienced by diverse cultures, and (3) reinforces the use of logical thinking and oral and written communication skills. Ask that they be supportive in assisting their child in gathering and recording information. Also, falling in line with writing requirements, reinforce that children should record information using complete sentences.
TIME LINE QUESTIONNAIRE
In what country were you originally born? If outside of the U.S., where did you live before you moved to America?
When did you come to the United States?
What mode of transportation did you use to get here?
How did you feel about moving to a new country?
What types of traditions did you and your family embrace before coming to this country? (For example, did women stay home with the children while the men went out to work? Did you have birthday parties and other family celebrations?)
Did you understand and know how to speak English when you moved to the U.S., or did you have to learn the language?
If you had to learn English, was learning the language difficult or easy for you?
What were your first impressions when you arrived at your new country of residence? Did your first experiences live up to what you had hoped for?
What types of traditions did your family embrace after relocating to the U.S.? (Did you continue past traditions? Did you go to church every Sunday, sit at the dinner table to eat meals with your family members, participate in special organizations or community functions...)
What type of work did you do in your homeland before you moved here?
Where did you first settle when you came to this country?
What was the primary reason you moved there?
What was the final city in which you and your family resided in the U.S.? How did you come to live there? Was relocating easy or difficult? What was the community like? How did you get here (over land, by boat, by plane)? Were you ever worried or frightened about relocating?
What were your first impressions when you arrived at your new city of residence? Did your first experiences live up to what you had hoped for?
Did you experience any racial or religious prejudice when you moved to this country? What happened?
Subsequently have students write a two-page narrative about their parents' or grandparents' migratory experience, conveying the story as if they were in their family members' shoes.
Tying It All Together
The children have acquired a firm handle on what it means to be American. Based on their study, students will come to agree that the first peoples to dwell in our country are the original Americans, and that Africans brought and forced to reside in our country against their will are also American citizens. They will recognize that immigrants who undergo the naturalization process and descendants born within this nation are deemed American citizens. They too will understand that there are rights and privileges granted those of us who are citizens in this country, that we must be mindful of our rights as residents of the United States.
Foundation lain, revisit their initial K-W-L chart, this time making note of what they originally through as compared to what they have learned. Invite them to create a poetic skit to convey their understanding.
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