Immigration and Migration and the Making of a Modern American City

Student Activities

Listed below are several ideas for meaningful and engaging student activities. The first activity is to interview others; family, school staff, our fourth grade class of buddies, high school buddies, and pen pals at the local convelesant home in our community. These interviews will be simple, yet documented in writing and some recorded on video. The data we gather from our interviews will allow for math projects in data analysis, graphing, and sequencing/measuring time creating a timeline.

The second activity is to take a walking tour with our older buddies of our immediate neighborhood to look for places and things of cultural interest. In order to help students see objects with a more critical eye, we can practice the Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) with carefully selected photos regarding the city of San Jose or even specifically East San Jose, to observe and make relevant connections. Again, an essential question for students to answer with this VTS activity is "How are stories from other places and times about me?" Then, using graphic organizers on our tour of the neighborhood, students can document with illustrations and words as they go when they find a place or thing with which they connect. Together students will pair share before we have a shared writing time. They will also create maps, building on what students see or notice in the neighborhood. One of the main essential questions for students to consider and answer through this walking tour activity is "Why is that there?"

The third activity is to take a bus tour of our East San Jose community to reach places and things of cultural interest in a wider area, and yet available to their families. Cultures are focused on those represented in our class. Students will document their learning of each place with illustrations, labels, and writings. They will provide opinions to share with their teammates, creating a team book of collaborative learning. Before the book is bound, teammates will together present their information to the class. They will have a chance to dedicate and autograph their work as authors and illustrators. After books are bound, they will be presented and displayed at our school library and hopefully the local library as well. Again, one of the main essential questions for students to consider and answer on this community bus tour is "Why is that there?" A specific technique will be based on Dolores Hayden's Power of Place (1997), called Cognitive Mapping, and spaces in the community as shared public memories.

A fourth activity is to invite parents to be Mystery Readers, and alumni of the school and community to be Mystery Speakers. These volunteers will read stories exposing the class to a diversity of cultures, traditions, and celebrations. Students will have a time of reflection and retelling. The volunteers will also share their stories of immigration and how they make a difference in the community showing its history over time. Students will have a time of reflection, illustrating and writing about the Mystery Speakers. An essential question for students to answer with these volunteer activities is "How are stories from other places and times about me?"

A fifth activity is to create a class photograph timeline to connect with the concept of change over time. Students will view images and videos comparing familiar objects in their past and present form, such as the telephone – now smart phone or the typewriter – now computer/iPad. We will transfer the concept to people. The timeline will start with the students' birth to the present year, and expand back through the past from there. The class will participate in a shared writing with photos to observe, find words to speak, whisper out, partner share, mingle share, and create lists together. Again, an essential question for students to answer with this timeline activity is "How are stories from other places and times about me?"

One more activity for us to do is to take a field trip to Ardenwood Historic Farm, which teaches students about life in the past, specifically the 1800s. Students are able to participate in activities of the past such as spinning and weaving wool, toy making, and farming practices all led by docents dressed in attire from that time period. I am hoping this will serve as our entry event into the unit to really peak students' interest and inquiry regarding history; however, Ardenwood selects schools for field trip dates by lottery, so our date may come later in the school year. It will be a powerful activity for students to experience and make meaningful connections with the concept of history as change over time and their own place in time and space.

Primary grades are foundational in addressing the need for social emotional well being skills. This unit will introduce students to practicing thoughtful consideration when interacting with one another at school and in the greater community. It teaches them the fact that we all have our own unique family migration story and legacy to respect and share. Each of us is different and it is all our differences that add a richness to the diversity of our community. It is a privilege to guide students to be more thoughtful and think about who they are and how they interact with others. It is important to move further not only into how they can interact with others, but how they can interact better with others. The hope in creating this unit is that students will have developed a good foundation to thoughtfully consider their families and communities and how they relate and fit in to the larger history of migration and settlement in San Jose.