Immigration and Migration and the Making of a Modern American City

Activities

First Activity: Owning our stories

This first activity is a sort of anticipatory set. All of our students during their time with us are writing a lengthy autobiography. I hope to be able to do this unit at the beginning of the year, in which case, this activity will set them off to think about the importance of telling their stories themselves. We'll look at two short videos. One is the 1950s Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was created by the United States Information Service. It was to be sent to other countries to sell an idealistic version of America, where citizens are mostly white, upper middle class, educated, employed, and overtly appreciative of the liberties afforded to them by their country. The other was created by a group who does similar videos around the country in other urban areas with high concentrations of African Americans—you get the idea from the title, History of Tha Streetz, Oklahoma T-Town 2 the City. They do advance research, interview citizens on the street, and include fairly representative visuals to convey what life is like in North Tulsa. This will be our introduction to the immigration/migration stories. The next two class meetings we will read the excerpt from Life of a Slave Girl and cover background historical content, then read the newspaper advertisement in which her master James Norcom offers a reward for her return. Jacobs and Norcom give very different pictures of the same woman and situation, though his is but brief.

The process

I'll show History of Tha Streetz first. My students are likely familiar with it, but may be surprised that I know it. Afterwards, with partners, they'll discuss and fill in a set of questions down one two-columned page. Each column—one for each video will contain the following questions:

1. To the best of your knowledge, who created and distributed this video?
2. Who is the intended audience, do you think?
3. What is the intended message?
4. What is the tone?
5. On a scale of one (least) to ten (most), what level of trust do you have for the authenticity or truthfulness of the message? WHY?
6. What other personal opinions or ideas do you have about the video?
7. Finally, what events in history did you learn about? How did those events influence the city as it is now?

Without much discussion, we'll follow with the Tulsa, Oklahoma video, and they'll fill out the other column. At this point we will discuss both, and I'll have them think about who is missing from both? And who is telling those stories? If they were making their own videos about their lives and community, what history or detail would they need to include to convey an accurate picture?

Second activity: Analysis of a scene

The first chapter of Maggie: a Girl of the Streets, is rich with local color and vernacular. It also contains in three pages quite a few words my students are not likely to know. In anticipation of the reading, they'll look up the following: urchins, infantile countenance, convulsed, barbaric trebles, ominous, sauntering, vainglorious, sullen, disentangle, and sublime. Each of these words adds detail the scene I don't want them to miss. With this excerpt we see a street scene, though while taking place 120 years ago, should be something more familiar to them than the previously read slave narrative. With this close reading, they will begin to catalog the struggles that they will encounter to some extent in all of the narratives. This particular activity, however, is to enhance comprehension of a challenging piece with strange vernacular and tricky vocabulary, as well as a sense of reader's gratification after doing so. The following class lesson will be about the rites of passage theme. We will revisit this scene from Maggie to look into our theme in reflection. This is an exercise we may repeat with other texts that are more challenging for them, or which have archaic or unfamiliar settings.

The process

After initially looking up and playing with the vocabulary list above, I will read these three pages out loud. I'm afraid that navigating the Irish brogue will halt my students' reading often enough to interfere with understanding. And sometimes they just like to be read to. I'm tempted to stop too frequently to explain, so I limit myself to breaks at half pages of more challenging texts to check in, but only for basic comprehension of plot. After we finish the chapter, I'll put them in groups of three to pick the text apart for more understanding. I'll give each group two sets of differently colored blank sticky notes. One color will be for details they gleam, the other will be for questions they still have. On the board, I'll write the words accent, location, wealth, characters, conflicts, time period. I'll ask them to spend about fifteen minutes looking for details they may have missed that might provide more meaning. The words on the board are to guide them.

When time is up, they'll place their notes in respective groups on the board or wall. We'll look at the details first to see what we can learn. We/I will answer any remaining questions from the other set. The last thing I'll want them to do is to reflect on the process we used in a short paragraph. This will be their ticket out of class and what I can begin the next class meeting with as a review.

Third activity: Internal and external conflict

Understanding conflict is a basic literature objective. Recognizing that internal and external conflict are likely both present gives readers one more framework with which to comprehend what they read. It also encourages connections with characters as they recognize a personal conflict or experience one vicariously for the first time. Students should also understand that the dynamic between the internal and external conflicts is what makes them want to read on (or not). Chapter four, entitled "Alien Turf," from Down These Mean Streets has Piri moving from Spanish Harlem to an Italian neighborhood, where he is an outsider; worse, he can't hide it at all. He's so dark-skinned that he is an immediate target. Internally, he misses his friends, he wants to look cool, he fears losing his eye, and he wants roller skates, in chronological order. Externally, he must defend himself against the neighborhood gang and later get to the hospital for medical attention. Resolution: he earns serious street cred and he gets his roller skates. When students keep in mind both sets of conflicts, Piri's story is much richer. The fact that he has to defend himself is made worse because he also has the void of leaving behind good friends and feeling like a part of the neighborhood. Keeping in mind that they'll soon be writing their own rite of passage narratives, we will come back to this lesson to remind them that their stories need to include both, as well, adding some dimension that their personal stories don't always have.

The process

I'll introduce the terms internal and external conflict and give examples in a brief teacher-led lesson. Some students will find this familiar; most will not, but it's easy stuff to understand, if not apply. We will read the chapter out loud. This is a good one for students to share in the reading. I'll provide them with a graphic organizer to help them document textual evidence for both types of conflict as they encounter it. We'll look it over before we read but leave it blank. After we finish, we'll look at the first two pages together, writing down sentences and phrases in either the Internal Conflict or External Conflict boxes. They will finish the rest on their own. We will follow this activity (which may take more than one period) with a discussion of our essential questions, listed above.

Activity four: Building a writers' community

My students are sensitive about their academic abilities, many of them not having been in school for some time. Even students with stronger skills, because they may not have been regularly present at school, don't know how to gauge what they know and tend to assume weakness rather than strength. The environment at our school is welcoming and accommodating, and students feel safe. They tend befriend each other easily. This often breaks down in a more academic setting. I must recreate that trust in this context, as well. This lesson addresses some of the social skills necessary to make peer groups or writing groups work. It is also is a chance to brush up on their story-telling and revision skills.

The process

I'll begin by telling them that they're going to spend most of their class period with one other student and to be open to getting to know that student better, regardless of their current knowledge. I will also ask them to spend a few minutes thinking about a family member they love dearly, and then to think of a story regarding that person and himself/herself. My students struggle with this kind of request; I'll make suggestions if I need to—a trip, a joke, a conversation, a secret, for example. On the Promethean board I'll illuminate the first steps to the activity. First, check in with your partner. How are they doing? Be kind. Second, select one of you to go first. That person will tell their story that involves their loved relative. The other will take notes. Reverse roles and repeat. When you're finished, separate, and both of you will draft, in paragraph form this time, the story your partner told. Include details. Before they leave class, each will read the other's story about the relative and take a few minutes to document errors in the story or missing details they want to be included. They will conference, each sharing their thoughts about what he/she read. During the next class period they will review their feedback from the previous class. Then they will rewrite the story with adjustments. I want them in the end to share the partner's story with the class so that they feel real ownership of it. That partner will be a writing peer for the rest of the unit.