Introduction
Henry C. Lea Elementary is labeled as a failing school within the School District of Philadelphia. According to the School District of Philadelphia’s School Profile, only 30 percent of our students scored proficient on the PSSA ELA and Math tests. These numbers are way below district average. For the past two years, this school has been in transition. In 2013, Henry C Lea absorbed students from a smaller school that was closed by the District due to budget cuts. During the 2013 school year, teachers experienced overcrowded classrooms, an influx of haphazard resources that were not inventoried or deemed credible, and teachers were receiving rushed professional development on the Common Core Standards.
Most of the students in my seventh and eighth grade classes were new, just as I was. We made significant gains. My students improved in their reading and writing levels. The eighth graders were accepted into magnet high schools due to their writing portfolios and interview skills. My seventh graders transformed into analytical thinkers and debaters. I introduced them to Current Event Friday and Writing Workshop Wednesday. We were becoming analytical thinkers of informational and fictional texts that fostered social justice debates.
After just one year of being at Lea and all of our hard work, we are still a failing school. I know that it was nearly impossible to improve on performance indicators when we were going through so much, but we worked really hard. People still see us as a failing school, and I worry the students see it as a failing school as well. In the summer of 2014, Dr. Harrison left Lea and became Assistant Superintendent of the North Region within the School District of Philadelphia. Our current principal, Ms. Jennifer Duffy, was interviewed by a committee of teachers and parents at Lea Elementary and was offered the job within the same month.
This current school year, I taught two sixth grade English classes and two sixth grade Social Studies classes. Reflective practices became part of my teaching, and I noticed a change in the tone of my class. We were succeeding or failing together. Group projects and cooperative pairs became the core of our instructional practices. By the end of the year, only one sixth-grade student didn’t present a final project, whereas nine students had not presented their midterm projects. Our test scores were increasing, teacher retention was still low but better than the previous year, and students were completing their final projects. Yet we were still deemed a failing school at the end of the year.
This curriculum unit is designed for students in a sixth or seventh grade English Language Arts class. Students will analyze and trace the journey of immigrants through informative and narrative tone in various mediums. Students will evaluate the perception of immigration in two very different films: Hester Street and West Side Story. Hester Street is a black and white movie, which depicts the domestic compromises made by many Jewish families assimilating into Lower East Side New York City. West Side Story is a bright and colorful theatrical movie with a central theme of star-crossed lovers failing to bring peace to their neighborhood. Throughout the unit the students will reference the different styles of film and how different styles tell a story.
Students will also synthesize these perceptions and descriptions in current debates, especially in speeches about immigration from mayoral and presidential candidates. It is important for students to develop an awareness and understanding of how and why one immigrates to another country, because we are a nation of immigrants. We have many undocumented immigrants in this country and to many voters and politicians being an undocumented immigrant is unacceptable for many reasons. Students need to be able to take a stance, form an opinion based on facts, and analyze how immigration is perceived in the media.
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