Saturday, March 12, 2011
Our unit
Our unit is coming together quite well. At first we were going to focus on immigration during the construction of the Transcontinental railroad. However after further reflection we decided to change our minds and our unit will focus on a few particular sets of immigrants over time. We would include Irish, Chinese, Italian, Germans, and Latin American immigration into the U.S. One of our lessons will be a simulation of Ellis Island. We will turn our classrooms into Ellis island and create passports for students(immigrants), check their baggage, and give them medical exams etc. We want them to experience what immigrants would have went through during their trip such as cramped spaces on the boat and long lines while waiting to pass through each checkpoint. We will deny access to some. There will be no lecture this will based purely on participation and I'm sure they will learn alot and remember what immigrants had to go through. We plan on making this as real as possible, for instance we could outline a boat in the floor and put 3 classes in it and have kids pretend to get sick. We will designate a few to ride in first class and they will be in an arena in the front of the boat with more space then they need. I think this is going to be a fun way to get the kids interested in immigrant life.
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You might even find a basement room or some area of the school that would simulate the situation even more. Experience is certainly a better teacher than us standing in front of the class.
ReplyDeleteThat would be part of it we would use multiple rooms for each checkpoint and make them really small and also make the kids stand in line while they waited. we would draw it out as much as possible to drive the message home. I have not figured out yet how to get the tech thing incorporated yet.
ReplyDeleteYea this part of our lesson should be really neat. For me, this is what teaching is all about. Rather then sit students in their chairs for 42 minutes per period, we can actually teach them by doing. To incorporate computers into this lesson, students could make their name tags and perhaps write a few sentences on what their character has been through.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really good idea! Such a cool lesson. I'm sure the students would be way more interested in this than a lecture. It sounds like such a good idea and if the students are able to use the material and be involved in some way they will probably remember it better.
ReplyDeleteI think this a really cool idea! All of the students will be participating in this activity in one way or another (instead of only a couple of students being selected to do the activity). Also this a really great idea for students who are kinesthetic learners who learn by doing. Either way, this will be interactive, fun, and very memorable for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of an Ellis Island simulation! It was these types of lesson back in high school (and grade school) that I really remembered. The more first hand experience a person can get the greater a connection can be made between the material and the person.
ReplyDeleteAfter the lesson is completed, what assessments are you going to make? Will there be a discussion? Reaction paper? I'd be interested in hearing the students comparison between this lesson and the more traditional type.
We were playing with the idea of photographing as much of the lesson as possible and the students would have to tell their story using jingo.
ReplyDeleteCool idea. I can't imagine what those people were feeling at that point. It must of been a mix of fear, excitement, and hope. I think the challenge of really pulling it off would be to somehow evoke some of those feelings from your students. It seems like such a hard thing to do but it looks like you guys are coming up with some great ideas.
ReplyDeleteI like how your unit plan is coming along. Some of the ideas you have are pretty unique and I think they'll play out really well in the classroom. I think our group owes yours a thanks. Once we saw how organized your project was we realized that we were lagging behind, so we rearranged our entire project and now we're back on track. So... thanks!
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