Welcome To America

WebQuest on Immigration
by Nancy Clement Grade 5 Riverdale School
nclement@dedham.mec.edu

Introduction

            Today almost 50% of all American citizens can trace their ancestry to those who came through Ellis Island. Most came to America from countries all over the world, as passengers booked in steerage class, on the many steamships that were ferried to Ellis Island for inspection.  The vast majority had very little money and brought only the baggage they could carry.  They endured a difficult and dangerous journey because of  dreams of a new life filled with economic opportunity, religious freedom, and political liberty.  What would it be like to be on one of those ships?  Did an ancestor immigrate to Ellis Island?

Task

• your own family immigration history
• your own name
• the experiences of an immigrant coming to America through Ellis Island
• the Statue of Liberty
• the history of Ellis Island
• the difficulties of being accepted as an immigrant

Process

 immigrant            tenement            steerage                quota            deport            detain
 illegal alien          naturalization    persecution         colossus       citizen           famine
 predjudice           melting pot         trachoma               mosaic         tempest        ancestor

      Challenge: Use the software Puzzlemaker to construct a crossword puzzle with your table using your new vocabulary words.

2. In this activity, interview parents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles to get some information about from what countries your ancestors came .  The goal is to have countries of origin for up to 4 relatives.  Use this to complete the pictograph for the class "Where Did My Family Come From?"  Add your "suitcases" to the bulletin board.   Compare our results with the national results and the results from 1899 to 1931.

    Challenge:  Develop your own line or bar graph that summarizes our class immigration data.
 

3.  This activity will begin our virtual voyage from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan.  Since our actual trip to New York City will not allow us to get off the ferry at Liberty Island, you will learn about the history and construction of Miss Liberty online.  After your "ferry ride" to the Statue of Liberty", complete the activity in your scapbook called "Miss Liberty- From Toes to Torch."

4.Read the poem with your table members that is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty    Practice reading together.  Decide how your group will present to the class.(You may use props.)  Then write an acrostic poem using the words "Statue of Liberty" written vertically on left of page.  Use the facts collected from online or print resources. 

5.This activity will take you and a partner on a virtual tour of Ellis Island before we actually visit New York in April.  Walk through the process that an Ellis Island immigrant would have experienced, step by step.  As you visit each of the eight stops, respond to the questions in the scavenger hunt located in your scrapbook.  Don't forget to check out the more about sections at each stop.  Experience the voices of actual immigrants telling about their experiences at Ellis Island as well as  ships arriving in New York Harbor during the period from 1890  to 1920.
 

6.  After you finished taking your first virtual tour, read pages 4 to 14 in classroom book Immigrant Kids.  Use the soft ware Inspiration to create an idea web using the main idea, Coming Over.
 

7.   Find out the history and meaning of your first name.   Explore the Immigrant Wall of Honor to see if any relatives have their name there.  Record the information about first name on the quilt piece or coat of arms in your scrapbook.
      Challenge:  Construct a family tree from data gathered from interview of relatives.  Use graphic organizer from Inspiration or sample provided by teacher.

8.   As a class, you will view video Who is an American? .  Class discussion will include song's lyrics concerning tolerance of diversity.  Respond to the question in your journal...Is the United States a "melting pot", "salad bowl", or a "mosaic?" Defend your position.

9.  Your final activity will be a class immigration museum.  Your display will include your scrapbook, class quilt or coat of arms, poetry, graphs, and all other artifacts, photos, currency, etc. that you want to include about your own family's immigration history.

            Extra!Extra!  Be a history detective and see how many clues you can collect
                                        about     immigration.

Resources

Print Resources

Evaluation

Conclusion

Credits

                   Thanks for digital photos taken by Joseph Praught on our Ellis     Island tour 3/31/2000

Print Material:
                    "Miss Liberty - From Toes to Torch" taken from Glasthal, Jacqueline. American
                            History Math.  New York, Scholastic:  1996.

                    Quilt Piece and Coat of Arms taken from The Education Center. THE MAILBOX.
                             Intermediate.  April/May 1993 and November 1999.

                    List of immigration data taken from Ellis Island Coloring Book.