Curated OER
Becoming American: Between Two Worlds
Students examine American identity. In this immigration lesson, students explore the plight of Chinese Americans in their attempts to assimilate into the American culture while keeping their Chinese identities.
Curated OER
The Immigrant Experience In America
Students study immigration, Ellis Island, and tenement life from 1890 to 1924. Each student create an identity of an immigrant and write an essay in the first person. Essays describe what they found when they arrived in New York City.
Curated OER
The Immigrant Experience in America
Students explore immigration in the United States. In this immigration lesson, students read about Ellis Island and tenement houses as they conduct research regarding the topic in order to write an essay.
Curated OER
Becoming American: The Chinese Experience
Students examine the experience of Chinese American immigrants in the PBS series BECOMING AMERICAN. ESL learners investigate and explore their own identities within a multicultural context.
Facing History and Ourselves
Many Voices, One National Identity
To conclude the unit on "Exploring Identity in the United States," pupils consider whether it is possible to combine many voices into one national identity. After creating an identity chart that lists words, phrases, and images that they...
Curated OER
Immigration in the United States
Students explore how recent immigration and migration patterns impact social and political issues. They apply affective learning techniques
Annenberg Foundation
Utopian Promise
Scholars learn all about the Puritans in the third installment of a 16-part lesson series. After watching a video, they read and discuss biographies of Puritans and Quakers from American history, write journal entries and poetry, and...
Curated OER
The House on Mango Street
Students read The House on Mango Street and analyze why the author chose to tell this story and how the characters are affected by immigration, poverty, and discrimination. Students compare this story to others about immigration to...
PBS
Puerto Rican Perspectives
Puerto Ricans are wholly American, but their history with the United States has been one of tumult. Using clips from a PBS documentary, viewers consider the history of the island and Puerto Rico's contributions to the mainland United...
Facing History and Ourselves
Finding Your Voice
To begin a study of what it means to be American, high schoolers first consider their own identities. They draw a picture of what they think an American looks like and share their images. Next, they examine an image of the "Flag of...
Curated OER
Grappling with Identity in Latino Poetry
Students identify some common themes involving the Latino immigrant experience as conveyed through a variety of media, explore issues of identity in some examples of poetry written by Latinos and learn some basic poetry reading strategies.
Curated OER
State of Mind: Inventing the American Identity
Students define national identity, explain importance of having national identity, describe America's national identity, work together and formulate class vision of what America's national identity is, identify United States symbols and...
Annenberg Foundation
Masculine Heroes
What were the driving forces behind American expansion in the nineteenth century, and what were its effects? Scholars watch a video, read biographies, engage in discussion, write journals and poetry, draw, and create a multimedia...
Curated OER
From America, With Love
Students research the experiences of specific immigrant groups in the United States. Letters are written from imaginary immigrants to relatives in their countries of origin, including historically accurate details.
Curated OER
Reformers versus Residents in Five Points: A Role Play
Social Studies and role-playing can go hand in hand. Learners use supporting evidence found in primary and secondary source material to develop a character from the Five Points neighborhood in the 1850s. Each student takes on the role of...
Curated OER
Cultural Riches
Students examine culture and how immigrants adapt to American culture while contributing elements of their various cultures to that of the United States.
Curated OER
Ellis Island: Gateway To America
Fifth graders study the immigration station on Ellis Island. Through several activities, they see that immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island came to America from different countries, mostly those in Europe, for a variety of reasons.
Curated OER
Opportunity and Danger
Young scholars analyze the immigrant experience. In this Chinese immigration lesson, students research Internet and print sources regarding the topic. Young scholars also watch videos regarding the topic and interview immigrants or...
Curated OER
Changing Places
Learners investigate the Chinese-American immigration experience. In this assimilation lesson plan, students watch "Becoming American: The Chinese Experience" and then participate in classroom activities regarding the topic. The...
Curated OER
Ethnic Culture and Identity in the Columbia River Basin, 1850-1950
Students explore cultural history of immigrant groups that settled in the Columbia River Basin from 1850 to World War II, and examine various primary sources to explore role cultural and social customs played in keeping alive immigrant...
Curated OER
In the Future we will all be Mixed Bloods and Mestizoes
Young scholars examine the concept of origin and ethnicity. In this ethnic studies lesson, students engage in a variety of interdisciplinary activities including posters, and discussions to better understand our past and future.
Curated OER
Changing Places
Students examine the experiences of immigrants coming to America from China. They create cultural profiles for themselves and others. They identify the reasons why people immigrate to another country.
Curated OER
Ybor City Historic District
Students analyze the role cigar making played in Ybor City. They examine how cigars are made and the different societies who helped immigrants keep their identify. They compare and contrast their own community to Ybor City.
Curated OER
Gotta Be Me
Pupils create model societies. In this social identity activity, students conduct research so that they can plan and present model societies to their classmates. The societies must include information regarding how their society will...