ELLIS ISLAND

Ellis Island by Mariel McAllister

I.

Lesson Plan Overview and Description

1. Expected duration: 45 minutes
2. Social Sciences: Geography
3. Concepts (Big Ideas): The purpose of this lesson is to a) learn the location of Ellis
Island, b) identify Ellis Island on a map, and c) understand why certain immigrants
came through Ellis Island because of its location.
4. Vocabulary
Immigrant A person who comes to a country where they were not born in order
to settle there.
Island Land that is surrounded entirely by water.
Ocean A large body of salt water.
5. Skills: Predicting, retelling, and map reading.
6. Broad Goals of Lesson: Locate origin countries for immigrants to Ellis Island.

II.

Content Outline
A. Where is Ellis Island
i. Located off the coast of the eastern seaboard of North America
ii. An island (land surround by water) in the New Your Harbor
B. Who came to America through Ellis Island
i. Many immigrants came to America looking for a better future.
ii. Most of the people who came through Ellis Island were from the western
coast of Europe.
iii. These immigrants came over by boat across the Atlantic Ocean.

III.

Standards
PDE SAS Standards PA Civics, History, Geography;
NCSS Thematic Strands and Performance Indicators
1. Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards Aligned System
Subject Area 7: Geography
Standard Area 7.1: Basic Geographic Literacy
Grade Level 7.1.3: GRADE 3
Standard 7.1.3.B: Identify and locate places and regions as defined by
physical and human features.
Standard Area 7.2: Physical Characteristics of Places and Regions
Grade Level 7.1.3: GRADE 3
Standard 7.1.3.A: Identify the physical characteristics of places and
regions.
Subject Area - 1: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening
Standard Area - 1.3: Reading, Analyzing, and Interpreting Literature - Fiction and
Non-Fiction
Grade Level - 1.3.3: GRADE 3
Standard - 1.3.3.A: Read, understand, and respond to works from various
genres of literature.

ELLIS ISLAND

Assessment Anchor - R3.A.2: Understand nonfiction appropriate to

grade level.
Anchor Descriptor - R3.A.2.5: Summarize a nonfictional
text as a whole.
Eligible Content - R3.A.2.5.1: Summarize the major
points, processes, and/or events of a nonfictional
text as a whole.
Anchor Descriptor - R3.A.2.3: Make inferences and draw
conclusions based on text.
Eligible Content - R3.A.2.3.1: Make inferences
and/or draw conclusions based on information from
text.
2. PDE Common Core
N/A
3. National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Thematic Strands and Performance
Indicators
III.
People, Places, & Environment
c. Use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools such as
atlases, databases, grid systems, charts, graphs, and maps to generate,
manipulate, and interpret information.
e. Locate and distinguish among varying landforms and geographic features,
such as mountains, plateaus, islands and oceans.
IV.

Lesson Objectives
A. After lesson, students will be to retell a story about an immigrant coming through Ellis
Island.
B. After lesson, students will be able to locate Ellis Island on a map.

V.

Teaching Procedures
1. Introduction/Anticipatory Set
i. By engaging the students background knowledge I will remind them of the lesson
on immigration that we previously had and ask them to help me with a word map that
has immigrant in the center and see what they already know.
2. Lesson Input
i. After the word map is complete have the students sit in a circle on the floor and
listen to the story of Uri from the textbook called A New Home.
ii. Ask the students to predict what they think the story is about based on the pictures
in the text.
iii. Remind them that an immigrant is a person who has left one country and come to
another to make a new home. Do they think Uri is an immigrant?
3. Guided Practice
i. Have the students return to their desks where maps have been laid out. This map
shows the students that the immigrants from the western side of Europe came into
America through Ellis Island. Use the projector to show the map to the class as a
whole.

ELLIS ISLAND

ii. Ask the students to identify in pairs where they think Ellis Island is located based
on the arrows on the map.
iii. Ask the students why they think the Western European immigrants came over the
ocean and through Ellis Island? Was it easier to come into this harbor or go all the
way around the country to California?
4. Independent Practice
i. In pairs have the students describe the experience Uri had coming through Ellis
Island verbally to each other. The teacher will monitor the students by walking around
and making check marks by the names of the students who are participating.
5. Differentiation
Lesson will be differentiated based on the specific learning and behavioral needs of
students in classroom, such as ELL, gifted (above level), and remediation (below
level).
6. Closure
i. Once everyone is done gather their attention and remind them that this island was
on the east coast of the United States and that tomorrow they will be learning about
Angel Island which is on the west coast.
VI.

Teacher and Student Resources and Evaluation of Resources

A. Student Reading Resources:
Houghton-Mifflin textbook
Immigration map
B. Teacher Resources for Lesson Design
A New Home book
Houghton-Mifflin teachers guide
Immigration map
C. Evaluation of Teacher Resources
Resource
Influence
3+ Characteristics
Accessibility
Title or
Significant
suggesting that the
Access for
Website
Influence (SI) or
source is a quality
teachers or
Address
Minor Influence
resource, reliable
others
(MI) in informing material
your thinking,
decisions about
the lesson plan
Immigration Significant
Country names in bold Easily
map
Influence
lettering, arrows
accessible
showing immigration
patterns and accurate
scaling.
HoughtonSignificant
Vocabulary, A New
Easily
Mifflin
Influence
Home, Questions to
accessible
Teachers
ask
Guide

Overall Rating
and
Suggestions for
current, future
use of resource

Use this map

for next lesson
on Angel Island
as well.
This will come
in handy
throughout the
whole chapter.

ELLIS ISLAND

VII.

Formative/Summative Assessment(s)
A. Formative Assessment
i. The teacher will observe and monitor the students while they are discussing in
pairs using a check mark system to see who is contributing.
B. Summative Assessment
i. N/A

VIII.

Technology/Materials/Equipment
Projection capabilities to a SmartBoard (or whiteboard)

IX.

Reflection on Planning
After writing this lesson I can see how I assumed that students will know a few facts
about Ellis Island already which might prove challenging but can be adjusted for
classrooms without as much prior knowledge. I believe the lesson should be pretty
easy to implement there isnt too much that can cause problems except the map if the
students dont know how to read the map then a refresher course on how to treat and
use a map is need before the class begins the lesson. There is no summative
assessment within this lesson because this lesson will have a second half the
following day on Angel Island and the summative assessment will encompass both
lessons, a Venn diagram.