St.

Patricks Day
Instructional Objective (plan 1st)
Students will be able to interpret the experiences and difficulties of the immigrants through Ellis Island using multiple historical perspectives. They will
then imagine their own experience by using process and content and present it in a power point to the class. Students will learn their cultural heritage
and journey and relate it to cultural consciousness.
Content Standard Reference
5-3.4 Summarize the significance of large-scale immigration and the contributions of immigrants to America in the early 1900s, including the countries
from which they became, the opportunities and resistance they faced when they arrived, and the cultural and economic contributions they made to this
nation.

Introduction (plan last)

Anticipatory Set
Write for 5 minutes in your
journal revealing what you
know about your family
history through
immigration and culture.

Learning Targets
(as stated to students)
Students will be able to
interpret the experiences
and difficulties of the
immigrants through Ellis
Island. They will then
imagine their own
experience through the
process and present it in a
power point to the class.
Students will learn their
cultural heritage and
journey. Students will
understand more deeply
cultural consciousness,
what it looked like then,
and what it looks like now.
This is a process for real
audiences.

Body of Lesson (plan 2nd)

Input
(content/strategy)

Modeling

Check for
Understanding

- PowerPoint focusing
on the history of
immigration to Ellis
Island. (Vocabulary)

- PowerPoint focusing
on the history of
immigration to Ellis
Island.

- Video of the
struggles of
immigrants first
hand accounts. How
did intercultural
communication help
or hurt this process?
What are the various
historical
perspectives? This
video simulates the
actual journey
through Ellis Island
before the students
reenact it.
https://www.youtube
.com/watch?
v=5rredHTyKaQ

- Video of the
struggles of
immigrants first
hand accounts.

- Get ready
assignment

- Explain rules and

expectations of the
task. It is a fun
period for the
students, but it also
needs to be
meaningful and well
articulated.

- Any questions

(Different languages
and word captions)
- Enter Ellis Island:

- Give them a map

with instructions of
the tasks at hand.
One side will be rules
and regulations for
classroom purposes;
the other will be a
map of the unknown,
written in a different

Guided Practice

- Any questions

for

big

- Once the simulation is

complete, students are to
return to class and write
a reflection on their
experiences and be ready
to present with the class.
- What did it feel like to
go through the motions
of an immigrant in Ellis
Island? Was it stressful
and confusing? Were
people nice to you? How
did it feel to be judged?
What about when you
were moved to the field
with
no
further

- Students will go
through the motions of
Ellis Island immigrants,
stopping at different
tasks and information
stands, and going
through the process of
obtaining their Visa or
not. They will be judged
on if they were capable of
coming to America. They
will be inspected,
confused, crowded and
overwhelmed. They will
then be guided to the
field with job signs on
posters, and no further
directions. Once the first
bell rings the children

Closure
- Go around the
room sharing
experiences and
reflecting.
Emphasize cultural
consciousness,
racism,
discrimination,
prejudice, the
multiple
perspectives of the
students with
different
identification cards,
and the
intercultural
communication
that needed to be
developed for
success.
- Ticket out the
door: notes and
reflection.

Purpose
Ellis Island is a huge part
in our history as
Americans. It is important
to know the struggles of
immigrants into the United
States, as well as to reflect
on the struggles and
histories of where you
specifically came from. In
a broader sense, this
lesson will develop cultural
consciousness and various
historical perspectives in
looking at the journey of
the immigrant and ones
own journey.

The entire History

period will be a part
of this, as well as
teachers and
volunteers. A
permission slip and
overview of the
expectations will go
out to the parents a
week in advance. The
rest of the period will
be reenacting the
experience of Ellis
Island. Students will
get a card that
describes their
character, origins,
culture, ethnicity,
language etc. a week
in advance and are
expected to show up
dressed and in
character.

language, confusing
and complex.

guidance? Did you feel

lost? Did you notice the
job signs? Did you see a
job that you wanted to
pick? Why? Is this how
you thought it would be?
Why or why not?

are to go back to their

classrooms to reflect.

- This lesson will

take two class
periods.
Independent Practice
Interview your parents, relatives, etc. and write half a page on what you have learned about your cultural heritage, journeys your family has endured,
and the migrant path they or their ancestors may have taken on. Be prepared to share your history and culture with your class. Feel free to bring a food
of your culture to share with the class. Also, think about the jobs offered at the end of our experiment. Did one stand out to you and why? Is this a
career path you would like in the future or something along those lines? Why or why not? Do you have a career goal in general?
Both of these topics are going to be made into a brochure of your heritage, as well as your journey and career goals. They will be informative and helpful
to the insight of your cultural journey and how it has made you who you are today as well as who you want to be in the future.

Key: Linked Learning in Red