Lindsay Kiker

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies: Ch. 5 & 6

Immigration: Process and Struggles (Day 8)
3rd Grade
Background Information
Definitions of immigration and immigrant
- Immigration: the process of moving to a new country
(planning to live there permanently)
- Immigrant: people who move to a new country
Have students think about whether it would be easy or hard to
move to a place you have never gone before. What might be
some of the challenges?
Struggles (making a new life, hard to find jobs, etc.)
Give students general idea bout what immigrants went through
and how life was for them
Skills: discussion, watching video, drawing, reflecting
This lesson will take about 45 minutes to teach (including the
activity at the end)
Integration of Learning Outcomes
Learn what the words immigration and immigrant mean
Have students put themselves in the place of an immigrant/how
they would feel if it were them
Students should understand the struggles and challenges the
immigrants went through
Each student high/low should create a suitcase picture or list to
show their items (descriptions/reasoning for all students except
ELL)
Standards
PA Standards:
2a. Demonstrate an understanding that different people may
describe the same event in diverse ways
9.1.3.E: Demonstrate the ability to define objects, express
emotions, illustrate an action or relate an experience through
creation of works in the arts
NCSS Standards:

NCSS1.3.i provide learners with opportunities to observe and

analyze social and economic effects of environmental changes
and crisis
NCSS1.1.b guide learners as they predict how data and
experiences may be interpreted by people from diverse and
cultural perspectives and frames of reference

Anticipatory Set
Show the students the first 10 minutes of an episode of Little
House on the Prairie (shows family traveling in wagon/some of
the struggles)
- http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2t2xod

Procedures
1. (What was talked about previous day)
2. Introduce new topic: immigration and immigrants (write down
the definitions on the SmartBoard/board up front)
- Immigration: the process of moving to a new country
(planning to live there permanently)
- Immigrant: people who move to a new country
3. Show the students a short video from Little House on the Prairie
- http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2t2xod
4. Ask the students whether they think it would be easy or hard to
move to a place you have never gone before. What might be
some of the challenges?
5. Discuss some of the challenges of immigration in history: finding
a new job, home, land, etc.) Tell the students that, even though
immigrants had many struggles, they continue to come to the
United States today and add to our countrys diversity. They are
hard workers and do their best every day to help our country!
6. Remind the students that immigrants had to take all of their
belongings with them when they moved to a new place.
However, they might not have had enough space or room to
bring everything with them. Ask the students, what would you
take with you in your suitcase if you were an immigrant moving
to another country?
7. Show the students pictures of what an actual suitcase looked like
that could have been used during that time period
8. Activity: Have students draw a picture or create a list of what
they would take with them if they were moving
Differentiation

For students who are ELL or lower order, they will be able to see some
of the struggles of immigration through the opening video and also
through the activity. ELL students will be encouraged to just draw
pictures of the items that they would take in their suitcase and label
the items if they can (they do not have to explain why they chose each
item). All of the students will be able to work together in small groups
to discuss what they would take with them and why they chose those
items.
Closure
Ask students to give definitions of the words immigration and
immigrant
Students share what they drew/wrote about what is in their
suitcase (if time)
Let the students know that in the next couple of days we will be
talking more about immigration and the next lesson will focus on
looking at immigration graphs and answering higher order
questions (will be able to use technology to help!)
Formative/Summative Assessment
For formative assessment, the teacher will have the students
share how they would feel if they were an immigrant moving to a place
they had never been to before. The teacher will see if the students
understand the meaning of the words immigration and immigrant
based on their responses. How would you feel if you were an
immigrant? Overall formative assessment can be seen based on
students individual responses and their responses to each other too.
For summative assessment, the teacher will observe what kinds
of objects/belongings students would bring with them if they were an
immigrant. The teacher will look over the reasons why they chose the
items that they did and have them share with the class if there is time
(put on display around the room/in the hallway).
Materials/Equipment
Large sheets of white paper
Crayons
Markers
Pens/pencils
Technology
Video clip from Little House on the Prairie
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2t2xod
SmartBoard

Reflection on Planning
I think that going over and discussing the words immigration and
immigrant with the students before diving into the main idea will allow
them to have a better understanding of the topic. Since this lesson will
be taught first for the study of immigration, I wanted the students to
have a foundation of what the two of those words mean. I also want
students to start thinking about the struggles and challenges that the
immigrants went through and how they would feel if they were in their
shoes. My goal by the end of this lesson is for students to understand
the main ideas of immigration and who immigrants are so that they
can connect with learning about it in the future lesson plans. Hopefully
they will be able to connect on a deeper level when we discuss specific
places of immigration/what immigrants went through in the next few
lessons.
Content Outline

Definitions to put on board

- Immigration: the process of moving to a new country
(planning to live there permanently)
- Immigrant: people who move to a new country
For teacher:
http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/family/immigration/article4.html

Immigration Challenges
For teacher:

http://www.fasttrackteaching.com/burns/Unit_4_Cities/U4_Immigrants_a
nd
_Discrimination.html
http://educators.mysticseaport.org/artifacts/immigrant_suitcase/

From Content Analysis

(1) Main Idea: For immigrants on the East and West Coasts,
settling in a new country was hard