BACKWARD DESIGN INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING TEMPLATE

PRELIMINARY PLANNING FORMAT

Unit Title: Immigration/Mexico Studies Grade Level(s): 6-8

Subject(s)/Topic Area(s): Social Studies and Literature
Designed By: Alicia Beck and Jamie Johnson

STAGE 1 – IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS

Established Goals (Standards Correlations): G
Social Studies Standard #2 – Understands the historical perspective necessary to make predictions and
recommendations concerning national and world wide events.
Social Studies Standard #3 – Uses geographic information to understand people and places.
Reading Standard #5 – Recognizes the worth and understands a variety of literary forms and works from past and
contemporary times.
Reading Standard #8 – Demonstrates the ability to form conclusions based on information heard and read.

Understandings: Essential Questions:

U Q
Students will understand that there are various
economic, social, and political reasons for people
choosing to immigrate
Students will understand how multiple points of view
affect a work of literature.
Students will understand that immigration can have
difficulties—assimilation, language barriers, dangers of
illegal crossing, gaining citizenship, quotas, etc.
Students will understand the economic concerns that
many people of Mexico are faced with.
Students will understand how each country
experiencing emigration or immigration is affected.
Students will understand that regardless of their own
political views they can empathize with the hardships of
many Mexican citizens.
Students will understand a guest speaker’s personal
account of immigrating to the United States.
What circumstances in Mexico contribute to citizens
emigrating?
How does immigration affect you personally? How does
immigration affect your country? How does
immigration affect Mexico? How does immigration
affect the world? What are your views on immigration?
How does Lupita Manana’s story relate to present day?
How do Lupita and Salvador’s opposing perspectives
on assimilation affect their experience in the United
States?
What type of situation would cause you to risk the
dangers of illegally immigrating?

Students will know… K Students will be able to… S

Key vocabulary terms
Mexican social, economic, and political factors leading
to emigration.
Obstacles and risks faced by immigrants to the United
States.
How point of view affects literature
How countries are affected by immigration.
Why nations set immigration quotas
Circumstances the current border situation presents
between Mexico and the United States.
Debate quotas compared to open-door policies.
Discuss the risks of illegal immigration. Reflect using
an anticipation guide before and after the unit. Evaluate
current newspaper articles on the topic of Mexican
immigration. Write letters from the perspective of
Lupita or Salvador. Evaluate photos from National
Geographic depicting life in Tijuana. Identify points of
view in the novel Lupita Manana. Utilize appropriate
vocabulary to discuss their ideas about immigration.
Propose ways Mexico could improve their economic

Adapted from Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook ©ASCD 2004 1

 situation.

STAGE 2 – ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE

Performance Tasks: T
Students will choose to complete one of the performance tasks. The goal is for students to demonstrate the
knowledge and understanding they have acquired through the unit on Mexico, immigration, and Lupita Manana.
Each performance task should be accompanied by a brief personal narrative describing the student’s personal
thoughts regarding the unit. The student should use the anticipation guide, informational texts, and class
discussions to describe their own personal journey throughout the unit.

1. Create a collection of photographs/images depicting Lupita Manana’s journey from her home in
Mexico to crossing the border to living in the United States. Images should reflect her trials and
tribulations, and include descriptive captions that express her thoughts and emotions. The collection
could be made up of images from the internet, drawings, digital photographs, etc. Students will
present to small groups.

2. Propose new legislation to present in front of Congress. Outline an original, detailed plan regarding
immigration and our nation’s borders. Detail the benefits of your plan compared to current laws or
legislation. Students will present information to a small group using a method of their choice.

3. Write a letter to your political representative using Lupita or Salvador’s point of view. Using the
characters’ experiences from the novel, convince this politician to understand your view regarding
immigration. Clearly define your letter using examples from his/her life and information from the
immigration unit. Students will read their letter to a small group.

4. Vicente Fox and George W. Bush are meeting to discuss their views on immigration between the
United States and Mexico. Both are hoping to convince the other person to understand their
country’s political position regarding immigration. Develop a personal agenda listing the points
each person wants to get across to the other head of state. Support the viewpoints with statistics.
Describe in writing how you think such a meeting would turn out. Students will present their
handouts to a small group.

Other Evidence: SA

1. Anticipation Guide: Students will answer questions about immigration at the beginning and end of
the unit.
2. Quizzes: Students will take quizzes on Lupita Manana and corresponding vocabulary throughout
the reading of the novel. Students will take quiz over their knowledge of Mexico and immigration.
3. Discussion: Students will participate in small and large group discussions about various topics
regarding immigration.
4. Summarize: Students will use the Exchange/Compare Strategy to summarize newspaper articles
about current immigration topics.
5. Letter: Students will write letters from the perspective of Lupita or Salvador.
6. Analyze photos: Students will discuss and analyze photographs depicting life near the border of
Mexico and the United States.

Adapted from Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook ©ASCD 2004 2

 STAGE 3 – LEARNING PLAN

Through the 7th grade social studies curriculum the students study the western hemisphere. As part of their studies on
Mexico, the topics of economic hardships, population growth, and emigration will be covered. This mini-unit focuses
on immigration and will coincide with a novel, Lupita Manana, that the students will read in their Language
Arts/Reading class.

Social Studies unit on Mexico focusing on economic conditions leading to emigration:

Students will begin the unit on immigration by filling out a 5 question anticipation guide. This anticipation guide will
be filled out again to conclude the unit.

Anticipation Guide:
1. True of False Most Mexican immigrants are leaving their country for political reasons. False they are
leaving mostly because of economic reasons.
2. True of False If you have lived in the United States for 7 years or longer, you are considered a citizen.
False
3. True of False Someone who transports illegal immigrants to the United States is called a coyote. True
4. True of False The United States has the highest percentage of immigrants living in their country compared
to other nations. False 12% are foreign born— the U.S. ranks in the middle.
5. Mexican immigrants living in the United States help the Mexican economy. True
Background information on Mexico’s history, current economic situations, rural to urban migration, and immigration
to the United States will be addressed through the students’ textbook as well as notes provided by the instructor.
Students will receive a list of vocabulary terms that relate to the topic of immigration. They will be assessed on the
understanding of the terms in a quiz over Mexico.

Vocabulary: quotas, illegal alien, naturalization, deportation, immigrate, emigrate, migrant, stowaway, assimilation,
Immigration and Naturalization Services, green card, permanent resident, port of entry, coyote, refugee, visa,
smuggler, open door policy, braceros, amnesty, rural to urban migration, etc.

Adapted from Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook ©ASCD 2004 3

After establishing background information, vocabulary, and drawing on prior knowledge from our studies of Mexico
the students will participate in related activities.

Classroom Activities:
Reading: Read and discuss the article “Busted” found in the Current Events magazine. What are the dangers that
illegal immigrants coming to the United States face? Would you take these risks to go to another country? Under
what circumstances? What is a coyote and should they charge $10,000 to smuggle immigrants? Vicente Fox’s plan
would allow Mexicans to be guest workers in the U.S. and would legalize the citizenship of 3.5 million Mexicans
living in the U.S. illegally. Do you think this is a good idea? What is your idea for immigration policies?

Discussion/Debate: Classroom discussions centered around how immigration affects the student, their country and
the world will follow. As well as discussion on immigration policies such as quotas compared to open door policies,
and the decision to assimilate into American culture or keep strong ties to their native country. Students will be
encouraged to discuss in small groups by utilizing the appropriate vocabulary and supporting their opinions with
facts and statistics.

Guest Speaker: A guest speaker will be brought into the classroom. This will be an immigrant to the United States
and will share his/her experience with language barriers, new opportunities, hopes, fears, and why they chose to
immigrate.

Photography: Students will analyze photographs from www.nationalgeographic.com/mexico. These photographs

convey what life is like in Mexico. Students will see images of Mexico City, Tijuana and the border, as well as photos
from the heartland of Mexico. Focus will be on the city of Tijuana and what life is like near the border. Students will
study the images and draw conclusions about the subject matter in the photograph. The captions will be shared with
the students after they have spent some time drawing their own conclusions.

News Article Research: Students will be instructed to find four relevant news articles about Mexican immigration.
Students will spend a class period utilizing the search engine google.com and the feature that allows them to search
for news articles. They need to evaluate the articles for bias, compare perspectives among the articles, and
summarize what they found.

Naturalization Test: Students will be given a 25 question test that immigrants must pass to become a naturalized

Adapted from Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook ©ASCD 2004 4

citizen. This test can be found at www.uscis.gov Discussion will follow about the difficulty of this test and the
reasons for testing.

As a social studies teacher I will be familiar with the novel Lupita Manana and tie in connections from her life to the
discussions in the social studies classroom. This mini-unit will culminate with students completing one of the four
performance assessment tasks as mentioned previously.

Differentiation for unit: Compacting will be available for students when discussing background information on
Mexico. If students have an understanding of social, political and economic factors present in Mexico they will be
encouraged to move forward and research information on immigration. Graduated rubrics will be used to evaluate
their performance assessment task. Other performance assessment tasks will be considered for the student who
would rather act out a role play, prepare a speech, etc. Those performance assessments will be considered as an
alternative assessment that should be proposed by the student. The anticipation guide attached earlier lets us see
what the students know about immigration before the unit begins.

Literature Connection:
Students will read the book, Lupita Manana by Patricia Beatty, as a supplement to the social studies curriculum.
Several discussions and small activities will take place during the reading of the book. Students will also have time to
work on their performance assessment.

Discussions will focus on questions such as: How are Lupita and Salvador’s approaches to life different? What
impacts (economic, emotional, etc) does the death of Hernando Torres have on the members of Lupita’s family? How
are the rituals that Hernando’s family observes after his death similar or different from the rituals that your family
would practice? Why does everyone call Lupita Torres, Lupita Manana? How did the incident with the robbers on
the road affect Salvador and Lupita’s thoughts about their journey and about people in general? What are the
Mexican people’s beliefs about Americans that are presented in this book? Why do you think Salvador throws the
money that Lupita got from begging into the bush? Do you think Lupita should keep lying to her mother in her
letters? Why or Why not? Why does Lupita want to call Lucky, Lucio Manana? What does Lupita mean when she
says than many of the wetbacks and pochos are half-gringo? How do Salvador and Lupita each feel about
assimilation into the American culture? How has Aunt Consuelo changed from the day they first arrived to the end of
the book? Why does Lupita say that she wants to build a hard shell around herself? What do you think Salvador will
do once he is freed in Mexico? How do the author’s comments in the back of the book, that were written in 1980,
relate to the immigration issue our country faces today?

Adapted from Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook ©ASCD 2004 5

Students will also complete a story map to show that they can identify the elements of literature. In addition to the
main conflict and resolution, students will identify minor conflicts throughout the story. They will describe the
resolutions from the story and discuss possible alternative solutions that could have occured.

During the final part of the book students will write a plausable letter from either Lupita or Salvador’s perspectives.
Students will write to their family back in Mexico describing their life and their hopes for the future. Students may
also choose to write the letter as if it were written ten years later predicting what may happen to the character they
have chosen. This will be a quick write and will be evaluated based on content rather than writing requirements.

Throughout the unit the class will write “point of view” statements on the board that depict the feelings or beliefs of
the various characters. Students will practice picking out different characters’ perspectives and the teacher will
highlight statements the author makes that illuminate how a character views certain events or situations.

Many topics described in the social studies part of the unit may carry over into discussions in reading class. The
vocabulary terms listed will be addressed throughout the book. Relevant newspaper articles may be explored
during reading class using a vocabulary and summarization strategy. (Students use vocabulary from the article or text
to predict and summarize the information presented.)

W—We are developing an understanding of the social, economic, and political factors that contribute to Mexican
immigration. Students will develop an understanding of the risks and issues that surround immigration through
various readings, activities, and speakers and come to their own conclusions.
H— Activities are designed with the students in mind. An immigrant to the U.S. will present his/her personal
experiences. Instead of hearing about the Naturalization test the students will be able to experience it themselves.
E—Through the textbook, novel, guest speaker, and news articles the student will draw conclusions about
immigration.
R—Class discussions will encourage reflection. The performance assessment task requires a personal reflection on
their views about immigration.
E-- The performance assessment task rubric will be provided ahead of time to allow for self-evaluation.
T—Four different options are provided for the performance assessment tasks.
O--Using the textbook as framework to organize the unit, but also using many other activities and readings to
supplement the unit.
Sources:
Beatty, Patricia. (1981). Lupita Manana. New York: William Morrow and Company.

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“Busted.” (2002 January). Current Events, 101, 1-4.
Elbow, G. and Greenfield, G.M. (1998). Western Hemisphere. Parsippany, NJ: Silver Burdett Ginn.
Parfit, Michael. (1996, August). Discovering Mexico. National Geographic.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/mexico
World Explorer: Western Hemisphere. (1998). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Immigration---Performance Assessment Rubric

Criteria Proficient 3 Adequate 2 Not Yet 1

Explanation Student clearly explains Student provides Student does not
statements and events explanations of back up statements
using documented statements and or events and/or
information from events, but does not makes false
reliable resources and provide statements.
class notes. documentation of
sources.
Interpretation Student accurately takes The student takes on The student attempts
on the role presented in the role presented in to take on the
the performance task. the performance desired role, but
Interpretations of task, but only some does not accurately
viewpoints are viewpoints match the portray the
congruent with desired role. viewpoints presented
information presented in in the unit.
the unit.
Application Student uses knowledge Student shows Student completes
from the unit to application of some the performance
accurately and knowledge from the task, but does not
effectively complete the unit, but does not use or apply
performance task. provide strong information from the
evidence of learning. unit.
Perspective Student shows evidence Student shows Student does not
of critical thinking from evidence of critical show evidence of
the multiple thinking from one critical thinking
perspectives presented perspective from a perspective
in the unit. presented in the unit. other than their own.
Empathy Student is able to step Student analyzes the Student is not able to
away from their topic of immigration step away from their
individual life to from the desired individual life to
analyze the topic of perspective analyze the topic of
immigration from the described in the immigration from
desired perspective performance task, the desired
described in the but does not show perspective
performance task. In evidence of empathy described in the
doing so, the student for others. performance task
shows empathy for and shows little or
situations that vary from no empathy for
their own. others.
Adapted from Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook ©ASCD 2004 7
Self-knowledge Student shows evidence Student describes Student does not
of reflection regarding personal view points, address their
their thoughts and but does not reflect personal view points
changing perspectives on how their in their reflection.
throughout the unit. thoughts have
evolved through the
unit.

Adapted from Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook ©ASCD 2004 8