Creating Stories of the Immigrant Experience in America
Kristin Sims
Fairfield Intermediate School
Fall 2010
Group portrait of Mrs. Mariessa Maginsky and five children standing in front of a brick wall with a large, light colored bundle in Chicago,
Illinois.
Students will write a story about the immigrant experience in America.
Overview/ Materials/LOC Resources/Standards/ Procedures/Evaluation/Rubric/Handouts/Extension
Overview
Objectives
Recommended time frame
Grade level
Curriculum fit
Materials
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Students will:
 Examine primary source pictures of immigrant
families.
 Write about the people in the primary source
pictures and explain their experience in America
based on the information they learned in class about
life in America for immigrants.
Five Days
5th
Students will write a story about the immigrant
experience in America.
Writing Prompt Template, Writing Template, Pictures
of Immigrant Families, post-it notes
Ohio State Learning Standards
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Social Studies:
People in Societies IV:
 Describe waves of immigration to North America
and the areas from which people came in each wave.
People in Societies V:
 Compare reasons for immigration to North America
with the reality immigrants experienced upon
arrival.
Social Studies Skills and Methods III:
 Differentiate between primary and secondary
sources.
Social Studies Skills and Methods VI:
 Draw inferences from relevant information.
Procedures
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Day One:
 The students will be learning about immigrants who
came to America.
 The teacher will place four pictures of immigrant
families in various places on the walls of the
classroom.
 The teacher will instruct the students to have a silent
discussion about the pictures they see. The silent
discussion will consist of students each having five
post-its. On the post-its, the students will write their
thoughts about the picture. They may write who they
think the people are, where they are from, how they
may be feeling as they came to America. The goal is
that no verbal discussion is occurring at this time.
The students are to write their own thoughts.
 After all students have attached a post-it near each
of the pictures, the teacher will go around and just
read the words on the post-its as students sit at their
seats and listen. On the fifth post-it the students are
to write one or two lines or words that they hear the
teacher say as she reads the comments. The students
are to take note as to which picture the comment
they wrote down was about.
 The students will then share these comments with
the class once more. This is just to get the students
listening to what their classmates are saying.
Day Two:
 The students will be writing a story about one of the
four pictures that they wrote comments about in
class the day before. They may use their classmate’s
comments and ideas as a guide as well as
information they have been learning in class about
the immigrant experience in America. The students
will use the Writing Prompt Template.
 In the writing assignment the students must give the
people in the picture an identity, they must tell what
life is like for them in America, how they are
feeling, what kind of jobs they have in America,
how are they treated by others. They are to take this
information that they have learned in class and write
a story about the picture they choose. They must
write a five paragraph story using the writing
prompt template to organize their thoughts.
Day Three:
 The students will continue to work on their stories in
class, they may have teacher assistance if needed.
Day Four:
 The students will have their paper proofread and
edited by the teacher and other students and begin to
write their final copy on the second Writing
Template.
Day Five:
 Students will share their story aloud in class.
 While students are sharing their stories, other
students will write positive comments on post-its
about what the student has written.
Evaluation
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The students will be evaluated on their writing
assignment, see rubric attached. Also, the students will
be evaluated on their participation in the silent
discussion prior to the writing assignment.
Extension
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Students may research their own heritage and create
their own family tree to see where their ancestors
immigrated from. They may even find pictures of family
members and write their story based upon the people in
their picture and use the information they find from the
research to write their story.
Primary Resources from the Library of Congress
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IMAGE
DESCRIPTION
CITATION
URL
Group portrait of Mrs.
Mariessa Maginsky
and five children
standing in front of a
brick wall with a
large, light colored
bundle in Chicago,
Illinois. An African
American man is
visible through the
window glass to the
right. Text on the
image reads from
Russia.
Group portrait of
Joseph Carsello and
family, involved in a
bomb explosion in
their home at 846
South Miller Street. in
the Near West Side
community area of
Chicago, Illinois. Left
to right are John,
Domenica (mother),
James (baby), Joseph
(father), Florence, and
Tony (standing). The
family survived the
explosion with
minimum injuries,
although much
damage was done to
the home and attached
family store.
Image of two boy
scouts talking to two
immigrant boys in the
Italian district in
Chicago, Illinois. The
scouts were trying to
recruit them for the
Boy Scouts of
America.
DN-0069732, Chicago
Daily News negatives
collection, Chicago
History Museum.
http://memory.loc.gov
/cgibin/query/r?ammem/c
dn:@field(NUMBER
+@band(ichicdn+n06
9732))
DN-0063999, Chicago
Daily News negatives
collection, Chicago
History Museum.
http://memory.loc.gov
/cgibin/query/r?ammem/c
dn:@field(NUMBER
+@band(ichicdn+n06
3999))
DN-0064067, Chicago
Daily News negatives
collection, Chicago
History Museum
http://memory.loc.gov
/cgibin/query/r?ammem/c
dn:@field(NUMBER
+@band(ichicdn+n06
4067))
A.J. Smith in front of
their house near
Jefferson, Custer
County, Nebraska.
Nebraska State
Historical Society,
[Digital ID, e.g.,
nbhips 12036]
http://memory.loc.gov
/cgibin/query/r?ammem/p
sbib:@field(DOCID+
@lit(p10363))
Rubric
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Name: _______________________________________________
Date: ________________________________________________
Immigration Writing Assignment Rubric
Categories
Strong
Levels (Criteria)
Developing
Not There Yet Points
3
2
1
-clear and focused
-holds attention
-rich with details
and anecdotes
-fresh, original
treatment of ideas
-easy to
understand
-adequate but
mundane treatment
of ideas
-some attempt at
support or
expansion but key
issues or story line
not fleshed out or
confused by
irrelevant detail
-all events assume
equal importance
-unclear
-leaves reader
hungry for details
-text may be
repetitious,
confusing or
disconnected
- random thoughts
-order, structure or
presentation of
information is
compelling and
moves the reader
through the text
-flows smoothly
ORGANIZATION
-inviting
introduction draws
reader in
-satisfying
conclusion
-thoughtful,
smooth transitions
-structure moves
reader through text
without confusion
-recognizable
introduction and
conclusion
-connections
between ideas may
be unclear at times
-a clear sense of
direction is not
evident
-ideas may be
strung together
loosely
-ineffective or
nonexistent lead
and conclusion
-hard to determine
the main point
-content is
accurate with what
information has
been learned in
class about
immigration.
-information
presented in the
writing assignment
is a little
confusing, needs to
show a better
-little or no
information is
presented about
what was learned
in class about
immigration.
IDEAS
CONTENT
knowledge of
information
learned in class.
SENTENCE
FLUENCY
CONVENTIONS
-natural flow to
sentences
-sentences are
well-constructed
with strong and
varied structure
-cadence invites
oral reading
-text seems more
pleasant and
businesslike than
musical
-sentences are
generally correct
with some variety
in length and
structure
-sentences choppy
or awkward
-most sentences
are simple in
structure and
begin the same
way
-frequent
connectives
-writer
demonstrates a
grasp of standard
writing
conventions
-some minor
errors
-reasonable control
over conventions
-some
misspellings, errors
in internal
punctuation,
attempted
paragraphing
-frequent errors in
conventions may
interfere with
reading
Rubric adapted from:
Best Practices: Instructional Strategies and Techniques. Regina Public Schools, 2003.
<http://www.saskschools.ca/curr_content/bestpractice/rubrics/examples.html>.
Handouts
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Writing Prompt Template
Writing Template