Author: Vanessa Maeda
Partner/Co-Teacher: Viridiana Guzman
Date Prepared: April 17, 2012
Main Subject: Social Studies
Topic or Focus: Immigration and the community of Brighton Park
Grade/Level: 3rd
Type of Classroom: Bilingual
Estimated Time Required: 45-60 minutes
Summary:
This lesson explores immigration to the United States, with an emphasis on the later half
of the 19th century, as well as the surrounding community of Brighton Park. Although this was
only a one day lesson, instruction and discussion focused on who, what, where, when, why, and
how people immigrated.
Overall, the focus for students in this age group is in comparing different immigration
experiences and sharing their own, with specifics on why their family settled in Brighton Park.
Students will be introduced to a timeline that pinpoints specific groups of immigrants during
certain years and quick facts about their community. Also, as a class, students will read letters
written by immigrant children and then compare and contrast the stories of immigrants arriving
in the past to recent immigrants, as well as their own personal story.
Planning Implementation
Learning Context: Because students have not explored much in regards to social studies and
know very little about different cultures, my partner and I decided to set a historical context for
understanding the role of immigration in society and how America is a nation of immigrants.
Hopefully, with this lesson, students will gain a better and more concrete understanding on
immigration and what it means to them, as well as society.
Desired Results:
STATE GOAL 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the
history of Illinois, the United States and other nations.
A.
Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation.
16.A.2b Compare different stories about a historical figure or event and analyze
differences in the portrayals and perspectives they present.
D. Understand Illinois, United States and world social history.
16.D.2a (US) Describe various individual motives for settling in colonial America
Evidence of Learning:
Assessment of student learning will be measured throughout informal observations and
discussion. Students are also to create a letter, similar to those presented, about their family’s
immigration to the United States. In addition to this, students will be asked two specific
questions during our wrap-up, as a means of assessment.

Why is it important to know and study about immigration?

Why did so many individuals, regardless of race or ethnicity, immigrate to the United
States?
The answers and short discussion will help us is seeing whether or not students were listening
and comprehending the materials and ideas presented. Also, by asking these questions and
reflecting on students answers, we will see whether or not we were able to fulfill our objectives.
Materials and Resources:
Pre-made transparencies (timeline, quick facts, and immigrant letters), dry-erase markers,
overhead projector, thirty-one sheets of the world map, and thirty-one sheets of the community
map of Illinois.
Teaching Strategies and Activities:
One teaching strategy that will be used is brainstorming. This activity is an effective way
to introduce students to a new topic and it also serves as a pre-assessment of student prior
knowledge. After sharing some background knowledge in relation to the word ‘immigration’ we
will demonstrate a timeline that displays the waves of immigrants during specific years. The
teacher and students will focus on Brighton Park and explore a community map. After this,
students will view two letters from immigrant children. Throughout this particular activity, we
will utilize questioning to aid in comprehension. Once students have finished reading and
discussing what occurred to these particular immigrants, students will be asked to draw the
routes of migration on a world map.
Also, if time permits, students will create their own letter on immigration from one
country to another, which can either be a personal experience or something made-up. For
homework, over the weekend, students are to work with their families in order to create a collage
that supports their culture and their story.
Planning for Diverse Learners/ Differentiated Instruction
Students with special needs and/or poor reading comprehension will be able to listen and
view video clips about immigrant children rather than having to read from the overhead
projector. Since this is a bilingual classroom, with many English Language Learners barely
emerging in language acquisition, instruction will include a mixture of Spanish and English.
Visual presentations will also be provided in order to enhance learning for all. In regards to our
activity with drawing immigration routes, students with special needs will receive physical
and/or verbal prompting for placing arrows that trace immigration patterns or will receive one
arrow already placed in order to understand the task. Other than this, materials presented to the
classroom were rewritten to match the readability and comprehension levels of the class and
students will have the opportunity to work alone or in small groups for map activities.
Lesson Evaluation and Reflection on Profession Development
Overall, the lesson went extremely well. With all honesty, my partner and I were nervous
and scared that not much discussion would take place since the students have not really focused
on social studies/ history, but I was impressed with the students’ prior knowledge and other
things they had to say.
We began the lesson by introducing our new topic of study and asking students if they
could provide us with a definition for immigration. The class had blank stares at first but when I
proceeded with a decoding strategy to find the meaning of an unknown word, students began to
talk. Students recognized the word ‘migration’ and mentioned various methods of migrating,
like a boat, train, raft, airplane, car, and walking. Other students mentioned officers that look out
for people that come into the country. Although students understood what ‘La Migra’ is and its
importance, students still struggled to come up with a definition for the term immigration. After
further questioning, one of our struggling students began talking about birds and how they
migrate, traveling from one place to another, when it starts to get cold in the United States. From
this, I was glad that I asked students to take that piece of information and think about people.
Once I finished speaking, another student immediately brought up coming from Mexico to
Chicago. Overall, students came up with great responses after asking follow-up questions to
expand their thinking.
Aside from the discussion that took place in the very beginning of our lesson, I was
extremely happy that we were able to tie in the surrounding community.
Viridiana and I
accomplished this by presenting a timeline. Each year on the timeline showed which group of
people had the largest number of immigrants present in Illinois that year. From there, we ended
on 1970 and read aloud that an influx of Mexican immigrants began settling in Pilsen, Little
Village, and Brighton Park.
In addition to the timeline and providing students with quick facts about Brighton Park, I
felt good about the lesson because of the child immigrant stories that we introduced. Since these
students have not had many opportunities in the classroom to engage in history/ social studies,
these letters became a method of exposing students to different countries and cultures. Also,
these letters from immigrant children made it easy for students to make connections to their life
and their family’s immigration to the United States. It was truly pleasing when students asked us
for permission to write them back, in order to share their immigration experiences.
Overall, I believe we did a good job. Together, Ms. Guzman and I were able to present
materials and develop ideas through auditory, visual, and kinesthetic means. Furthermore, our
lesson reflected a good ration of teacher talk versus student talk and we honored the student’s
voices and opinions, while filtering certain responses or providing immediate clarification in
order to stay close to the aim of the lesson.