Welcome back to my blog! My partner and I plan to teach second or third graders about immigration. To do this, we plan to use the book, All the Way to America by Dan Yaccarino. This is a true story about a large Italian family and their journey to America. After reading this story, I hope that my students will understand that not all of our ancestors were born in America like most of us were. Margaret and I are going to make a lesson plan to help educators teach this text and the subject of immigration, as a whole. Throughout this lesson plan, we will use Gardner’s spatial and interpersonal intelligences to get the point across to students. I think this project is extremely important to elementary school educators because it allows students to look at immigration as a whole, as well as relating it back to themselves. In the end, I am really hoping that teachers will be able to use this lesson plan and read this book, as it is a great way to explain what immigration was really like.

            The beginning of the lesson plan will include our first activity with the students. We planned to have immigration-related pictures up on the Smart Board, and have the students write a sentence or two on them. This is also known as captioning pictures. Some of the pictures may include Ellis Island, people leaving their families behind, and others getting adjusted to their new lives in the United States. This opening activity is geared toward our spatial-thinkers, who will most likely enjoy this activity. Next, I would read the book, All the Way to America by Dan Yaccarino. Even though I picked this book before reading it, I am so happy I did. After writing my first blog post and then reading it, the book truly made me so happy and has such an important message to it. After reading the book with my students, I plan on doing a group activity to work with the interpersonal students. Group work is always a good way to get students talking, even in college. Prior to the day of reading, I would really like to send a note home explaining how I will begin to teach on immigration soon. It would be awesome if each student could bring in a picture of a family member that was born in a different country, and if they themselves were, a picture of them. As a teacher, I would love to have a large map of the world hung on the wall, and I can work with my students to hang whatever picture they bring in, on the map where the person was born. Of course, if no picture can be brought in, I would have my students draw a picture. Everyone always needs to be included! I believe this is a creative way to teach immigration.

            The only part Margaret and I really have to work on is creating a formal lesson plan for elementary school educators. We have both done this before, and as one of my sources, I have a formal template we can follow. Overall, we hope that creating a teaching lesson will encourage educators to teach immigration this way because not only do we get some background history on it, we also find it extremely important for the students to relate it back to themselves and their families.

Annotated Bibliography

Yaccarino, D. (2014). All the way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel. New York: Dragonfly Books.

This is an academic and credible source as it is the book we will be using for our lesson. This is the key to our lesson plan and will, hopefully, teach students the importance of immigration.

Clinton, Thomas. “Navigating Borders: Immigration Teaching and Learning in K-12 Classrooms.” https://search.proquest.com/docview/2115562304.

This is an academic and credible source that explains why teaching on immigration is so important. It also gives examples on what to teach and how to teach it.

Temiz, and Nida. “A Lesson Plan Model for Character Education in Primary Education.” Educational Research and Reviews, Academic Journals. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1206124

This is an academic and credible source, as it shows a true lesson plan model. You are able to open up a full text where you can see the importance of lesson planning.

Elementary Lesson Plan Template. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://images.template.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/03191952/Elementary-Teachers-Lesson-Plan-Free-PDF-Templates.pdf.

This is an academic and credible source because it is a simple lesson plan template. This will assure that Margaret and I include everything an elementary lesson plan should have.

English Language Arts Standards ” Reading: Literature ” Grade 2. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RL/2/#CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.3.

This is an academic and credible source because it lists the language arts standards for second graders. Since we will need to put in the standard on our lesson plan, I have decided to look it up prior. I believe that 2.3 is a good standard we will be covering during our lesson, as we see the main character move to America and how he has to adjust.

Immigration Lesson Plan for Grades K–2. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/immigration-lesson-plan-grades-k-2/.

This is a popular and credible source as many teachers use scholastic books and it’s website. This website gave me the idea of the “Immigration Wall of Honor,” where the students will be able to hang pictures of their ancestors, or themselves, on the map of the world. Although, this website gives a full lesson plan on teaching immigration for grades kindergarten through second grade.