Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade level: Middle/Upper Elementary, High School

• Subject Area: Social Studies and Language Arts

Brief Description

    After they've completed their oral histories, students conduct secondary source research using the internet and library resources to learn more about the backgrounds of their family's cultural and ethnic heritages. Students can work together in research groups that have common ethnic/cultural areas.
Objectives

    Given internet and library resources students will:

• Develop research skills with both library and internet resources.

• Learn more about their own and other's cultural and ethnic heritages.

Materials and Resources Needed

1. Internet resources: Our list of resources on immigration, Ellis Island and cultural/ethnic groups (see below), as well as internet and library resources used earlier in the unit.

2. Hardware requirements: PC or Macintosh and monitor; modem and phone line.

3. Software requirements: Netscape.

Activity Description

• Form the students into research groups to explore the web.

• Give the students the bookmarks contained in our ethnic/immigration web sites list and have them explore several of the sites letting them know that they are expected to gather information on their own cultural background.

• Have students utilize library resources to gather information.

Internet Resources

• The Ethnic Heritage Council
  [http://www.eskimo.com/~millerd/ehc/]
  A non-profit organization with a board of directors that includes African-American, Native-American, Asian-American, Latin-American, and European-American members. This site has events, services, publications, people, etc.

• Ethnic, Religious, and National Web Index
  [http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~feefhs/ethnic.html]
  A complete listing of all known ethnic organizations in 14 countries.

• Latino Web - Education and History
  [http://www.latinoweb.com/favision/history.html]

• Native Web
  [http://web.maxwell.syr.edu/nativeweb/]
  A site with lot of information on Native Americans, including historical material, news, and literature.

• Urban Education Resources
  [http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/home_files/other_resources.html]

• Yahoo Immigration Information
  [http://beta.yahoo.com/Government/Law/Immigration/U_S__Immigration_Info/]

• U.S. Immigration Resources
  [http://www.contact.org/usimm.htm]

• Basic Immigration Resources
  [http://www.autonomy.com/immig.htm]

Back to Ellis Island Unit Lesson Plans