Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade level: Middle/Upper Elementary, High School

• Subject Area: Social Studies, Language Arts

Brief Description

    Students visit a number of sites on immigration created by other children. These sites will provide models for students to complete their own research. While students visit the sites they should evaluate the sorts of research students carried out to create the site, how they structured the site, what sort of information and graphics they included. The list of criteria students develop from their research will guide them in conducting their research and give them ideas for creating their own reports.
Objectives

    Students will:

• Develop critical tools to apply to their exploration of web sites.
• Use these tools to develop a list of criteria to guide their own research.
• Develop a sense of what makes a good web page.

Materials and Resources

    In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer (PC or Macintosh) with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as software (operating system, TCP/IP software, networking or dial-up software, e-mail and a World Wide Web client program, preferably Netscape, but perhaps Mosaic or Lynx). In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Special hardware requirements: None.
   
2. Special software requirements: See our list of Internet resources below.
   
3. Internet access:Medium-speed (28,000 BPS via modem) or High-speed (greater than 1 MBPS via network).

Activity Description

• Form student research groups to explore the web.

• Give the students the bookmarks contained in our resource list and have them explore several of the sites. Let students know that they will be asked to develop a list of what sorts of graphics and text were helpful or confusing and how different ways of organizing information helped or hindered their understanding.

• Reconvene as a whole group and have the class brainstorm a list of the types of things that they found included in the sites they visited. The discussion should include what sorts of things were helpful or confusing, how different ways of organizing information helped or hindered their understanding. You may choose to record the class' findings on a chart.

Internet Resources

  Student Produced Resources

• Virtual Ellis Island Museum
  [http://wwwald.bham.wednet.edu/museum/museum.htm]
  A virtual museum compiled by students at Alderwood Elementary [http://wwwald.bham.wednet.edu/default.htm] in Bellingham, Washington detailing their families' experiences immigrating to the United States.

• Donnel Middle School's Hypermedia Project on Ellis Island
  [http://river.findlay.edu/donnel/ellis.html]
  A HyperStudio stack depicting Donnel's seventh graders' reenactment of immigration through Ellis Island. (If you don't have HyperStudio, you can also download HyperStudio Player at this site to view the stack.)

• American Immigration Home Page
  [http://www.bergen.gov/AAST/Projects/Immigration/index.html]
  Results of a survey done by 10th graders at The Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology [http://www.bergen.gov/AAST] in Hackensack, NJ--a great place to learn about the origins and reasons for immigration over time.

• American Immigration Survey Form
  [http://www.bergen.gov/AAST/Projects/Immigration/form.html]
  Survey on immigration from the American Immigration Home Page, your chance to become part of their site.

• Ellis Island
  [http://www.bergen.gov/AAST/Projects/Immigration/ellis_island.html]
  Information on Ellis Island at the American Immigration Home Page.

  Other Resources on Ellis Island

• Ellis Island
  [http://www.i-channel.com/ellis/index.html]
  Ellis Island site run by the International Channel in cooperation with Ellis Island Museum. Photographs and other resources.

• Turner Adventure Series - Migration to America: Ellis Island
  [http://www.turner.com/tesi/html/migration.html]

• Teacher Resource Book
  [http://www.turner.com/tesi/html/experience.html]
  Teacher resources from Turner Learning Adventure on immigration.

• Photos
  [http://cmp1.ucr.edu/exhibitions/immigration_id.html]

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