Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description

• Grade level: Middle/Upper Elementary, High School

• Subject Area: Social Studies, Language Arts

Brief Description

    Having finished their research, students write a series of journal entries, from the perspective of an immigrant traveling to America via Ellis Island.
Objectives

Students will:

• Gain a different perspective of the concepts of immigration.
• Practice writing skills through the processes of writing and revising their historical journal entries.
• Synthesize their understandings of the concepts of immigration.

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.

Activity Description

• Start by asking students to review the research they have completed.

• Have students reflect on what it would have been like to go through the types of experiences that people did when they immigrated to this country.

• Students begin their rough drafts of journal entries.

• Set aside time for students to edit with their peers before you edit their rough drafts.

• Students complete their rough drafts, adding illustrations if desired.

• Plan some time for students to share their work with one another.

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