Roles and responsibilities :
Teacher: The teacher in this activity plays the role of facilitator with the responsibilities to support any students who may be working with sensitive material and to generally help students stay on track as they work through the activity mostly at their own pace.
Some students may have difficult immigration stories and may not feel comfortable sharing them with the class.
Student: Students have the role of active participant with the responsibilities of asking questions, researching, and creating connections between the past and present.
Lesson Objectives:
Analyze political, economic, social, and geographical factors that led to groups of people (Chinese, Irish, and German) immigrating to Canada and the role they played in the development of a young nation.
Essential questions include but are not limited to:
1. How do different groups of people affect one another?
2. What needs to be considered when settling in a new place?
3. What should be given greater importance; the development and progress of a nation or the people whose hard work helped that progress to happen?
In this unit students will work towards:
- Having an understanding of the push and pull factors that lead three very different groups of people to immigrate to Canada in the 1800’s
- Make connections between stories of immigration of the past to stories of immigration in present day and the reasons behind the act of immigrating.
- Analyze the importance of the role that immigrants played in shaping and developing Canada as a young nation.
- Understanding and communicating how their or their families story adds to the over all story of Canada as a country.
Introductory Vocabulary:
Push Factor, Pull Factor, Immigration, Agriculture, Famine, Nitro Glycerine
Overview
| Stage 1 Introduction Why did people immigrate to Canada in the 1800’s? | In the introductory lesson, students will watch two videos and read one article on immigration in Canada in the 1800’s. The three groups they will look at are immigrants from China, Ireland, and Germany. These three groups were chosen because they came for different reasons, settled in different parts of Canada, and were also treated different when they arrived. These three groups will help give students a general over all idea of the immigrant landscape in the 1800’s. This lesson will also serve as a way to assess communication skills with speaking as well as content comprehension and application. Video’s are listed below. If students have portfolio’s or blogs, it is suggested that they select one conversation to add to their portfolio or blog for the purpose of reflecting on their progress in their speaking goals. The conversation could also be used as a formative assessment to determine if they have understood the main ideas of this lesson. |
| Stage 2 Deeper learning What were some of the stories of those who immigrated? | Students will chose one of the groups to research and to find more information about. They will create a historical story about a person from that group who could have immigrated to Canada during the 1800’s. Students need to use historical information to craft a timeline that reflects events in an immigrant’s life. Suggested timeline tool is Caplzels. If students have portfolios or blogs, it is suggested that the created timeline be used as an artifact of learning. |
| Stage 3 Connections How can we connect the stories from the past to those stories of today? | Students will view two resources of modern day immigrants. The first is from the Globe and Mail and is a photo journalistic series on immigrants today. The second is from the Canadian Museum of Immigration, Pier 21. The second resource also serves as an example of what could be possible in stage 4.Students will then take a quick survey (suggested survey monkey) that will collect some basic data on the class as a whole that can be used to start comparing and contrasting immigration to Canada in the past to immigration today. Students will then begin to think about in detail and organize the facts and details of their own immigration story to Canada. Students should use a graphic organizer to help them plan out their story. (suggested popplet)Once their graphic organizer is complete, have students schedule conference times do that the teacher can go over their stories and offer feedback. Part of the conversation should be about which digital story tools the student is thinking of using to use to tell their story. If students are stuck, you can refer back to the digital stories from stage 2 to help them think of the best tool to use.Suggested to use Google Docs for conference sign up. |
| Stage 4 Create If you were to tell your or your family’s immigration story, what would that look like? | It is suggested that students are given roughly three class periods to work on this part of the activity. As part of this site, a Digital Sandbox has already been created that you and your students can add to as you go through these lessons. This Digital Sandbox will help students get started on created their own immigration story in a digital format. Students should look through the options and explore on their own before they come to the conference. By the end of the conference time in stage 3, they should have an idea of which digital tool they wish to use.Before students get started on the assignment, it is important to co-construct the assignment rubric with them. An example has been provided in Assessments. By creating a rubric with the class, they will have a better and deeper understanding of how they will be marked as well as a higher level of ownership of thier learning. The rubric should have an emphasis on connections between the students personal story and the information learned in Stage One. By the end of the work periods, students should be have a finished digital story that they could share with the class or in small groups if they are comfortable doing so. If not, they can just share their product with their teacher. If students had portfolio’s or blogs, their finished product should be added as an artifact of their learning. |
| Stage 5 Reflect | It is important to give time to students at the end of an activity to reflect on their learning at the end of an activity. If students have a blog or portfolio, this would be the perfect place for them to add their reflection. If not, they can complete this part of the activity however the teacher sees fit. It is important to brainstorm reflection points with the class before they write their reflection. The emphasis should be on what they learned from an historical persepctive as well how it felt for them to connect to their own story in this manner. |
Sheets on Google Doc
Stage 1: Discussion Questions and Conversation Rubric
Stage 3: Conference Time
Stage 4: Rubric (this is just a guide, rubric should be co-constructed with students)
Student Activities and Assessment
Formative
Stage 1:
Language Skills- Speaking: The conversations that are recorded in Stage One would be an excellent formative assessment tool for teacher and student to give and receive feedback on how they are progressing with their speaking skills and using correct vocabulary and grammar structure when communicating thoughts, ideas and factual information.
Content knowledge: The conversations would also serve as a great check for the teacher to make sure students have an understanding of the main ideas and concepts around immigration to Canada in the 1880’s.
Summative
Stage 2: Timeline : The visual timeline that students will make after researching a specific group of immigrants would be a great measure of their in-depth understanding of immigration in Canada.
Stage 4: Personal Digital Story: This final product would serve as a strong artifact of learning. Students finished products should demonstrate connections between the historical information that has been covered to their own or their families story. This is an opportunity for students to compare and contrast as well as add new pieces to the picture. It is also an opportunity to measure literacy skills such as writing, speaking, grammar and spelling.
Support Material
Video/ article
Chinese Immigration Video: https://youtu.be/bU69fSwbe0I
Irish Immigration Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swKuT8hXXTM&feature=youtu.be&t=2m11s
German Immigration Site: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/german-canadians/
Apps
Survey Monkey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/home/
Popplet: http://popplet.com/
Capzels: http://www.capzles.com/#
Websites
Immigrant Stories: Digital Story Telling Examples