Bethania Urena H.
Introduction to the Unit
The opportunity I have had in the past three years to organize the International Week Celebration at Roberto Clemente Middle School, where I teach, has stimulated my interest and excitement in learning about the gamut of cultures, languages, customs, music, and beliefs that form the mosaic that America has become. What are the similarities and differences among these cultures? More specifically, what does the immigrant experience entail? What are the factors that compel immigrant families to come to the United States? What are the risks and consequences? These are the questions that I will explore in the following curriculum unit.
This unit is designed for the students in my own school and my own classroom but can be adapted to a wide spectrum of classes. The students in my school are primarily underprivileged Afro-American children and children of Latin American immigrants. Many of their parents are illiterate and come from rural areas with a high degree of deprivation; moreover, many of the non-native parents do not speak English. These factors make it extremely difficult for these parents to find jobs and be accepted in this society. This background severely handicaps their children both socially and intellectually. Added to these difficulties are the learning problems that the children in my particular classroom experience. These students have been diagnosed as learning disabled and educable mentally retarded, with reading levels ranging from pre-primer to second grade, and with extremely poor written expression skills. Typically, they exhibit a high degree of absenteeism, are poorly motivated in school, and behave immaturely.
The recognition of the difficulties that my students face has compelled me to prepare a curriculum unit that will help them face the challenges of living in the United States. It is my hope that through the reading and study of texts by or about immigrants, such as
When I Was Puerto Rican
by Esmeralda Santiago and
Shadowed Lives
by Leo R. Chavez, these students will learn more about the experience and consequences of immigration. Through learning about their origins, heritage, values and traditions, they will be better enabled to accept and see both themselves and their classmates as individuals who are important and unique. They will, then, be more able not only to face new challenges but also to participate gracefully in ongoing challenges in any area of life.
In thinking about issues of immigration, I decided to focus on the reasons to emigrate, emphasizing social and economical matters rather than political ones. It is my belief that given the low level of skills that these students possess, it makes sense to emphasize those matters that can be explained simply—matters that are common to many members of the group. I decided to prepare a series of activities that would draw on their own interests: their families, their native land, their celebrations, their native foods, etc. These are subjects that my immigrant students often talk about. I have often heard them discuss things such as their grandparents’ house in the countryside, the rivers where they once swam, the fruits that they ate, the schools that they attended, and their relatives and friends in their native lands.
Through the activities in this curriculum unit, the students will read passages, search for photographs and other items that belong to their family, prepare their own family tree, complete exercises at home with their family, and complete other exercises through which they will learn about immigration.
I will introduce the topic of immigration by asking the students if they have ever moved from one area to another. I will encourage the students to talk about their experience to the class, expressing what they liked about their move and what they found difficult.
I will explain in a simple manner the political and economic situations of our Latin countries, emphasizing those countries from which my students came. We will discuss the different situations that caused their parents to see the need to emigrate to the United States. I will talk about the different kinds of jobs available and the difficulty that many immigrants face in finding a job in the United States. We will also discuss reasons that some of our relatives have remained in the homeland rather than emigrate. I will also explain how differences in salary are attached to differences in skills, how one needs adequate skills and education in order to attain better jobs and a better position in society. Additionally, I will talk about health and medical assistance problems that immigrants face. All these topics will be discussed in conjunction with various subjects in the curriculum: math, science, social studies, etc.
I have prepared some reading passages taken from
When I Was Puerto Rican
by Esmeralda Santiago and additional passages from Julia Alvarez’s
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
and Leo R. Chavez’s
Shadowed Lives
. (See attached list of page numbers). By reading passages from other persons who have experienced the same things in their childhoods that these students are now experiencing, the students can identify themselves with the process of immigration, the experience of leaving relatives and friends and coming to a new land. The students will comment on the passages, comparing things from their land of origin to things in this country, such as: weather, clothing, food, entertainment, holidays, etc.
In teaching this unit I will use (and I recommend that other teachers use) the whole language approach, which combines different activities in different subject areas.
Objectives
-
1. To improve reading, thinking, verbal and written expression skills among the students
-
2. To make the students aware of their past and present, to help them take pride in their own heritage.
-
3. To enlarge the knowledge and concern of the students about immigrants
-
—the reasons behind immigration, and the needs and contributions of immigrants.
-
4. To see that the students enjoy the differences that exist among countries in terms of customs, music, food, language, and traditions.
-
5. To help the students realize that even though people differ in terms of color, race, and tradition, we are all equals
-
____
a.) in our humanity: our feelings of love, fear, anger, frustration, and pride and
-
____
b.) in our sharing of the same hopes: for peace, love, self-realization, acceptance, and welfare for ourselves and our families ( This is one reason that many emigrate in search of a more promising future.)
Classroom exercises and activities will include the following:
-
—children will draw pictures depicting their trip when coming to North America and describe orally their feelings and experience during the trip
-
—students will describe orally their first experience in school, their thoughts about their teachers and peers at the time, and their thoughts now about those first experiences
-
—students will be encouraged to share the folk art, clothing, songs and games from their countries
-
—students will draw pictures of their native cities/countries: the architecture, the flora, etc.
-
—new arrivals will be encouraged to write letters to their grandparents, relatives, and friends and to enclose pictures that they have drawn of their new surroundings and friends
-
—students will listen to music from their countries and prepare dances, songs, etc.
-
—students will prepare charts with facts about their homelands
-
—the class will prepare pinatas to celebrate birthdays
-
—students will make flags and pictures depicting native customs; they will decorate the bulletin boards with these items
-
—children will engage in writing exercises depicting members of the family: grandparents, cousins, etc.
-
—students will locate cities, towns, and capitols on dittoed maps of the countries that they come from
-
—the students will add names and pictures of their family members to a family tree
-
—other materials presented will focus on the peculiarities and lifestyles of these countries, such as: holidays, family anniversaries, poems, proverbs, folk tales, music, recipes, etc. The materials will be analyzed and discussed, emphasizing the festive spirit, hospitality, and warmth in each of these national groups.
Materials
include films, posters, musical instruments, a cassette player, dittos, flags, maps, crayons, magic markers, scissors, construction paper, paper towels, a light bulb, newspaper, water colors and brushes, a pinata and candies for the pinata.
