The focus of this unit will be the teaching of graphing using immigration data. Africans, Caribbean, Asian and Puerto Ricans have been identified as the target groups. Students are free to choose any time periods or the teacher may assign periods.
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This unit will only include Caribbean nations that are inhabited primarily by people classified as Black. This will exclude Cuba, Mexico and Central America. Puerto Rico will be discussed elsewhere in the unit. The Caribbean is made up of many different peoples. It is comprised of people who speak different languages and are influenced by many different nations, most of them European.
Since this unit is being written primarily to be taught to a class of students of color, these are the types of groups I have chosen. It should be noted that Puerto Ricans are not immigrants to this country, but they will be included in this unit because of the language barrier they come to this country with and also because approximately 50% of my class is Puerto Rican.
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Objectives:
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1) To learn to present data graphically
2) To understand and interpret visual data
3) To improve research skills
4) To acquire a better understanding of the make-up of America.
This unit is being written to be taught to an inner city sixth grade class of student
of color. It is meant to be taught over a marking period. The unit will open with a lesson on how to construct graphs. Three lessons discussing this subject will be included in the unit. The three lessons will cover the construction of bar, line and circle graphs.
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Students will be required to use research techniques to obtain immigration data on the selected group. Upon successful completion of the unit, students should be able to extract information from tables and raw data to construct graphs (line, bar and circle) to present, analyze, compare and explain immigration data.
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Excellence in statistical graphics (Tufte) consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision, and efficiency. Graphical displays should
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· show the data
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· induce the viewer to think about the substance rather than about methodology, graphic design, the technology of graphic production or anything else
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· avoid distorting what the data have to say
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· present many numbers in a small space
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· make large data sets coherent
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· encourage the eye to compare different pieces of data
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· reveal the data at several levels of detail
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· serve a reasonable clear purpose: descriptive, exploration, tabulation or decoration
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· be closely integrated with the statistical and verbal descriptions of a data set
Students will be required to research the following areas and construct graphs to depict the following data:
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Trends in Employment
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Percent of immigrants who found employment
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Kinds of assistance offered each group
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Students will also use this data to chart comparisons among groups. Students will present data to show the percent of immigrants educated initially in their native tongue. Upon arrival in America, did some of group of immigrants require more assistance than other groups in order to get established?
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In addition to learning ways to use charts, tables and graphs to present data more clearly and concisely, students will learn that graphs can also be used to distort information. This should be taken into account when using data from graphs. Distortion can occur when intervals are too large or small or when data are not compatible.
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For students who choose to study African immigrants, data from country of origin can be graphed. Since Africans originally came to this country as slaves, students might find it interesting to graph a time period during slavery and a time period after slavery and make a comparison of the graphs. References such as the Population Reference Bureau and the US Census Bureau would be very useful for obtaining information on country of origin, sex and trends in employment.
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Students will learn from their research that the coming of minorities to America presented many problems. They were unwelcome for various reasons. The biggest reason seemed to be the idea that immigrants were allegedly inferior; had ideas that did not agree with the American ideas, and were supposedly not fit to serve in government.
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Before the 20th Century, immigration to America was virtually unlimited. Between 1860 and 1885 8 million immigrants arrived in America. 9 out of 10 came from Northern and Western Europe. In the latter part of the period, immigrants began to arrive from countries on the Southern and Eastern part of Europe. These groups eventually represented the majority of immigrants. As a result, Congress passed an exclusion law giving it the responsibility of regulating immigration. That responsibility still lies with Congress.
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A law passed in 1875 brought to an end almost 100 years of open borders. The first racial law, The Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted in May 1882 to bar Chinese laborers. On the Western part of the country the concern was also with the influx of Japanese immigrants who were forbidden to buy or lease land in California and Texas. In later years they were excluded by law from entry as immigrants.
Asian People, (Japanese and Chinese) who desired to immigrate to America during the middle of the 19th century received a mixed reception. The Chinese (Herendeen) were at first welcomed as unskilled laborers. Their services were needed and welcomed. As their numbers grew, however, they were perceived as a threat to native labor; as a result of this feeling racist sentiment increased. Chinese were subjected to various discriminatory laws including legislation designed to harass them.
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The Japanese (Palmer& Daniels) immigrants who came after the Chinese did not fare much better than the Chinese. Despite the fact that they represented a very small percent of the total population, their presence generated intense hostility. In 1908 The San Francisco Board of Education attempted to place all Japanese children, native and foreign born, in a segregated Oriental school in Chinatown. A protest from the Japanese ambassador led the school board to rescind the order. However, a Gentleman's Agreement obtained by President Theodore Roosevelt caused Japan to pledge that it would halt further immigration of its citizens to the U.S.
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African People who came to this country as slaves did not enjoy any of the benefits or privileges of an American citizen. Those who came later (after slavery was abolished) were faced with discriminatory legislation, especially Jim Crow segregation laws. Factors such as their language, religion and color all contributed to the formation of laws that restricted their conduct and placed them in a subordinate position. This is to say that the subservient status of Blacks continued long after slavery had been abolished.
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Caribbean People who came to America as free men fared better than slaves but they did not fare much better. Because of the size and makeup of the Caribbean it is necessary to define the area we will focus on in this unit. We will focus on nations that are primarily inhabited by people classified as Black. The Caribbean is made up of people with many different ancestries. Most of the islands were controlled or influenced by various European nations. As free immigrants they did not do nearly as well as whites. They were subjected to the same discrimination as Black people from Africa. Statistical data can be found to show that as a group, Blacks in America have not done as well in most aspects of life as their white counterparts.
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Puerto Rican People who migrated to America face some if not all of the problems as Blacks. They are considered non-white. They also face a language barrier. As American citizens they have not been allowed to participate fully in the American way of life. They are less educated and are among the poorest of all Hispanic immigrants.
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