American Immigration Past and Present: A Simulation Activity

http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/immigration/

The piece I have chosen outlines a lesson plan for an 11th grade teacher on immigration in the US, being aimed at those in the latter stages of education the lesson allows opportunities for debate and analysis for instance the class have set tasks which allow them to give their own points of view if their origins within the country be of immigration at that point or not. The key task is to analyse these particular figures and the reasons for the increase in the immigrant population and compare to modern America and whether or not this is beneficial to America as a nation (including contemporary attitudes of the American population.) The project given allows the class members to individually pick a particular immigrant group be it related to their own heritage or not and research them including interviews oral and recorded.

The outline of the lesson is to teach those at an age where the media and personal opinions of others upon the subject will dominate their thought pattern about the positive and negative effects that immigration has upon the United States. The class also has the opportunity to look upon their heritage be the foundations of early or late immigration and debate for or against either open or closed borders.

At a point in time where the US a land built on immigration allowing those who entered something to strive for and essentially giving them more hope than living back in the squalid conditions of Europe at that point, this also brings up contemporary immigration which is at a boiling point with the worrying matter being whether or not the US will still be able to accommodate the rising number of immigrants seeking refuge within it's borders.

The piece itself is almost kept at a mediated level allowing for the class itself to make their own decisions about the subject or give them a more diplomatic approach when dealing with the subject outside of an academic environment. This kind of approach to learning is exactly what the US citizens need if they are to be the ones who deal with matters like this when they are older though it asks to throw in the odd success story about those who move to the US this is purely for purposes of entertainment to keep the class interested which is acceptable as the lesson is not aimed at the higher end of the academic scale or an intellectual debate.