Immigration to America; Why they left

Lesson #3

Caitlin Calvert

45 minutes

Goal: Provide a deep understanding about the cultures, experiences, ancestry,

opportunities and processes that accompany immigration

Lesson Preparation
I. Learning Objectives
1. Students will be able to list 4 facts on a major ethnic group
2. Students will be able to explain why their group of people had to leave their country and
why they immigrated to America by making a poster

II. Standards by Discipline & Content Themes

PA Standards
1. 6.1.4.D. Explain what influences the choices people make
2. 8.4.4.C. Explain how continuity and change in world history have influenced
personal development and identity.
NCSS Themes
Production, distribution and consumption
3. NCSS.1.7.f ...provide opportunities for learners to assess how values and beliefs
influence economic decisions in different societies
Science, technology, and society
4. NCSS.1.8.b ...provide opportunities for learners to make judgements about how
science and technology have transformed the physical world and human society and
our understanding of time, space, place, and human-environment interactions

III. Academic Language

Concepts
Explore large ethnic groups and their motivation for immigrating to America

Vocabulary
Immigrant-a person who come to live permanently in a foreign country
Ethnic Group-a population made up of people who share a common cultural background
or descent

Skills
 Skills in reading, writing and computer research will be used. Students will be reading
about social studies (literacy) and researching information on computers to further their
learning.

IV. Technology, Materials, Resources

1. Cards with 4 ethnicities on it (Italian, German, Japanese and Irish)
2. Small packet with starting points for each group including sites
3. Poster board
4. Markers
5. Computers
6. Worksheet

Instructional Delivery
V. Anticipatory Set
1. Teacher will begin review previous discussion on student’s families immigrating to
America
2. Teacher will go into a more in-depth decision asking the students if they know why
their families or other families would travel to America: Why do you think some
people need to leave their countries either in today’s times or in the past?
3. Let at least 3 students give reasons they think people need to leave their countries and
possibly give first hand experiences from their families
4. Introduce 4 of the main places most of the immigrants came from (Italy, Ireland,
Japan, Germany). This will be a good introduction to the students to figure out why
people came to America. When introducing these places to students show them a map
of the world and their location on it.

5. Instructional Activities
1. Students will be split up into 4 groups throughout the classroom at random
2. Each group will be given a country/group of people on a card including Italian,
Irish, Japanese, and German
3. Each group will then be given a packet with a small amount of information about
each country and group of people on why that ethnic group left (see materials)
4. Students will be given 10 minutes to look over the information as a group and
discuss their findings. Questions will also be given to the groups to start helping
conversations: What would you do if you were in that country? Do you think
people left behind some of their family members sometimes? Do you think people
were scared to leave their country? Why or why not?
5. Each packet will contain bullet points and/or small summaries to have the
students begin to understand their assigned group of people (see materials)
6. Since there is not much information in the packet they will use a computer to do
their research to complete a worksheet (shown below). This will help students to
be able to use their researching and technology skills to find information. The
information given is a starting point and the teacher will encourage them to find
more information off of that. With each new information found they will have to
provide a link for future reference.
 7. Then they will be given a poster board where they will write their most important
information about why their country/people came to America, how they think
they felt and draw a picture of the country and any additional information they
thought was important for their people. Each group will be given 15 minutes to
complete their poster
8. While students are completing all of this work the teacher will be walking around
listening in on conversations as well as answering any questions
9. Once each group has completed their poster, the groups will come up in front of
the class and give a 1-2-minute presentation on 4 items that they found and read
them to the class so everyone can get a glimpse into many ethnic groups lives and
their journey to America
10. While the presenters are up at the front the other classmates will be taking notes
on a worksheet with four bullet points under each countries name to have for
future reference and to learn about the other groups that immigrated over to
America

6. Closure
1. Teacher will have the class come back together as a whole group
2. As a class students will go around and say the main factors and similarities they
have seen throughout the 4 countries as to why they are leaving and why they
came to America to find
3. The teacher will write these factors on a poster board while having the discussion
as a class
4. They will discuss this for at least 10 minutes to make sure everyone fully
understands why people immigrated to America
5. The poster will then he hung up around the classroom for future reference

Meeting All Learners

7. Differentiation
1. The students are able to use a variety of different intelligences throughout this activity.
Students are using their visual strengths by looking at the information given and seeing
the poster boards from each group. Auditory learners will hear their other classmates
speak the information to them. The hands-on learners will be able to use the poster to
assist them in learning the information as well as researching information on the
computer.

8. Accommodations
1. For students with a 504 or an IEP instead of taking notes while fellow classmates
are talking they can draw pictures to remember the information. These students
are still understanding the information but using a picture to depict their learning
instead of written words.
 9. Modifications
1. For a student that might need a modification they will not need to know all of the 4 facts
independently. This student will be able to draw a picture and/or write a sentence to help
them remember and be able to look back on the facts that they know.

Meeting Objectives
10. Assessments
1. To make sure students are able to know 4 ethnic group facts they will be filling out a
worksheet asking questions about their specific group of people
2. Students will be presenting as a group about their people. They will be showing the class
the cause of their people leaving, and what they wanted to see in America. This will let
the teacher know that the students understand the information given. Teacher will then
take the posters and review them and hang them around the room

Materials needed for instructional activity

1. Index Cards with Irish, Italian, Japanese, and German

2. Packets with information to begin students on information

3. Computers

4. Poster board with markers

5. Map for anticipatory set

Map for anticipatory set

Ireland

Page 1
What does Ireland look like?

Page 2
Why did they leave?
 Irish Potato Famine
o Famine-extreme and general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large
geographical area
o The Irish people relied on the potato for their meals as well as many people were
farmers and this was their source of income. The crop failure happens by a late
blight, which is a disease that destroys both the leaves and edible roots, or tubers,
of the potato plant
o A massive number of people were forced to join the Immigration to America
during the Irish Potato Famine making the voyage on what were called the "
Famine Ships" or the "Coffin Ships". The famine destroyed the staple of the Irish
diet. Hundreds of thousands of peasants were driven from their cottages and
forced to emigrate.
  America had the second industrial revolution in the 1880s that centered on steel, oil, and
electricity and required unskilled labor to man the factories. Immigrants wanted to seize
the opportunity to build a new life and better life in America.
 Poverty
o Condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support
o Because of the famine many people were left without goods to trade such as
potatoes as well as families using farming as their income. This caused people to
become impoverished and immigrate to America for a better life

Page 3
Why Choose America?
 Promise of Freedom
o Religious freedom
 Whether to oppose persecution or to preserve their religious identify
people moved to America to have freedom
 Hope for new life
o Better life economically, politically, and socially for individuals and families
 Economic Opportunity
o Cheap land and freedom of enterprise
o Could be anything you wanted

 Land
o Many states were giving out free land or land of cheap prices to attract
immigrants to their states

Italy
Page 1
What does Italy look like?
Page 2
Why did they leave?
 Poverty was the main reason for immigration but also political hardship. The government
took measures to repress political views of their people
 Agriculture was also an important aspect of Italians lives. Many of the farming tools were
inefficient for their farming because they lacked technology. This caused the farmers to
live in harsh conditions causing them to migrate to America. To Italians America was
seen in a great light, a land of opportunity
 Weather conditions and environmental factors happened frequently in Italy. Two
volcanos alone erupted in the early 1900s causing people’s homes to be destroyed and
causing them to leave

Page 3
Why choose America?
 Available Jobs
 “Land of Opportunity”

Germany

Page 1
What does Germany look like?
Page 2
Why leave Germany?
 Escaping the Nazi government
o Nazi Party- promoted German pride and anti-Semitism and expressed
dissatisfaction with the terms of the treaty of Versailles, the 1919 peace settlement
that ended WW1
o Anti-Semitism- prejudice against the Jewish
o Nazi party began to put Jewish and other nationalities/religions into concentration
camps and killing them in mass quantities
o The Nazi party assumed power and began the exodus of the Jewish Germans and
other groups of people. People fled to America for safety. Many also immigrated
after WWII after surviving the conditions at the time
 Poor
o Many people were poor as land was being taken by the government and there was
widespread unemployment

Page 3
Why choose America?

 Known as the “Land of Opportunity”

 Higher wages and lower food prices
 Land was cheap
 Businesses were booming
Japan

Page 1
What does Japan look like?

Page 2
Why leave Japan?

 High taxes
o Causing families to not be able to afford to pay their taxes
 Natural disasters
o Floods
o Earthquakes
o Crop failures

Page3
Why choose America?
 More job opportunities
 Hope for freedom
 Hope for a new life

Websites for students to use: (will be included in packets)

Japanese
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigr
ation/japanese.html
https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immig
ration/alt/japanese3.html

Irish
https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immig
ration/irish2.html
http://www.emmigration.info/irish-immigration-to-america.htm

Italy
https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immig
ration/italian3.html
http://www.emmigration.info/italian-immigration-to-america.htm

Germany
http://www.emmigration.info/german-immigration-to-america.htm
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigr
ation/german.html
Name:____________________

Immigrants from
1. Why did people from your country come to America? What was happening in their
country that made them want to leave?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________

2. How did the immigrants from your country travel to America? What was the trip
like?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
__________________________________

3. What was life like in America for your immigrants? Where did they settle? What
kinds of jobs did they get? What was their housing like?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________

4.Would you consider the way people traveled to America a form of technology? Why
or why not?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
____________
5. Describe 2 other interesting facts you learned about your immigrant group.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
______________________________________
Worksheet for students to take notes on while other students are presenting:

Italy:

Ireland:

Germany:

Japan:





Content Notes
Information on each country and where it was found

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sford/alternatv/s05/articles/laura_history.html

 Japanese immigration:
o Dream for better opportunities
o Search for peace and prosperity
o Instable homeland for the life of the demanding job and chance to provide a better
future for their children
o New and radically different way of life

http://www.emmigration.info/irish-immigration-to-america.htm

 Irish potato famine

o Irish Immigration to America in the 1800's rocketed as Ireland was devastated by
the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849) and the potatoes in the fields of Ireland
turned black and rotted in the ground.
o People were faced with death by starvation. Thousands of men, women and
children resembled skeletons with wasted limbs and emaciated faces

http://www.emigration.link/push-pull-factors-irish-migration.htm

https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Famine-Irish-history
information on what the potato famine was

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/famine
definition of famine

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~molna22a/classweb/politics/Italianhistory.html

 Poverty main reason for immigration

 Political hardships and dream to return to Italy
 Acquiring land and earn money to send back to Italy or take back

http://www.emmigration.info/german-immigration-to-america.htm

 Nazi party gaining power

 Germans began to fled the country