Migration to Michigan Main Idea Objectives Materials

Transcription

1 Main Idea In the early portion of the 1900 s, the automobile industry attracted hundreds of thousands of workers to Detroit and Michigan. These new Michiganders came from around the country and around the world to earn the high wages available in this new industry. In this lesson, students will view data from the 1930 U.S. Census to discover the number of people that relocated to several Michigan cities and from which states and countries they came. The students will interview parents and other relatives to discover when their families came to Michigan. The students will then attempt to discover why these ancestors came to this area, where they first settled in Michigan and what jobs they took here. Migration and immigration charts will be created and used to compare classroom migration data to the data from Objectives The students will: 1. Interview previous generations to gain knowledge of familial migration. 2. Record historical data that they have personally researched. 3. Apply knowledge of immigration and migration into the state of Michigan as per the 1930 census. 4. Record immigration and migration data as it applies to the population of their own classroom. 5. Explain how the automobile industry stimulated the growth of Michigan. Materials 1. U.S. Census Data a. Table 37, State of Birth by City, class set b. Table 18, Foreign Born by Country of Origin, class set c. Population of U. S., , (available for reference) d. Data Set, Michigan Employment and Population Levels, class set 2. Overhead Transparencies of 1 4 above 3. Origins Worksheet 4. Calculators, class set 5. When Did We Come To Michigan, Multiple copies per student 6. When Did We Come To Michigan Parent letter, one per student 7. U.S. Regions of Origin Plotting Sheet Student, class set 8. U.S. Regions of Origin Plotting Sheet Student (Blank) 9. (2) Regions of Origin Plotting Poster (Large, Teacher Made) 10. Country of Origin Plotting Sheet Student, class set 11. Country of Origin Plotting Sheet Student (Blank) 12. (2) Country of Origin Plotting Poster (Large, Teacher Made)

2 Teaching Activities 1. Opening the Activity Inform the students that in this lesson they will be looking into the past. They will learn where their families lived before they came to Michigan and they will discover where many other families came from. The students will discuss the reasons that families may choose to emigrate from one state or country to another. Michiganders have moved here from other states. Ask the children to name the state from which their family migrated to Michigan? Do they know why this migration occurred? Allow the students to share what they know about their own family history. Distribute Table 37 of the 1930 census, Native Population by Division and State of Birth. This table shows which states the people of 1930 lived in before they moved to Michigan. Locate Detroit on the table. From what other states and U.S. regions did people migrate from to come to Detroit? Select a second Michigan city. From what other states and U.S. regions did people migrate from to come to that city? Use the overhead projector to assist the students. Distribute the Origins worksheet. Assist the students as they complete the first portion of the worksheet. Remind the students that America is made up of many people who emigrated from other countries. Ask the students to name the country from which their ancestors came. Distribute Table 18 of the 1930 U. S. Census. Foreign-Born By Country of Birth. This Table shows the countries of origin for the foreign-born population. Use the overhead projector to assist the students with the data. Note: Table 18 reflects foreign-born whites. Black Americans were not included in this count. Students may notice this omission and be curious about it. The number of foreign-born blacks in 1930 would have been very small. Of this number, most would have come from the Caribbean Islands. The students may wish to investigate how census takers treated the same issue in the 2000 census. ( Locate Detroit on the table. From what other countries did people migrate from to come to Detroit? Select a second Michigan city. From what other countries did people migrate from to come to that city? Note the number of German, Polish, English and Canadian immigrants. In Holland, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, note the number of immigrants from the Netherlands.

3 Instruct the students to complete the Origins worksheet. Assist as needed. Discuss with the students: Why would people leave their own countries to come to Michigan? What was going on in Michigan to make it an attractive place for so many people to live? (Jobs in the auto industry.) Why did so many come from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois? (Larger populations, relative ease of transit and geographic proximity to Michigan.) Why might so many have come from the southern states? (Lack of jobs in home state, good paying jobs in Michigan. African-Americans also left because of segregationist Jim Crow laws.) Distribute the Data Sheet. Distribute calculators. Assist the students as they complete the calculations required. Provide the students with your guidelines for the paragraph called for in item Continuing the Activity Ask the students: Who among their ancestors was the first to live in Southeastern Michigan? When did they come here? Do the students know why these people choose to leave home to come to Southeastern Michigan? Ask the students: How they could discover the answers to these questions? The students will suggest that their parents or grandparents might know the answer. Distribute the When Did We Come To SE Michigan letter to parents and the When Did We Come To SE Michigan answer sheet. Assign as work to be taken home to complete. Note: Be certain that the students know that they are to discover the 1 st Michigan ancestors on both the maternal and paternal sides of their family. The ancestry of stepparents should also be done. The number of ancestors noted for each student will depend on the generation that first came to Michigan. If parents came here, they will identify two people. If grandparents, they would identify four people; great-grandparents would result in eight people; great-great-grandparents would result in sixteen people. Optionally, students may also inquire of neighbors and family friends. More data will make for more meaningful results. 3. Concluding the Activity Day 2 Discover how many of the students were able to determine their ancestors came to live in Michigan. From which other countries did they come? From which other states? Encourage students to talk to the class about what they have learned about their ancestors. Why did these people come to Michigan? What did they do, how did they earn a living when they got to Michigan? Distribute the Regions of Origin worksheet. Post a new, teacher made U.S. Regions of Origin poster. The inner circle is for families in Michigan prior to

4 1910. Students should label the decades in the concentric circles. The teacher does the same on the large classroom poster. Calling on students one-by-one, have them write their names and the name of the state that their family members came from in the appropriate decade and region on the large class poster. Assist the students as they plot the same information on their smaller student sheets. Students should write the names of classmates and their states of origin in the appropriate place on the U.S. Regions of Origin worksheet. Compare this distribution to the data in Table 37. Distribute the Country of Origin worksheet. Post the teacher made Country of Origin poster. Students should label the decades in the concentric circles. The teacher should do the same on the large classroom poster. Students write their names in the appropriate decade and country of origin on the large class poster. Students should write the names of classmates in the appropriate place on the individual student worksheet. After plotting the findings, analyze the results. a. From what states, regions, and countries did the ancestors of the students come to Michigan? b. Compare the classroom results to the findings in 1930 census as shown in Table 19 and Table 37. c. How is the immigration / migration data for the class consistent with the 1930 data? How is it different? d. What conclusions can be drawn? What questions does it bring? e. What general and specific statements. Can be made about the collected data? Examples: ß Five came from Tennessee. ß Many came from the southern states. ß Look how many came during the 1940 s. ß Many of our classmates have ancestors that came from. Extending the Activity Provide students with outline maps of the Unites States. Have the students outline the regions used by the Census (New England division, Middle Atlantic Division etc.). The students, working in pairs, now write in the number of people that migrated to Michigan according to the 1930 census. Similar to the above, provide students with an outline map of the world. The students may then record the 1930 immigration figures directly on the map. As in 1 and 2 above, record the migration data from the classroom on maps of the U.S. and the world.

5 Examine benchmark figures showing how the U.S. has changed since the 1930 census. Assessing the Learning The students will: 1. Complete the Origins worksheet. 2. Complete the When Did Our Families Come To Michigan? Worksheet. 3. Complete the Data Sheet. 4. Complete the Regions of Origin worksheet. 5. Complete the Countries of Origin worksheet. Social Studies Standards Addressed Strand I Historical Perspectives Content Standard 1 Time and Chronology Late Elementary Benchmark 1 Measure chronological time by decades and centuries. Benchmark 2 Place major events in the development of their local community and the state of Michigan in chronological order. Strand V Inquiry Content Standard 1 Information Processing Early Elementary Benchmark 1 - Locate information using people, books, audio/video recordings, photos, simple maps, graphs and tables. Benchmark 3 - Organize information to make and interpret simple maps of their local surroundings and simple graphs and tables of social data drawn from their experience. Late Elementary Benchmark 3 - Interpret social science information about local, state, and national communities from maps, graphs, and charts. Content Standard 2 Conducting Investigations Early Elementary Benchmark 1 - Pose a question about life in their school or local community Benchmark 2 - Gather and analyze information in order to answer the question posed. Benchmark 3 - Construct an answer to the question posed and support their answer with evidence. Benchmark 4 - Report the results of their investigation. Late Elementary

6 Benchmark 1 - Locate information about local, state and national communities using a variety of traditional sources, electronic technologies, and direct observations. Benchmark 2 - Gather and analyze information using appropriate information technologies to answer the question posed Benchmark 3 - Construct an answer to the question posed and support their answer with evidence. Benchmark 4 - Report the result of their investigation, including the procedures followed.