Focus Standards: W.3.2 W.3.7 MLAF 3f Core Text: Coming to America: The Story of Immigration by Betsy Maestro and Susannah Ryan The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff The Memory Coat by Elvira Woodruff and Michael Dooling Tier II Words: Guided Reading Texts Interactive Read-Aloud Text: Materials: Coming to America: The Story of Immigration by Betsy Maestro and Susannah Ryan Many, many, many texts related to immigration, our country s founding, the Constitution, and Presidents past and present Chart paper Markers Sticky notes Reader s/writer s notebooks
Focus Lesson Introduce the theme of the unit. Hook the students engaging texts related to anything and everything about immigration to our country from all over the world, our country s beginning, the Preamble, and all Presidents. Provide students with a preview of what they ll be exploring and learning during this six-week unit. Coming to America: The Story of Immigration Discuss the title of Unit 4 (The People, The Preamble, and the Presidents). Lead students in a discussion about immigration. Some leading questions might be: What does immigration mean? Why did people immigrate to America? From where did they come? Read and discuss Coming to America. RL.3.1 The Orphan of Ellis Island Before reading, revisit yesterday s story and the new words such as immigration and immigrants. Allow students to share any information about their own ancestors. Read selected portion of The Orphan of Ellis Island. (This book is 192 pages. Choose a section you d like to read with your class, or break it down into several days to use as a readaloud.) Discuss the text, focusing on emotions. Chart similarities and differences in the theme and setting of Coming to America and The Orphan of Ellis Island. The Orphan of Ellis Island Revisit yesterday s introduction of The Orphan of Ellis Island as well as earlier discussion of immigrants and immigration. Read another selection of the text, adding to the chart you started yesterday for similarities and differences in theme, setting, and plot between the texts. The Memory Coat Introduce the story with an inspection of sorts. In The Memory Coat, the immigrants are worried about passing the inspection at Ellis Island. Discuss with students how that must have felt to be judged by your appearance and your clothes for acceptance in a new country. Invite students to dress for inspection tom. Read The Memory Coat to verify topics brought about by your prior discussion. Revisit chart adding comparisons between the three texts examined this week. The Memory Coat If you chose to have your students dress for inspection, discuss the process of choosing the outfit that they are wearing today. Were you picky about what you chose? How did you settle on that outfit? Two optional lessons to accompany The Memory Coat are included with this unit in the resource packet. Look for The Memory Coat Journey for a board game to practice student understanding of this book and the history of Ellis Island. Students can also make their own memory coat to document their personal journeys. Word Study Create a word wall for the unit, with categories for words that relate to immigrants, the birth of our country, and presidents.
Guided Reading *Because all students have varied needs, this section has been left blank. Teachers will need to target specific areas that address these individual needs. Independent Reading Students will be reading a variety of texts based on the unit s theme before choosing selfselected texts for independent reading.
Writing & Language After the theme for Unit 4 has been introduced, students will complete a quick write describing how they think it would feel to be an immigrant. What emotions would you face? What dangers do you think you d face? Remind students to be descriptive in their writing. W 3.3 After you ve introduced students to The Orphan of Ellis Island, lead your students in generating questions you d ask an immigrant. Students may work in small groups to generate several questions to share with the class. Create an anchor chart with students questions, adding answers throughout the unit. W 3.7, MLAF 3f After reading the books that you ve shared in class as well as the Internet and books available to students in your classroom library, have students research what children must have experienced during immigration. This isn t intended to be a long research process. Students may write a paragraph or two about what the experience must have been like for children. W.3.7 Students will complete a written response based on The Memory Coat. After sharing The Memory Coat, allow students to choose one of the following prompts to guide their writing: Why America? What made immigrants come here to settle? What did immigrants bring with them on their journeys to America? W.3.2 Conclude the week-long immigration focus by having students write informatively about what they have read. Students will write a paragraph about the conditions immigrants faced both on their journeys and after settling in America. Were there any sicknesses? What were their living conditions? Where did they settle? W.3.2 Speaking & Listening Students will have the opportunity to share their writing with a small peer group. Did you notice any similarities in your descriptions? Students will work in small groups or pairs to discuss what they know about immigration and what questions they d ask an immigrant. Students will share their findings of the experiences shared by children throughout the immigration process. Students will group with other students who wrote on their same topic to share. Encourage students to use the TAG method of responding to peer writing. (Tell something you like, Ask a question, or Give a suggestion) Students will discuss in either whole or small group to contrast immigrant living conditions to our living conditions today.
_ Social Studies Connections Science Connections Mississippi Science Framework Objective: 2c Flood classroom with multiple texts on simple machines. Links & Handouts resource packet includes a variety of web resources and activities. Introduction to simple machines Discuss with students what is a simple machine, what do simple machines do, why are they important ***See resource packet for video and website links to use with each lesson Lever Discuss what a lever is, what it looks like, how it works, the parts that make a lever, and the jobs it helps accomplish Build a sample lever Begin tree diagram in science journal for simple machines to list examples of each type or mark off pages for each kind of simple machine and have students draw / list examples each day Wheel & Axle Discuss what a wheel and axle is, what it looks like, how it works, all its parts, and the jobs it helps accomplish Discuss why a person would use lever instead of a wheel and axle and vice versa. Pulley Discuss what a pulley is, what it looks like, and the jobs it helps accomplish Block & Tackle Discuss what a block and tackle is, what it looks like, and the jobs it helps accomplish Discuss why a person might choose to use a block and tackle rather than a pulley and vice versa.