Boldly Braiding Group Unit Plan

Causes: Community Unity/Immigration Rights
Tools:  T-shirts, maps, flags
Art-forms: T-shirt design, story-telling, cooking/baking

Objective/Purpose: The purpose of this month long unit will be to teach 6^th-8^th grade students about immigration rights and their history and purpose, all the while teaching awareness and understanding of various cultures in their community.

Project Title: One Love for Rights

Background/Justification: Many students attend schools in very diverse and culturally ethnic areas. However, many of these students are unaware of the different cultures around them and the struggles other cultures have faced and overcome in regard to immigration rights. It is our job to educate our students and our students’ families to understand the cultures around them, learn from one another, and live peacefully as one community in unity.

Skills: Students will learn the following skills through this lesson:

1. Ability to effectively research their communities’ history and immigration rights at school library in academic texts, encyclopedias and on the internet
2. Summarize research and creatively present in groups to class
3. Read ‘The Colors of Freedom, Immigrant Stories’ by Janet Bode and discuss stories in small groups
4. Compose a personal narrative on personal experiences with immigration and views on immigration rights
5. Read maps and take a walking tour of the local neighborhoods
6. Analyze flags of different ethnic groups represented in school and their history
7. Design t-shirts for Community Unity night
8. Work with families to cook and bake ethnic dishes for Community Unity night

Content: This unit focuses on taking topics, community unity and immigration rights, and implementing study on these topics across a wide variety of subjects. In Social Studies, students will be able to research various the histories of various cultures in their community and immigration rights and create reports to present to the class. In addition, they will learn the importance of maps and map reading skills, and the importance of flags representing different countries. In English/Language Arts, the students will learn different perspectives on immigration through reading about many people’s experiences when immigrating. They will read the text, ‘The Colors of Freedom, Immigrant Stories’ by Janet Bode, and work together to divulge new opinions and feelings on the issue. They will also be challenged to write a personal narrative on the subject, showcasing what they have learned and how it relates to their personal life. In Art, they will design t-shirts to promote Community Unity night. Students will compete to create the best logo for the t-shirts, and they will be allowed to work individually or in small groups, using a variety of materials. In addition, students will create banners and signs promoting Community Unity night, which will be hung around town.

Community Building Assets: The whole idea behind this lesson stems around the need to know your community and the challenges and struggles the people around you have faced throughout their lives. Our goal is to make students more aware of immigration rights and laws, and understand the great impact they have on our community. To raise awareness, we will hold a Community Unity night, where students can boldly wear their personally designed t-shirts and families can bring ethnic dishes and desserts, and games and activities for all to participate in.

Other Expertise: The following people will be asked to participate in the ‘One Love for Rights’ unit.

• Local government officials will come share background and information on immigration laws and answer students’ questions
• Parents or caretakers of students will be asked to come share their stories of immigration

Materials:

1. ‘The Colors of Freedom, Immigrant Stories’ by Janet Bode
2. Composition journals, pens, pencils
3. Access to library’s research materials
4. Maps of local neighborhoods
5. Pictures of country flags of different backgrounds represented in the school
6. Art supplies (crayons, colored pencils, markers, pastels, tie-dye, scissors, glue, construction paper, large poster paper)
7. T-shirts and local t-shirt print shop to print final design on t-shirts
8. School space to hold Community Unity night
9. Board games and other ethnic games
10. Families baked goods

Student Activities:
Social Studies: Week 1

• Students will research local cultures within school library
• Students will speak to family members and local school community about cultures
•  Students will begin working in small groups preparing presentations on one dominant culture represented in their school
• Small groups will present creative presentations using any format on their culture within their school

Social Studies: Week 2

•  Students will learn important features of maps
• As a class, students will create a map of their community and the various cultures and ethnic businesses represented
• Students will study flags of various countries in the world
•  Students will learn about immigration rights and local laws that affect them
•  Guest speaker will present on the local immigration laws and statistics

Language Arts: Week 3

• Students will begin reading ‘The Colors of Freedom, Immigration Stories’ as a class
• In small groups, students will share their opinions and personal experiences with immigration
• Guest speakers will visit and share their personal immigration stories
• Students will watch video on an two middle schools coming together to share immigrant stories (multiple can be used in place of guest speakers if need be) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33OINi3xVbc)
• Students will begin creating outline for personal narrative
• Students will compose personal narrative rough draft
• Students will peer-edit personal narratives, focusing on clarification and comprehension components
• Students will draft final personal narratives, which will be on display at Community Unity night

Art: Week 4

• Students will be introduced to new art concepts and materials
• Students will watch a short film on tie-dyeing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zFv7rs0jsQ)
• Individually or in small groups, students will collaborate ideas and design t-shirt designs for a class/grade-wide vote
• After t-shirts are printed, students will tie-dye in class

Community Unity Night Prep: Week 5

• Students will create posters and signs to hang in the community and school advertising the event
• Students will organize activities and games for the event, find volunteers
• Students and families sign up to bring ethnic foods to event
•  Event takes place
• Students sell Community Unity t-shirts at event, donate to local organizations

Evaluation/Assessment: Students will be evaluated over a variety of measures, specific to each cooperating teacher’s preference:

1. Participation: Is the student actively involved in conversations? Are they on task when learning about immigration and community across the subjects?
2. Group Presentations on Immigration and Cultures: Does the student work well with group members? Is their presentation interesting and creative? Do they fully understand the concepts discussed? Is there presentation appropriate and does it showcase acceptance and understanding?
3. Flag Quiz: Teacher will hold up flags from various countries and share statistics on population, languages spoken and religions. Students must accurately identify the countries.
4. Guest Speakers/Story-telling: Does the student behave appropriately? Do they listen attentively and follow directions? Do they participate through asking questions?
5. Personal Narrative: Is the student on-task while reflecting and creating their narratives? Does the student showcase understanding of the immigration rights issues and how it relates to them? Is the student open and thoughtful with their words?

Reflection: Much of this unit depends upon the school community that one teaches within. If it is a neighborhood school, it should work well as is. If the students come from a variety of neighborhoods, some of the lesson may need to be edited, such as visits to neighborhoods. In addition, after using this unit, the teachers may find certain aspects to be more useful than others, or certain areas of study that the students needed additional time focusing on.
                       


“Grade 4-8-A veritable “mixing bowl” of immigration material, this book contains not only the stories of newly arrived teens, but also short sketches by those whose families have been here for generations. There are traditional recipes, an immigration survey, a sample citizenship test, and student essays on “What It Means to Be an American.” The interviews and stories are grouped geographically with chapters on the “Americas and the Caribbean Nations,” “Mexico,” “Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” and “Asia and the Subcontinent.” Each chapter begins with a few shorter pieces followed by “A Longer Look.” These latter pieces can be quite absorbing, describing customs in the homeland, the journey to the United States, and experiences here” (Amazon.com)