Confronting change; evaluating customs and values of groups in conflict; recognize and resist conditions detrimental to human development and opportunity.

CONNECTIONS TO MANDATE/MISSION:

Understanding the ramifications of immigration and prejudice.  Examine obstacles and how people overcome them to create community. 

CORE CONCEPTS:

• Change:  how people adapt to changing environments.
• Conflict:  how groups behave when they are unable to resolve issues or crises.
• Culture:  comparing customs and values of different cultures to create community.
• Interdependence:  social relationships of people in communities.
• Perspective:  how people view events and react to situations based on personal values.
• Responsibility:  how rules and laws affect the way people live and behave.
• Scarcity:  system of living and working that was created by limited resources.

During this unit, lesson, or activity, students, individually or in groups:

• Read in literature groups about creating community.  Topics will deal with immigration, prejudice, families cultural identities, connected communities.
• Research immigrants who influenced change in Florida history.
• Research reason why immigrants came to Florida.
• Identify and describe settlement groups within Florida.
• Research how immigrant groups of a Florida community are influenced by past events, the heritage of its people, and prejudice to create these communities.
• Use print, broadcast, and the Internet to become aware of issues that affect their state.
• Describe how values and beliefs influence choice.
• Through class meetings, students recognize, and learn to take responsibility for their personal views.
• Study music and art of Florida.  Investigate hidden messages, spirituals, and the purposes of music.

• Ellis Island

As visitors enter the classroom, they see several groups of students discussing various books they have chosen to read on the topics of immigration, prejudice, families' cultural identities, and connected community.  Some titles are: How My Parents Learned To Eat, An Ellis Island Christmas, Hello, My Name Is Scrambled Eggs, Onion Tears, The Hundred Dresses, Teammates, The Woman Who Outshone The Sun, Florence Robinson: A Girl Of The Roaring Twenties, Journey, The Wall, I Hate English, The Big Wave.  The discussions focus around how people helped those who were discriminated against, why the characters immigrated and why cultural values and beliefs were important. 

Other pairs of students are using library books, the computer database and other reference sources to trace lives of immigrants coming to America.  The teacher is preparing to read Grandfather's Journey to the class as preparation for a speaker who will be coming to discuss experiences with immigration and prejudice.

In literature circles, students are reading and responding in journals to pieces of literature that will enrich their social studies learning.  Daily read-alouds include several picture books that are appropriate and help students understand big ideas such as slavery, hiding, long journeys, loss of what they felt comfortable with, and new surroundings.

· Marietta Drucker

· Helga Waldman 

LEARNING ASSESSMENTS:

At the conclusion of units, lessons, or activities students might

• create a time line of the period listing political and social events, art, music, and literature.
• complete journal entries or entries in diaries.
• complete portfolios including examples of writing activities, graphs, comparisons, designs, drawings and other written or visual pieces that describe people, events and personal feelings.
• develop student created questions used in the round table discussion.