K20 Learn
American Exclusivity: The Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act—the first race-based immigration restriction—is echoed in today's debates on the topic. Using graphic organizers and structured discussions, historians consider the reasons behind the act and compare the...
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
How Do Pictures Tell the Story of Angel Island?
Young historians learn more about the history of Angel Island Immigration Station through their analysis of primary source images. Guided by a list of inferential questions, scholars learn how to make and record observations on a...
DocsTeach
Chinese Exclusion Broadside Analysis
Racism against Asian American goes deep in American history. Using a broadside in favor of the Chinese Exclusion Act, class members examine clues—with key portions of the document blacked out—to better understand the roots of anti-Asian...
DocsTeach
Comparing WWI Food Conservation Posters
Food will win the war! At least, that is what some World War I-era posters say. Using two propaganda posters—one in English and one in Yiddish—young scholars consider why the Wilson administration had the posters created. Discussion...
Anti-Defamation League
Understanding and Analyzing “The U.S. of Us” by Richard Blanco
Current immigration issues and the rhetoric surrounding the controversies come into focus with a lesson that uses Richard Blanco's anthem, "The U.S. of Us," written after the August 2019 attack in El Paso, Texas, to open a discussion of...
Annenberg Foundation
Contested Territories
United States expansion into Western territories impacted much more than just lines on a map. The seventh installment of a 22-part series about America's history puts scholars into the lives of those making the journey westward as well...
National Humanities Center
Teaching The Great Gatsby: A Common Core Close Reading Seminar
The 41 slides in a professional development seminar model how to use close reading techniques to examine the many layers of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. In addition to passages from the novel, slides provide biographical...
Curated OER
Immigration to America
Students examine reasons for immigration to the United States in the 19th century. They role play as immigrants asked to write accounts of their immigrant experiences.
Curated OER
Classroom Unity Representing a Nation of Immigrants
Investigate national unity in a month-long lesson. After creating "I am from" poems, 5th graders will construct accordion flip books, listing and illustrating reasons for settlement. Choosing illustrations, essays, or Powerpoint...
Curated OER
Immigration in America, 1870-1920
Fifth graders research patterns of immigration in America during the years of 1870-1920 using the Ellis Island website. They answer discussion questions, conduct Internet research on their own ancestors, and answer questions about the...
Curated OER
A Bracero Compares Expectations versus Reality of Life in the United States
In this primary source analysis worksheet, learners analyze an interview with a bracero who describes the expectations and realities of life in the United States. Students respond to 3 short answer questions based on the interview.
Curated OER
The Kite Runner: Immigration Appreciation
Readers of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner engage in a simulation designed to give them an appreciation of the immigrant experience. Kids must finished the assigned task or face deportation.
Curated OER
Journey to America
Fifth graders carefully analyze the artwork, Les Emigrants, and explore the reasons that people emigrated to the United States, and what life was like for new arrivals. They discuss what things immigrants were able to bring with them and...
Curated OER
Teaching Reading Comprehension through Social Studies Readings
Examine how immigrants have changed the environment of the United States. Individually, middle schoolers will take a pre- and post-test to assess their reading comprehension. In groups, they compare and contrast the religions of...
Curated OER
And the Streets Are Paved With Gold
Students explore immigrant experience at Ellis Island, New York, at the turn of the century, and answer questions that challenge them to use thinking skills from various levels of Bloom's taxonomy.
Smithsonian Institution
Hidden Histories: Mexican Repatriation During the 1930s
Mexican Repatriation: the forgotten deportation of American citizens. The resource focuses on the deportation of Mexican American citizens during the Great Depression. Young historians read documents, complete a free-write, and fill out...
DocsTeach
U.S. Policy and the Holocaust Refugee Crisis
How did the United States respond to the Holocaust refugee crisis during World War II? The activity focuses on the United States' foreign policies and the arguments for and against offering assistance. Scholars analyze historical...
PBS
Puerto Rican Perspectives
Puerto Ricans are wholly American, but their history with the United States has been one of tumult. Using clips from a PBS documentary, viewers consider the history of the island and Puerto Rico's contributions to the mainland United...
Reading Through History
Patriots and Loyalists
Patriots versus Loyalists, a huge divide during the Revolutionary War in what would become the United States of America. An informative resource includes both direct instruction about the two groups and a quiz pupils take after reading...
College Board
2005 AP® Human Geography Free-Response Questions
Why do people leave their home countries and come to the United States? How has nationalism affected European nations politically and socially? The answers are complicated. Pupils explore the intricate dynamics using structured questions...
Curated OER
Immigration for Grades 6-8
Students explore immigration. In this immigration lesson, students research the topic and compare immigration of the past to the present. They create a decade long timeline of immigration.
Curated OER
Immigration in America
Students use primary sources to study immigration. In this immigration lesson plan, students analyze photographs, posters, letters, and documents from Ellis Island. Students complete analysis worksheets as they evaluate the primary sources.
Curated OER
Immigration to the United States
Third graders search TDC database for images of immigration from other countries, maps, and diaries. They identify why immigrants came to the United States and engage in a role-play simulating an experience the immigrants might have had.
Curated OER
Immigration in the United States
Students examine the theory of immigration and how their ancestors became part of this Nation. They determine how immigration affected the United States through research and language activities. They construct a timeline of a time in...