RATIONALE:

To understand and respect the many difficulties and obstacles encountered by new arrivals to the American culture. To attempt to destroy the stereotype of an Immigrant and to try to understand the challenges and difficulties in acquiring a new language and culture.

MAIN CONCEPT:

Through class discussions students will introduce themselves to each other and talk about themselves and their native countries.

OBJECTIVES:

• To help the students to develop their oral, listening, and writing skills as they tell their own stories.
• To familiarize the students with map reading.
• To help the students develop a sense of distance and direction by introducing map skills.
• To help the students acquire a greater appreciation of their culture and the cultures of others.
• To help the students understand and appreciate their experiences and the experiences of other immigrants.

• Computer, modem, CD-ROM drive, a telecommunications network providing access to the World Wide Web, and a bookmark for Oral History sites
• Word Processing Software
• World Map
• CD-ROM (such as Grolier's Encyclopedia)
• Journals for students to record information
• A Conversation Book 1, by T. K. Carver, and S.D. Fotinos

1. The students are asked to fill out a personal information form similar to the program's registration form.

2. Students are introduced to a world map and asked to find their places of origin.

3. Through conversation and discussion students tell their personal stories.

4. Students will introduce themselves to each other and talk about themselves answering such questions as: Where are you from? Why did you come to the United States? How did you arrive in this country? What was you occupation in your country? What was your neighborhood like in your country? How did it compare to your neighborhood in the U.S.?

5. Using their journals students will write introductory stories about themselves and their countries.

1. As an introduction the teacher reads The Statue of Liberty by Lucille Recht Penner to the class.Students discuss and define "liberty" and freedom, and the emotional feelings that they felt upon seeing the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor for the first time. Comprehension questions are asked regarding the information in the book pertaining to the size of the Statue of Liberty. Students visit a Web site such as Links to the Past

2. The teacher reads Watch the Stars Come Out, by Riki Levinson to help the students understand and appreciate the experiences of immigrants seeing the Statue of Liberty upon arriving in the United States. Students discuss and compare their experiences with those presented in the book.

3. Students trace the voyage taken to bring the Statue of Liberty to the New York Harbor using maps from a Web site such as the National Park Service's Statue of Liberty site or maps and encyclopedia software such as Encarta.

4. By viewing the video, Golden Door: A Nation of Immigrants, by Knowledge Unlimited, Inc. students may recognize and summarize their own experiences.

5. Students will view and explore Ellis Island by visiting a Web site such as William Tifft's photographic collection.

6. Students may practice their oral and/or writing skills by completing the following sentences: "I am happy that I came here because..." or, "I am sad that I came here because... "

7. Students will be asked to bring in a memento that is special to them from their native country that they may share with their classmates.

8. Given a tape recorder students tell their oral histories. The students may be video taped as they are presenting their stories.

9. Using the computer students may type their stories to be compiled into a class book.

10. Students take a field trip to New York or visit a Web site such as the National Park Service's Ellis Island site.