New Bedford Division of Adult/Continuing Education
455 County Street
New Bedford, MA 02740
MAIN CONCEPT:
Students will conduct research and interview relatives, completing and sharing their own family
trees.
OBJECTIVES:
To help the students realize the importance of their own family history, and how it relates them
and to the past.
To practice changing statements into interrogative sentences in order to ask the "right question".
To help the students discover more about their family heritage.
To learn about the diversity in the United States.
To have the students explore immigration.
To help the students enhance their research and communicative skills.
MATERIALS:
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
Tape recorders and tapes
A Conversation Book 1, by T. K. Carver, and S.D. Fotinos
The New Oxford Picture Dictionary's Listening and Speaking Activity Book,
Tape and Activity Sheets by J. Adelson-Goldstein, R. Goldman, N. Shapiro, and R. Weiss
PROCEDURES:
Given a world map students point to their native country and any other countries where they or
their family members have lived and give a brief explanation. Given a stickee each student prints
his or her name, the name of their country and the date in which they arrived in the U.S. Each
student places the stickee at the appropriate spot on the world map.
Discuss the importance of one's past in order to better understand oneself. Discuss roots,
genealogy and immigration. Students share family stories of immigration and explain reasons for
immigration. Students visit a Web site on geneology such as:
Research Tips on Gathering Your
Family Information.
Students briefly explain their own immigration story and tell about their arrival in the U.S.
Working in pairs students ask questions of each other such as: "When did you leave your
country?" "Who came with you to America?" "Did you have a sponsor?" "Who met you at the
airport?" "Where did you go as soon as you arrived in America?" "Who in your family is still in
your native country?"
Review vocabulary relating to family such as mother, father, brother, sister, grandparents,
cousins, etc. Given a drawing paper each student draws a family tree. Working with a partner
each student asks questions about their partner's family tree ie. What's your mother's name?
Who's Maria? Whose son is John?
Given a tape recorder students tell their oral histories about their family trees. The students
may be video taped as they are presenting their stories.
Using their family tree as a reference, students write some sentences describing their family
relationships.
Students write an essay on an interesting occurrence involving their family members. Working
in pairs students exchange stories and edit each others essays.
Using the computer students type the essay of an interesting occurrence involving their family
members. Students may bring a picture of those family members who are mentioned in the story
to class. This picture may be scanned next to the essay. All the stories may be combined into a
class book.
ACTIVITIES:
Using the Listening and Speaking Activity Book the students learn how to meet people and
introduce one another; to ask questions; practice asking and answering questions in interview
form while talking about their families; learn how to describe their family photographs; and
create an original story about their family. There are many listening activities and excellent
jigsaw activities.
Students may make a collage with family photographs or magazine cut outs, showing their
views on immigration. Students discuss their feelings such as, "How did you feel on your first
day in America?" "How do you feel now about being in America?" Students may write a poem
or short story about this collage.
Students visit a Web site on Immigration and compare their feelings with those of other
immigrants: American Immigration Home Page.
Using the computer students write about a favorite family member and how that person
influenced the student's life. Students exchange stories in class.
Students write their family stories of immigration in their journals. Upon completion students
will share their stories by reading them aloud to the class. The students in the class discuss
similarities and differences in the stories.
Students compile all their family stories of immigration into a class book.