Unit 1: To be American

This unit can be used in a number of capacities. My intention here was to set the foundation for the rest of the course. The exercises and readings included below are intended to help students explore what it means to be American today and the multitude of views on the topic. The students that took this class did come from a diverse background. Some were themselves immigrants from other countries or first generation Americans. All in all the conversations we had were enlightening, sometimes sensitive, but overall fruitful.  

Unit One: American and National Identity (Hyphen American) 

Lesson 1: Placing Ourselves

Activity 1: Map Activity

In this activity students will be given three different colored post its. Make sure to obtain several maps to use. I used a NYC metro area map, US map, and a World map) 

1. Where were you born? (yellow post it)

2. Where would you like to visit? (green post it)

3. Where have you felt most aware of your identity? (pink post it)

4. Reflection on activity – write and share

Activity 2: Identity Chart 

Create an Identity chart (One that shows how students would describe themselves and another for how you think others would describe them.)

Homework: Bring a photo, drawing, object or song that represents what it means to be American. 

Lesson Two: American?

Central Question: What does it mean to be an American? How do you fit into the American Identity? 

Activity 1: I am American because… 

Ask students to take five minutes to complete the sentence "I am American because..." in the form of a free write. When students are done, ask students to share out with their neighbor using the harness strategy to help guide supportive listening. 

Activity 2: Toward a More Perfect Union 

Video Clip: Starting where we are… Toward a More Perfect Union

As students watch the clip they should pick one voice that resonates with them the most and write why they connected with it. How does this add to their understanding of American Identity?

Homework: One question one-minute interview

Have students interview six individuals about one question. You should record their responses on this side of the sheet and then write your conclusions on the back. What is essential is that all students ask the same question so that the results can be shared out and aggregated in the following class. 

Question: What does it mean to be an American?

Lesson 3: Perspectives on Immigration

CQ: What does it mean to be American?

Quickwrite: To truly become American you need to know (list as many ideas as you can think of)

Activity 1: Citizenship Test

Do You Have What it Takes To Become a U.S. Citizen?

When immigrants want to become Americans, they must take a civics test as part of their naturalization interview before a Citizenship and Immigration Services (INS) officer. The questions are usually selected from a list of 100 sample questions that prospective citizens can look at ahead of the interview. 

Activity 2: Stories of Identity 

Students will read a selection written by Jumpha Lahiri about Transcultural Identities from Stories of Identity, a Facing History publication.  

Questions:

• 1. List the factors that affect Lahiri’s identity as a child.

  2. How might her choices have been affected by her self-described pressure to choose between American and Indian identities?

  3. How were her choices affected by her decision to hide parts of her identity?

  4. How were her choices affected by parents’ belief that she couldn’t be American?

Activity 3: One Question Interview Share Out

Have students form small groups to begin to compile the data they collected from their interviews. Students should identify broad categories as a means of organizing responses. Then ask that a few students record the results (tally and finally rank) for the entire class on the board.

RESPONSES:

Legal Citizen

Living

Equal Rights/Freedom

Speaks English

Has a Job

Access/Opportunities

American Dream

Place of Birth

Follow the Laws

Pride/Patriotism

Education

Culture (food, clothing, music)

Consider yourself

Willing to Serve or Die

Ability to Vote

Pay Taxes

It doesn’t mean anything

I don’t know

Reflection:What are the most common trends? Location? Legal Status? Ideals? Culture? Time? Why do you think? What are some conclusions you can draw from the

Homework: As American As Vartan, Luis and Na 

Students will read "As American as Vartan, Luis and Na" and respond to the following questions:

1. What does it mean to “Americanize” a name?

2. Why do people choose to change or not change their name to be more American?

3. Why are more people today choosing to keep their names as compared to the “Ellis Island generation”?

4. What do you think? Should immigrants be taking on more “American” names? Why or why not?

Lesson 3: Perspectives on Immigration

Quickwrite: What is this picture? What do you think about when you see this? (Image of Statue of Liberty) 

Activity 1: Immigration Scenarios

Divide students into nine groups. Each group will be focusing on discussing and answering questions about one scenario. Students will then share their ideas and reflections with the class.

Immigration Scenarios

• 1. A man from a country in Central America brings his family to the United States. They left the war there and did not come here through legal channels. The U.S. says it will deport him and his family. He argues that the U.S. helped start the fighting in the first place.

  2. A white mother worries about the schooling her children are getting. The classes are crowded. Many of the other students are new immigrants and demand a lot of the teacher’s time.

  3. An Asian American man is riding on a bus. Someone asks him if he can speak English. He says, “I was born in New York and I have lived here all my life!”

  4. A new immigrant is working as a housekeeper in someone’s private home. She is not in the U.S. legally. After several weeks of work, her boss refuses to pay her. She is afraid to go to the police because she doesn’t want to be deported.

  5. An African American woman gets a hard time from some of her fellow workers. They make fun of her when she does her hair in braids and beads or wears African dresses.

  6. A white man owns a local company. He sees the government giving money for loans to help women, people of color, and new immigrants starting their own companies. He is angry because he never got this kind of help for himself.

  7. A mother of three children is about to lose her food stamps and welfare because of the new welfare reform laws. She is in the U.S. legally, but is not yet a citizen. She is worried about how to support her three children.

  8. An Arab American college student often travels by plane. At the airport he is often stopped and his bags are searched.

Questions:

1. How do you interpret this problem? What is the issue in this scenario?

2. What is your first reaction to this story? 

3. What if anything should people do in these stories? 

4. What if anything should others, community members, businesses, places of worship?

5. What if anything should the government do?

6. Do you have stories like this? What about the stories of friends and family? Why are these stories important?

Homework: Students should write a response to Julius Lester. Students can choose to write as themselves, as the statue of liberty, or any other individual. Their response should be at least one page long (three paragraphs.)

Julius Lester on the 1986 Celebration of the Statue of Liberty

Many African Americans today are demanding that their history be acknowledged and that amends be made for past injustices. Only then, they argue, can the nation move forward. In 1990, Julius Lester wrote:

The summer of 1986 saw the observance of the one-hundredth birthday of the Statue of Liberty. It was a time of national celebration. Newspapers and television carried stories and interviews with immigrants recounting their coming to America, their thoughts and emotions on first seeing the statue. How painful it was to read and listen to such stories; how much they loved America, how America had given them opportunities they would not have had otherwise…

I could not watch the televised Fourth-of-July festivities for very long and when I saw photographs of fireworks exploding around the illuminated Statue of Liberty, I was dismayed that the nation could so celebrate itself and not know that its celebration was a rebuke and an insult to that 10 percent of its population which had its beginnings in the killings and arrogance of which people who thought they had divine sanction to steal other human beings by force, to enslave them, use them for their own aggrandizement and profit, and sell them or kill them when they refused to be so used.

            America had a birthday party, but I could not attend; and America did not notice my absence, which means it did not care that I was not present.

Questions:

• 1. Why can’t Julius Lester participate in the Statue of Liberty celebration?

  2. How does this piece help you to better understand the factors that contributed to people coming to the US?

Activity 2: T Chart

Lesson 5: Values about Immigration

CQ: What do the three monotheistic religions say about immigration? What does this tell us about the founding morals that may guide our thinking about immigration?

Quickwrite: What is the proper way to treat a guest? Does it matter if they are invited or come by chance?

Activity: Jigsaw

For centuries religion and religious text has been the moral compass of the world. People on all contentment turned to their own particular scriptures and leaders for guidance in difficult issues.

Students will divide into three groups. Each group will be responsible to present the content of each religious perspective on immigration. Students will design a poster to help them demonstrate and convey what they learned.

Group Questions:

1. What are three guiding principles that people should follow in terms of immigration that you can conclude from the reading?

2. Does this remind you of any values that you or any one you know may hold?

3. Why do you think this religious group felt that it was important to put these ideas into writing?

Class Questions:

1. What similarities do you notice between all three groups?

2. What are some differences?

3. Do you agree with one more than the other?

4. Do any of the ideas voiced in these religious texts sound familiar and/or reflect something that you have heard before?

Lesson 6: Factors of Migration

CQ: What are the “push” and “pull” factors of migration?

Quickwrite: Why do people move? List as many reasons as you can think of.

Activity 1: Thirteen Reasons our Ancestors Migrated

Students will divide up into groups to create a collage with images and words to represent their reason for migration. Students will include an artist’s statement and will prepare to present on their factor.  

Thirteen Reasons Our Ancestors Migrated

Do you know where your ancestors came from? Do you know what influenced their decision to migrate? Do you know why your ancestors settled where they did? The answers to these questions can help you better understand your ancestors and, in turn, help you develop better hypotheses about them.

Disclaimer: The thirteen reasons cannot possibly encompass the universe of factors that influenced our ancestors to make a move. However, these thirteen (in no particular order) appear throughout history as the most common reasons for migrating to a new place.

Consider what the push-pull factors are for each of these reasons for migration. Read through the descriptions and order the reasons from most amount of pull (choice) to most amount of push (force).

1.

2. 

3. 

4.

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10.

11.

12.

13.

Reflection: Defend your order. Why did you choose to put these reasons in the order that you did? Were there factors that were more challenging to place than others? What were they? And why was it so difficult?

Written Discussion:

• 1. What is the message of this quote?

  2. What do you know about the speaker of the quote?

  3. Who is the intended audience?

  4. Do you agree or disagree with the quote and why?

Activity 2: Written Discussion/Gallery walk

Written Discussion are a nice way to engage students in a discussion that allows everyone a chance to offer their ideas and asks students to slow down their thinking and response. The activity can be done in a few ways. You can select images or quotes and arrange them around the room matching 2-3 students per station. Students will be given a specified amount of time to respond to the image or text in front of them in form of a written discussion. It is essential that students do not talk during this process, but rather convey their questions and ideas on paper. Students should respond directly to the image or text as well as to their peers comments or questions about the material at hand. If time allows, students should have a chance to walk around the room and look at other groups discussions, and perhaps even comment on them themselves. 

For this written discussion I used the quotes below:

A Nation of Immigrants

“Let me be clear: we are still a nation of immigrants, and we honor all those immigrants who are working hard to become new citizens.” 

- Bill Clinton, 42 President of the United States, 1996 State of the Union Speech 

“What Alexis de Tocqueville saw in America was a society of immigrants, each of whom had begun life anew, on an equal footing. This was the secret of America: a nation of people with the fresh memory of old traditions who dared to express new frontiers” 

- John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States 

“Thanks to immigrants we have become the wealthiest nation, and the most powerful.” 

- John McLaughlin, Journalist, producer, and host of the McLaughlin Group 

“Many US firms, including Microsoft, have been forced to locate staff in countries that welcome skilled foreign workers to do work that could otherwise have been done in the United States, if it were not for our counterproductive immigration policies.” 

- Bill Gates, Cofounder, Chairman of Microsoft 

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” 

- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States

“So I say… to all our immigrants, you are welcome here. But you must honor laws, embrace our culture, learn our language, know our history; and when the time comes, you should become citizens. And I say to all Americans, we have the responsibilities as well to welcome our newest immigrants, to vigorously enforce laws against discrimination.” 

- Bill Clinton, 42 President of the United States

Activity 3: Radio Rookies

Legal Status? by Veralyn Williams

Introduce the premise of the piece by reading the background of the story. Review the questions with students before beginning to listen to the piece. Then allow students to listen to the 10 minutes piece.