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Our fifth graders spent time learning and reading about the early 1900’s immigration to the United States from Eastern European countries. The students read novels and historical accounts, along with their text books. The students’ culminating activity was to spend a day in the life of an immigrant. They were given the identity of person from the time period. Some students boarded as first class passengers while the majority of the students were steerage passengers. It was crowded and hot in steerage. There were people crying and there were some passengers who were “ill.” The students got a feel for how difficult the trip across the ocean was for those immigrants.
After disembarking, the students had to read signs to find the areas they needed to visit. They went to medical to get a mock exam, they went through an interview process, they had a mock ability screening, and the students went through a baggage area. Some students did not make it and were sent back across the ocean. Some students were given a new identity because the interviewers couldn’t pronounce their names correctly.
It was a lesson with great impact for all involved.
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