It has been a long journey for our 8th graders and their study of immigration patterns to the United States; comparing the early 1900’s trends to today.  Students are now working on answering the question of comparing how immigrants were treated in the 1900’s compared to today.  We worked on citation of sources, creating a thesis, and soon; how to create an introductory paragraph of an essay.

Ask your student their opinion on immigration and how people were treated and I am sure you will get non-stop answers!

We have spent the better part of a month before winter break looking at primary source evidence related to how immigrants were treated when coming to America in the 1900’s.  Students continually analysed those documents and recorded information that would be relevant to that topic.

Since returning from break, we are picking up where we left off.  Now, students are researching primary source evidence as it relates to how immigrants are treated today when coming to America.  Students will analyze documents, record relevant information, and use that to inform their thesis, which will be developed soon thereafter.

Ultimately, students are working on the skill of creating a thesis statement, which is just a fancy way of say “claim, evidence, and reasoning.”  Students are nearing the completion of their research.  Soon, they will develop a claim, answering the driving question of “how were immigrants treated differently in the 1900’s compared to today.”  They will then use the evidence they gathered over a month of researching to support their claim.

Feel free to ask your student how they have come along on this activity thus far.

We have completed our first major unit of the year: the Constitution.  Just because we are done formally studying it does not mean we will not look at it throughout the remainder of the year.  We are now moving onto our next unit of focus: immigration.  We will use this time to look at immigration through two historical lenses: immigration trends in the 1900’s and immigration trends today.  Students will examine this topic while enhancing their skills at document analysis and thesis creation; all skills that are heavily utilized in high schools.  This process will take time so no need to rush, right?

Today, we were fortunate enough to have a guest speaker grace us with his presence.  Dr. Panszi, formerly of Mexico City and grandfather of one of our students, came to speak with our students about his experiences as an immigrant.  He shared his personal journey thus far, starting with his early life in Mexico to his gaining American citizenship and what that means to him.  It was amazing to get another perspective in the room to share with the students why this topic matters (don’t worry, I had a lot of questions as to why we were spending time looking at immigration).

Thank you Dr. Panszi for taking the time to talk with our students.