THE PROCESS OF EARLY IMMIGRATION

The Process of Early Immigration by Samantha Cronrath

I.

Lesson Plan Overview and Description

1. Expected duration: 30 minutes
2. Social Sciences: History
3. Concepts (Big Ideas): The purpose of this lesson is to look at a) the process of
immigration into America in the 18-1900s, and b) the attitude and treatment of the
immigrants.
4. Vocabulary
Immigrant A person who comes to a country where they were not born in order
to settle there.
Nativism The policy of protecting the interest of the native inhabitance against
those of immigrants.
5. Skills: Research.
6. Broad Goals of Lesson: Help students understand the process of immigration.

II.

Content Outline
A. Process of Immigration into the United States
i. Immigrants were put through a health inspection, scanned for physical or
mental conditions, if anything was found it was written on the immigrants
clothes (H meant heart condition, LCD meant loathsome Contagious Disease)
ii. Questioning: a manifest was provided to the immigration inspectors of all the
immigrants who arrived on the boats, each immigrant was but through
questioning including where they were looking to live and what type of job
prospected did they have.
iii. Until 1909 the United States had a 50 cent tax that was charged to each
immigrant.
iv. Detention and hearings: if an immigrant failed the health inspection or
questioning they were detained for a hearing. About 10 percent of immigrants
were detained for these reasons and about 2 percent were deported.
information recorded by a person who was there
ii. Identify types of primary sources
reports, maps, letters, photographs, census data, drawings, memoirs,
etc.
iii. Explore primary sources for U.S. immigrants
Ellis Island immigration documents, photographs, etc.
iv. Identify why primary source documents are useful
B. Immigration through Ellis Island
i. From 1892-1924 Ellis Island was Americas most active immigration post
ii. Processed over 12 million immigrants
iii. During 1900-1912 the peak years of immigration through Ellis Island 5,00010,000 Immigrants could be processed each day.
iv. The average inspection process for immigrants took between 3-7 hours,
however many immigrants were detained for days or weeks before being
processed.

THE PROCESS OF EARLY IMMIGRATION

v. A vast majority of immigrants saw Ellis Island as an Island of Hope and

their first step to a new life with new opportunities and experiences.
vi. To others Ellis Island was an Island of Tears where families could be
separated and individuals denied access into America.
C. Immigration through Angel Island
i. Angel Island opened in 1910
ii. From 1910-1940 Chinese Immigrants were detained and interrogated on
Angel Island with the hope from US officials of being deported.
iii. Many Chinese immigrants could be detained on Angel Island for as short as 2
weeks or as long as 6 months. Some were even detained for two years.
iv. The objective of processing Immigrants on Angel Island was often to exclude
or deny immigration into the United states
v. Poems written by Chinese immigrants detained on Angel Island can still be
seen on the walls of the holding cells.
D. Attitude and opinions of early immigrants
i. The range of attitudes towards immigrants ranged from hospitable to hostile.
ii. Chinese exclusion act of 1882 kept Chinese workers from entering the US.
iii. Irish and Italians were blamed for poor economic conditions.
iv. Nativist blamed them for domestic radicalism and organized crime.
v. Often were targets of attacks by anti-immigration mobs or other organized
hate groups.
III.

Standards
PDE SAS Standards PA Civics, History, Geography;
NCSS Thematic Strands and Performance Indicators
1. Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards Aligned System
Subject Area 8: History
Standard Area 8.1: Historical Analysis and Skills Development
Grade Level 8.1.3: GRADE 3
Standard 8.1.3.D: Conduct teacher guided inquiry about on assigned
topics using specific historical sources.
Standard Area 8.3: United States History
Grade Level 8.3.3: GRADE 3
Standard 8.3.3.B: Identify and describe historical documents, artifacts,
and places critical to United States history.
2. PDE Common Core
N/A
3. National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Thematic Strands and Performance
Indicators
II.
Time, Continuity, & Change
a. Demonstrate an understanding that different people may describe the
same event or situation in diverse ways, citing reasons for the
differences in views.
e. Demonstrate an understanding that people in different times and places
view the world differently.

THE PROCESS OF EARLY IMMIGRATION

IV.

Lesson Objectives
A. After lesson, students will list process of incoming immigrants had to face.
B. After lesson, students will be able to write one thing they learned about the purpose of
either Ellis and Angel islands.
C. After lesson, students will be able to write one thing they learned about the struggles
Immigrants faced in the United States.

V.

Teaching Procedures
1. Introduction/Anticipatory Set
i. Before lesson begins hand out fill-in-the-blank worksheets that are to be completed
during the lesson.
ii. Hand out papers about Angel and Ellis Island.
iii. Introduce the lesson by asking the students what they know about immigrants and
the process of immigration..
2. Lesson Input
i. The lesson will start with a PowerPoint followed by group discussion.
ii. The class will as group discuss the process of immigration, the purpose and use of
Angel and Ellis Island. The teacher should guide the discussion to include reasons
why they were turned away and what it was like for the immigrants waiting on angel
and Ellis Islands.
iii. Set aside time for the students to ask question and clear up any misunderstandings.
3. Guided Practice
i. The class will participate in a discussion half researching Ellis Island and half
researching Angel Island and discussions the similarities and differences in how they
each processed the immigrants, the point of the island and how the immigrants were
perceived by the people in each area.
4. Independent Practice
i. None in lesson.
5. Differentiation
Lesson will be differentiated based on the specific learning and behavioral needs of
students in classroom, such as ELL, gifted (above level), and remediation (below
level).
6. Closure
i. Students will reflect upon the lesson and their discussion and each write down two
new facts they learned during the lesson, one about the purpose either Angel or Ellis
Island and one about the struggles immigrants faced, and one question or subject
discussed that they wish to learn more about.

VI.

Teacher and Student Resources and Evaluation of Resources

A. Student Reading Resources:
Websites for student research
B. Teacher Resources for Lesson Design
http://classroom.synonym.com/process-did-immigrants-through-arrived-ellisisland-late-1800s-9519.html
http://www.history.com/topics/ellis-island
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=1309

THE PROCESS OF EARLY IMMIGRATION

C. Evaluation of Teacher Resources
Resource
Influence
3+ Characteristics
Title or
Significant
suggesting that the
Website
Influence (SI) or
source is a quality
Address
Minor Influence
resource, reliable
(MI) in informing material
your thinking,
decisions about
the lesson plan
http://www.p Significant
Site is run by CA park
arks.ca.gov/? Influence
and recreation, which
page_id=130
is who runs the island.
9
Information is easy to
be translated for
students.
The site will link you
to additional
information

Accessibility
Access for
teachers or
others

Overall Rating
and
Suggestions for
current, future
use of resource

Easy to
Access

10
If you go into
the learning
section they
have a lot of
different
information and
resources for
teacher and
students to use.
10
There is a wide
variety of
history related
information on
the site, as well
as videos
students can
watch.
10
The cite has a
wide variety of
information for
both history and
other school
subjects that is
easy for
teachers and
students to use.

http://www.h
istory.com/to
pics/ellisisland

Significant
Influence

Has links to source

Easy to use
information
Information is easy for
students to understand
Site is kept up to date
with the latest
information.

http://classro
om.synonym
.com/process
-didimmigrantsthrougharrived-ellisisland-late1800s9519.html

Significant
Influence

Has source
information listed.
Provides information
about the author as
proof of credentials
Provides related
article to further
knowledge

VII.

Easy to use

Formative/Summative Assessment(s)
Each student will participate in the discussion about the main point covered in
the lesson as well as the discussion about angel and Ellis Island.

THE PROCESS OF EARLY IMMIGRATION

Each student will hand in the two facts they learned during the lesson, and the
question or topic they would like to learn more about.

VIII. Technology/Materials/Equipment
Worksheets for the PowerPoints
Handouts on Angel and Ellis Islands
Notecards for facts
Computers for research
Access to a SmartBoard (if possible)
IX.

Reflection on Planning
While the student will most likely know some basics on immigration this will
probably be there first in-depth lesson on the process and on how they were treated. I
made half the lesson teacher-directed to make sure the students understand the basic
facts about the processes; however, I left half the lesson for the students to research
assigned topics on their own, on approved sources under supervisions to help them
gain insight and take responsibility for their education. I had to supplement the
textbook content to write the content outline because the information on the topic was
weak.