Immigration Family History Writing Assisgnment Lesson Plan

Family History of Immigration Writing Assignment

Grade Level and Unit:  First and Second Grade, Immigration Unit

Session and Description of Lesson Tasks: During the literacy time students will answer questions about their family’s history of immigration based on surveys they filled out at home. They will have a choice of different questions to answer based on their experiences. They will also have informational books available about their country to look at.  

Materials needed: Informational texts on countries, list of questions, paper, markers, pencils

Grouping Decisions: We will have a whole group discussion about directions and then students will work independently

Learning goals/Objective(s) What are your core ideas for this lesson? What do you intend all students to know and understand? I want students to gain a deeper understanding of their families immigration history and to write their responses to questions clearly and legibly.	Language Objectives? What language will you model during the lesson? What language do you expect to hear during student discourse? Country names Immigration Culture tradition
Standards: How do the learning goals relate to the standards?
Connect and Anticipate: In what ways does this lesson build on students’ previous knowledge? What student strategies and responses do you anticipate? What misconceptions and struggles might students have? Students have been researching a lot about their countries. We have been having discussions about what immigration would be like and where different people immigrated from. They also have surveys to look at that were filled out by their families. Students may struggle answering questions but I have provided prompts to help answer.
Focus Questions Consider what questions you will use to focus on students’ thinking to encourage sense-making and discourse. Launch: To introduce the activity/motivate students. See Worksheet Explore: To assess students’ understanding and to advance their thinking as they work independently, in partners or small group I will be able to check their understanding based on the responses they give to their questions. If they are having trouble answering questions I will prompt them with further questions. Summary: To facilitate the analysis and synthesis of ideas shared at the end of the lesson. After all students are done with their questions the pages will be made into a book and they will share a page with the class.

Evidence: How will you know what students understand? What evidence will you collect? (If there is an exit task, what will be its focus to inform you instructional next steps?) I will be able to see if the students understood based on the quality of their books. I will be checking their pages for spelling words correctly and their ability to follow directions.

Pitfalls and Solutions:

ELL: These students may have a difficult time understanding directions. I will work one on one with them to help them decode words.

Special Ed.: These students will also receive one on one support to answer questions. They can also look at the book their country is about to help them spell difficult words

Reflection: I really enjoyed implementing this lesson. The students enjoyed writing about the countries their families are from and being able to talk about. One difficulty I had was some students were unable to read the questions well. I had to spend a lot of time helping them. Next time I may only do this lesson with the 2^nd grade students because they are more proficient readers.