Destination America: Our Hope, Our Future: A 6-8, Social Studies Project
Students travel back in time to the late nineteenth-and early twentieth-centuries as they experience life through the eyes of a European immigrant who first steps foot on United States soil.
Technology-Enhanced Learning
Students use technology to create a multimedia presentation to share their simulated experience with other audiences. They use Internet research to investigate their selected national origins and gather information for their profile.
Higher-Order Thinking Skills
Students use knowledge to take what they have learned from their research and apply it to creating a personal profile. Students use higher-level thinking to explore the Essential and Unit Questions in their final products.
Varied Instructional Strategies
Students draw upon their prior knowledge by creating a definition of “Who is an American?” at the beginning of the unit. The class also creates a list of countries that represent the students’ ethnicities. This initial knowledge is built upon in their investigation of the Essential Question.
Graphic Organizers: The unit begins with class-created lists to accompany the brainstorming process. Students create individual and group charts throughout the unit.
Cooperative Grouping: Students work in teams to investigate Web sites on the Internet.
Peer and Teacher Feedback: Students receive feedback when they share homework assignments and multimedia presentations. Rubrics communicate progress when final products are assessed.
Recognition: Students receive recognition when they share their multimedia presentations and homework with the class.
Questioning: The discussion of the Essential, Unit, and Content Questions provide questioning throughout the unit. Students ask and answer questions to complete research, interview family and friends, and write in their journals, further probing them to think at higher levels.
Modeling: The teacher models the research steps. There are models for exemplary work, a student sample multimedia presentation, and story examples on the Ellis Island Web site.
Classroom Management: Students work in small groups to investigate Web sites on the Internet. The final portfolio is completed in steps, and students use the rubric throughout the project to check on project expectations.
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