IMMIGRATION LAP 2 1 STATUE OF LIBERTY I.
Content: Describe what it is you will teach. What is the content?
Students will be looking at the Statue of Liberty and thinking about what it meant to
immigrants. Along with looking at pictures and short clip of this famous landmark,
students will be reading quotes from immigrants who saw the Statue of Liberty for the
first time.
II.
Learning Goal(s): Describe what specifically students will know and be able to do
after the experience of this class.
Students will know and be able to:
• Recognize the Statue or Liberty as a famous landmark
• Observe and question primary source documents
• Realize why the Statue of Liberty is an important landmark to many immigrants
from the past, present, and future
III.
Rationale: Explain how the content and learning goal(s) relate to your Curriculum
Unit Plan learning goals.
Students have been learning about immigration into the United States. The Statue or
Liberty serves as a monument that almost all children can recognize. Many students
just know that The Statue of Liberty is a monument in New York City; this lesson is
designed to look at the deeper meaning of her and what it meant for immigrants
coming into New York. An major objective of this unit is to get students to learn how to
think empathetically; to be able to understand how immigrants felt during the
immigration process as a whole (why they left, what they went through to get here, how
it was living in America). By introducing the Statue of Liberty as more of a freedom
figure rather than just a monument you can visit, students will be thinking about how
immigrants first felt when coming to America. The essential questions “Why do people
leave their homes?” is incorporated into this lesson but letting students explore how
various people felt about seeing the Statue for the first time.
IV.
Assessment: Describe how you and your students will know they have reached your
learning goals.
•
•
•
V.
Find the location of The Statue of Liberty on a map
Analyze and conceptualize primary source documents/first hand experiences
(quotes)
Find and discuss what The Statue of Liberty meant for immigrants coming into
the United States.
Personalization: Describe how you will provide for individual student strengths and
needs. How will you and your lesson consider the needs of each student and
scaffold learning?
2 IMMIGRATION LAP 4 STATUE OF LIBERTY Students will be paired off for the beginning of the lesson so students can express ideas
and possible meanings for the Statue of Liberty. While pre-watching the video, I made
sure to pause at specific spots in order to for students to process what is being shown to
them; guided questions will be used in order for students to do so. Articles were printed
out for each pair; the grouping was pre-selected to make sure higher-level readers were
paired off with students who struggle. Students will able to work together to underline
important information about immigrants and the Statue of Liberty. Many students will
benefit from partner work because they will be able to “piggyback” off of each other
rather than just going right into the writing activity Quotes were spoken and written as
a guide for students into why the Statue meant so much to immigrants.
VI.
Activity description and agenda: Describe the activities that will help your students
understand the content of your class lesson by creating an agenda with time frames
for your class. Be prepared to explain why you think each activity will help students
on the path toward understanding.
Time
11:50-12:15
Student
Teacher
Discuss what they know about Ask students what they know
The Statue of Liberty and
about The Statue of Liberty
where they think it is on the
and where it stands on a map.
they think about the quotes
students we will be looking at a
and narration in clip about
short clip from the History
immigrants and statue.
Channel that explains how
map. Watch clip. Discuss what Locate her on map. Explain to
immigrants felt during the
statue of liberty.
12:15-12:20
Listen to excerpt. Turn and
talk to partner.
Have students discuss When
Jessie Came Across the Sea.
Read page when Jessie saw
the Statue of Liberty for the
first time. Have students turn
and talk about how Jessie felt
seeing the statue of liberty
IMMIGRATION LAP 2 3 STATUE OF LIBERTY Time
12:20-12:30
Student
Teacher
Work with partner to underline Pass out Statue of Liberty
important information.
article.
Explain that we will be looking
at the statue and what it stood
for when immigrants saw her
for the first time.. Have
students underline important
information from article that
pertains to immigrants.
12:15-12:30
Listen to teacher.
Discuss the article. Explain
that an immigrant wrote the
poem on the Statue and we will
be discussing the poem during
Poetry inside and Out in the
next week.
12:30-12:40
Work alone on exit slip. Use
Pass out exit slip to students.
quotes to help think about
Have them work alone. Walking
immigrants feelings.
around to assist. Place quotes
on tables and rotate quotes
when needed.
VII.
List the Massachusetts Learning Standards this lesson addresses.
4.15 Describe the diverse nature of the American people by identifying the distinctive
contributions to American culture of:
C. Major European immigrant groups who have come to America, locating their
countries of origin and where they tended to settle in large numbers (e.g.,
English, Germans, Italians, Scots, Irish, Jews, Poles, and Scandinavians).
RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text;
summarize the text.
VIII. Reflection
4 IMMIGRATION LAP 4 STATUE OF LIBERTY a. In light of all areas of planning, but especially in terms of your stated purpose and
learning goals, in what ways was the activity(ies) successful? How do you know? In
what ways was it not successful? How might the activity be planned differently another
time?
b. What did you learn from the experience of this lesson that will inform your next LAP?
During this lesson there were many highlights and unsuccessful moments. The overall goal of
this lesson was to get students to think about the Statue of Liberty in terms of a symbol and not
just an historical monument that can be visited. It had to be stated several times that this lesson
was not to look at how and when the Statue of Liberty was built. Once students understood that
this lesson was connecting to immigration, they were able to refrain from asking questions
pertaining to the Statue or Liberty’s history and focused on what the Statue meant to immigrants
coming to America.
Some students could not think past Ellis Island, and people feeling nervous and scared
about passing the inspection. Various exit slips showed that students thought people were
nervous to see the Statue because of what lies ahead. Although this is a great connection,
students were not understanding that this was the first thing immigrants saw when coming into
America, they were happy and joyous to be in free from the troubles in their homelands. Some
slips talked about how “they were nervous to pass the inspection”, and “scared they would get
sent back home”. Many wrote about how the Statue symbolized freedom, which showed they
were making connections to the article, video, and quotes that were shown.
I wish there were more videos and quote about immigrants seeing the Stature of Liberty
for the first time. It took a while to find quotes that would help my students understand what the
Statue symbolized. If planned differently, I would have students work in small groups and look at
each quote carefully and video as stations. I feel as if this would have helped students better
understand what the Statue actually meant. When it came to talking about emotions, I would
have students talk about what they thought first before writing in down to ensure they understood
that not all immigrants were not thinking about the inspection, they were initially happy that they
made it to America.
IMMIGRATION LAP 2 5 STATUE OF LIBERTY The Context of the
Statue of Liberty
The statue is a gift to America from
the people of France. Its original name is
Liberty Enlightening the World. The
statue represents the idea of Liberty.
Liberty, Sam Adams wrote, is “...first, a
right to life; second, to Liberty
(Freedom); third, to prosperity;” When
the Americans secured these ideas with
revolution, other countries were
encouraged to fight for their freedom.
And since then, millions of people have
immigrated to the United States of
America.
From 1892 to 1954, twelve million
immigrants passed through Ellis Island
into New York. Today, over 100 million
living Americans are descendants of
immigrants who entered the United States through Ellis Island. Since
1886, the Statue of Liberty has stood near Ellis Island in New York
Harbor. At the base of the statue is a poem, “The New Colossus” by
Emma Lazarus. In the poem, the statue is referred to as the Mother of
Exiles. An exile is someone who has left his own country either voluntarily
or by force. The Statue of Liberty has welcomed millions of immigrants
who have left their own countries to seek a new and better life in America.
Throughout America’s history, people have immigrated to the United
States for several reasons:
The most popular reason for coming to America has been economic
opportunity. The hope of finding a better life in the United States has
brought generations of immigrants here.
Copyright American Heritage Education Foundation, www.americanheritage.org
Name:____________________________________________
6 Date:___________________
IMMIGRATION LAP 4 STATUE OF LIBERTY Immigration
Why do people leave their homes?
Statue of Liberty
What did the Statue of Liberty symbolize or mean to immigrants coming into America? Please
explain your answer.
Name:____________________________________________
Date:___________________
Immigration
Why do people leave their homes?
Statue of Liberty
What did the Statue of Liberty symbolize or mean to immigrants coming into America? Please
explain your answer.
IMMIGRATION LAP 2 7 STATUE OF LIBERTY “I saw the Statue of
Liberty, and I said to
myself ‘Lady, you’re
beautiful. You opened
your arms and you get all
the foreigners here. Give
me a chance to prove that
I am worth it, to do
something to become
somebody in America”
–Greek immigrant Doukanie Papandreos
8 IMMIGRATION LAP 4 STATUE OF LIBERTY “The bigness of Mrs.
Liberty overcame us. No
one spoke a work, for she
as a goddess and we
knew she represented the
big, powerful country
which was to be our
future home”
–Polish Immigrant
IMMIGRATION LAP 2 9 STATUE OF LIBERTY “When I saw the Statue
of Liberty….it was
something beautiful. I
knew I was in
America…I knew I was
going to see my
father….I had somebody
to love”
-14 year old Italian immigrant Victor Tartarini