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Kathie
Chaffee
NHD Project
Summary
Falconer Central School
1. General
Overview of the Proposed Project:
In 5th
grade our students are really exposed to U.S. history for the first
time. One of the things that gets their interest and excites them
is learning that their ancestors played a part in our history. I
never get time to address this interest as much as I would like to.
This year I will assign a writing project in which they will
research their immigrant ancestors. They will be asked to
interview parents and grandparents to find one immigrant ancestor
who interests them. They will then find out as may facts as they
can about that person. They will at least need a name and the
country their person came from. I am hoping they might be able to
find dates and even cities where they lived in the old country. We
will use the Ellis Island web site and other internet sources to
find out all we can about their person.
The second step will
be to research the country they came from. I want them to find
basic facts about it. For instance, they will need to find it on a
map, tell about it’s government, geography, and culture. I want
them to try to find out why their ancestors might have wanted to
leave.
2. Clear Purpose
and Objective
As we
study American History, it is really the story of the immigrants who
came here to live. My purpose in this is to personalize this
experience so they have a better understanding of the hardships and
sacrifices of our immigrant ancestors. Each student will find an
immigrant ancestor and learn as much about them as they can. They
will research the country they came from and form a clear
understanding of what life was like in “the old country.” They will
learn research skills, use the internet, and write a paper on their
ancestor.
3. Stakeholders:
grade level, who will benefit, who will participate in this project.
This will be
accomplished with 5th grade students. All 5th
grade students in my class will participate and will benefit from
the experience.
4.
U.S. History Content Area
Content area will be U.S. immigration
history
5.
Outline Describing Content
A 2 page
research report with 3 sources, is required. This will be word
processed and include maps of the country and copies of pictures and
documents when available. An oral presentation will be the
culminating event.
6.
Software to be used, internet materials, contacts, etc.
We will use our
computer lab to do research and our laptop cart to work on word
processing. Students will be encouraged to use Grolier Online and
other Elementary level sources for their research.
7.
Level of Student Involvement
Students will choose
their own ancestor with teacher approval. They will write and
research each paper themselves using guidelines provided by the
teacher. They will evaluate the papers and presentations by
listening and asking questions.
8.
Evaluation process (include students when possible)
Each report will
receive a grade in social studies and again in English. The class
will use a checklist to help evaluate each other’s presentation.
9.
Timeline: how you envision the project being carried out
between start up and conclusion
Students will be given an outline of the
assignment in November. By the first week in January they will be
asked to bring in details of the ancestor they have chosen. We will
research during January and will complete the writing element by the
end of the month. By Feb. 13th they will have their
presentations completed.
10. Comments or
Questions: My role in this project, is guide, classroom teacher and
evaluator.
Kathie Chaffee
Falconer Central School
Grade 5
Social Studies
As I began this project I
had some reservations. This group I am dealing with is very
different from other years. They are very hard to motivate and
inconsistent with the effort. As things progressed I was pleasantly
surprised at times.
I had the usual same 4
kids who refused to even begin the project and I had to get their
parents after them. The rest had a lot of fun with it. I am happy
with starting this at the end of November. It allowed them to talk
to elderly relatives during the holidays and find out information.
As they did this, it brought them closer to family members and many
families really got involved in it. I am also very happy with the
second part they had to do on the country the ancestor came from.
They learned a great deal about the home country and conditions
there when their family member immigrated. Many students were
fascinated by this and brought in all kinds of memorabilia. I was
impressed with the effort.
A few families had no
clue as to who their immigrant ancestors were. How sad! I
anticipated this and in some instances, when they at least knew what
country they came from, I let them do more extensive research on the
country. They ended up with several time periods when people might
have wanted to immigrate. Another thing I did was look up the Poor
Home records from Dewittville and I had 2 students take an Irish
person from there with the same last name and “adopt” them as their
ancestor. They had fun with that. We also used the Ellis Island
site and some even paid for extra info for their family records.
We had an immigrant
ancestor dinner that was so so. Several students brought in dishes
for the class and most kids enjoyed them. Many students “forgot,”
only 2 brought the recipes in so we did not get to do a collection.
(one brought in a can of cabbage for his)
Two children got the help
of grandparents and worked with them to bring in dishes to pass. I
could tell that both child and grandparents had a good time.
I will do this next year,
and hopefully all will get involved. I will create a better check
list and timeline. I will also send a parent letter home for them
to sign and return, thus making sure I have parent support and help
in a timely manner. Next year I will get my room parents involved
in the dinner, hopefully we will get a recipe book then.
My students learned a lot
from this and it has led to great excitement and interest as we
study the periods in history when their family member came here.
Immigrant has become an often used vocabulary word in my room. As
we get to those times, my students are eagerly volunteering
information they found out. We have a bulletin board with their
papers out in the hall and students from other classes have been
expressing interest in doing a project like it. All in all, I
think this was a success.
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