Three Classroom Resources to Engage Students this President’s Day

President’s Day will be celebrated on Monday, February 15^th. Usually when President’s Day is addressed in the classroom, it takes place in the primary grades with activities centered around some of the nation’s most revered presidents. But what if this year, observing this national holiday in the classroom was different? What if President’s Day was used as a springboard for engaging students in exploratory learning where they connect the study of our presidents and the power of the executive branch to the topic of immigration?

Here are three engaging resources, two of which are created using HSTRY, a digital learning platform, to help you plan an exciting lesson to teach about immigration. We encourage you to set-up a free teacher account on HSTRY in order to adapt the lessons and share with students.

1) American By Belief: A Family Story - Unless you are 100% Native American your family came to the United States from someplace else. People come for a variety of reasons — to work, reunite with family, get an education or sometimes in search of safety and freedom. This brief lesson is a perfect way to initiate a classroom discussion on why people migrate. You can also extend the activity with our Crossing Borders with Digital Storytelling lesson plan, as well as with the President Lincoln Cottage’s lesson plan for their American By Belief exhibit. The brochure of their educational programs includes a map to “Tell Your Immigration Story.” You can also email them for a free hard copy which makes for a larger classroom display.

An immigrant writes on note on the wall of the "American by Belief" exhibit at President Lincoln's Cottage explaining how she named her son after the President. Credit: http://lincolnscottage.tumblr.com/ 

Engage your students using this lesson we co-created with HSTRY. After you set-up a teacher account, click “copy the timeline,” then sort images and text (using a drag and drop function) into the six identified push/pull factors of immigration. Designed for primary learners (grades 3 and up), this lesson can easily be modified for older students. Students can copy the timeline and add more text and images to fill the categories. Debrief as a class and use the student handbook on HSTRY to properly cite online sources.

Click here to access the American By Belief: A Family Story lesson.

2) Lincoln and Immigrant Contributions to the Civil War – This lesson is almost guaranteed to deepen understanding of our nation’s 16^th president! In this lesson, students will evaluate the impact and reception of immigrants and their contributions to the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War and explore how immigrants view Lincoln.

Examining three essential questions about immigrant contributions in the Civil War, students sort the text and images to best answer the questions using the HSTRY platform. They add more resources through recommended sites such as the Library of Congress’s Civil War collection. This lesson is designed for high school students, who can then use sentence stems provided to write and discuss how immigrants contributed to the Union victory. Additionally, this lesson could not have been developed without the scholarship of Professor Jason Silverman, author of Lincoln and the Immigrant, and Patrick Young, Esq.

Click here to access the Lincoln and Immigrant Contributions to the Civil War lesson plan.

3) Two Timely Lessons to Teach about Executive Action: The President’s executive action on immigration has been greeted with joy, relief, sadness, and contempt. Just what is an executive action and how can students examine the multiple responses to it are the focus areas of our two popular lesson plans. It is a rich opportunity in the high school classroom to: extend critical discussions on the separation of powers, examine the effects of policy on individuals, and analyze the arguments made by both sides to help students become civically engaged and informed.

Click here to read our blog post about our lessons and access both of the lesson plans.

We seek to connect teachers and students with the most relevant, fact-based information to teach immigration critically and creatively–-at no cost. If you like our work, please share this email, tell a friend and give them this link http://bit.ly/1KdE5Zz to receive updates and free resources such as lesson plans, books reviews, and community grants. Follow us on twitter @ThnkImmigration #teachimmigration.

Welcoming Immigrant Students Into the Classroom

There are roughly 1.7 million undocumented students under age 30, who are enrolled in high school, have graduated or obtained a GED, or are currently enrolled in elementary or middle school according to the Pew Hispanic Research Center.  Additionally this past summer, our nation witnessed a spike in unaccompanied minors crossing our southern border with more than 50,000 children fleeing persecution from Central America and Mexico.  Most of them are awaiting immigration court dates and are staying with relatives or sponsors, but in the meantime, our laws require that they attend school.  In 1982, the Supreme Court determined in Plyer v. Doe that all students, regardless of their immigration status, are entitled to access K-12 education. 

As the number of immigrant students increases, and sometimes in areas not historically associated with large immigrant populations, teachers and administrators are often seeking assistance with not only how to enroll these students, but also how best to meet their needs in the classroom.  We’ve compiled a few best practices to create a welcoming classroom for immigrant students as well as some helpful Do’s and Don’ts for building relationships with them and their families.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Do send a message that all students, regardless of immigration status, have a right to attend your school and are welcomed.

Don’t use a lack of documentation (birth certificate, immigration status, social security number, etc.) to prevent an undocumented student from enrolling at a public school.  A May 2014 letter issued jointly by the US Department of Justice and the US Department of Education offers guidance for the ways schools can enroll students even if they lack certain documents.

Do ask for support from mental health professionals and community groups.

Some recently immigrated students have experienced trauma from violence witnessed in their home country.  Asking for a school counselor to check-in with all immigrant students is good idea to not only help students adjust to a different culture, but also to process any trauma, if encountered.  Some students may need the support of how to deal with difficult situations in non-violent ways if this is a practice they’ve acquired.

Do reach out to parents, guardians, and/or sponsors.

As teachers we hear this often, but calling home and saying a few positive words about a student can go a long way in establishing a good relationship with the student and his or her family.  If a language barrier is an issue, try asking a friend, teacher, or student to translate a letter or email home in the native language.  Even if it’s not entirely correct, the effort will be appreciated.

Don’t think that if you don’t hear back from anyone, it means they don’t care.

A parent, guardian, or sponsor may work long hours or they may be afraid to talk with you because of a language barrier, their own immigration status, etc. 

Do tell students about administrative relief.

Deferred action is a temporary relief from deportation.  The DACA (Deferred Action for Early Childhood Arrivals) program has been expanded and a new DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents Accountability) program has been created for parents who have a son or daughter who is a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.  While neither program is a path to citizenship, it allows families to remain together in the US temporarily and receive employment authorization.  Point students and their families to the Administrative Relief Resource Center to see if they qualify, learn steps to apply, contact an immigration lawyer, etc.

Do hold undocumented students to high expectations.

In some cases, you may have to scaffold materials depending on a student’s language proficiency, but the level of challenge should be equitable.  College is quite possible for them as more and more states have enacted their version of the DREAM act making higher education accessible for thousands of undocumented students.

Do check-in with your recently immigrated students.

Ask them how they feel about their school work, what they miss about their home country, what they like and don’t like about America, and what questions they have. Give them daily or weekly opportunities to write and/or talk about their immigration experience with you and fellow students.

HOW TO WELCOME IMMIGRANT STUDENTS INTO THE CLASSROOM

•  Decorate your classroom or school walls with photos of diverse role models including those of immigrants.  See our interactive lesson plans on Famous Immigrant Contributions, the Immigrant Experience “Jeopardy-Like” Game, and an Immigrant Timeline Scavenger Hunt for fun, engaging ways to learn about immigration.

 

•  Create mixed-student small groups.  Students may feel more comfortable sharing and building new friendships in smaller groups or partners as appropriate to your lesson.

 

• Identify shared values and differences in the classroom.  Plan for opportunities where students can voice their personal values and beliefs to create a sense of belonging.

 

• Make room for storytelling.  Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to create empathy.  Integrate immigration stories whether through literature you read as a class or by creating a family history and/or digital storytelling project where students can see we are a nation of immigrants.

 

• Create opportunities for positive civic engagement and discussion.  Teach about Plyer v. Doe if you have middle and high school students and teach students about their role as a citizen. Provide examples of civically engaged youth today with our lesson plans.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list of ideas to integrate immigrant students into the school community.  Please share: What are other ways to welcome immigrant students into the classroom and school?  (The first three people to respond with great ideas will receive a book prize!)

*This blog post is also posted on edutopia.org at Please also check our website at the American Immigration Council, communityeducationcenter.org for more resources and lesson plans.

Emancipation Proclamation Then and Now: How to Make It Matter to Students

First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln,
Francis Bicknell Carpenter, 1864

             On New Year’s Day, 1863, a crowd of 3,000 abolitionists including Frederick Douglass gathered in the evening at Tremont Temple in Boston—the oldest integrated church in the country— to hear for the first time in public, President Lincoln’s long awaited Emancipation Proclamation read out loud.  Similarly, this past November in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, thousands gathered in public spaces and in front of televisions across the nation to hear President Obama address the nation on his executive action on immigration accountability.  Both presidential actions held the seed to change the status for millions living in this country.  Both actions forced politically-fraught, humanitarian issues onto the congressional agenda. 

            As Bruce Ackerman, Yale professor of law and political science, outlines in his argument, the Emancipation Proclamation did not actually free slaves as is often interpreted; it merely stated that slaves were free because of “military necessity”—and free wherever they couldn’t be controlled.   In a LA Times op-ed, Ackerman writes that in the document, “Lincoln did not try to free any blacks in the four slave states that remained loyal to the Union. Nor did he even liberate slaves in the Southern areas under federal control. Instead, the proclamation only affected those areas that remained in active rebellion on New Year's Day 1863.”  Arguably, Lincoln went as far as he could without overstepping his presidential authority.  There was no unilateral emancipation for the slaves under this executive action, and even where it did apply under “military necessity”, it was “unclear whether Southern states could constitutionally reinstate slavery once the fighting came to an end.” 

            Just as Lincoln could not unilaterally free slaves, Obama cannot unilaterally alter the immigration status for 11.2 million undocumented immigrants.  But he can prioritize deportations, meaning in his words “felons not families,” in line with Lincoln who could prioritize a reprieve for slaves in certain areas of the country as a result of “military necessity.” 

Over a year later in April 1864, as a result of Lincoln’s executive action, the House of Representatives debated the 13th Amendment and voted against it.  This pushed the issue into the 1864 election where Lincoln Republicans stated they were in favor of the 13^th Amendment and won a sizeable victory.  This win convinced the Democrats to propose the 13^th Amendment to the states for ratification.

If history serves as a predictor, then our current Congress may be forced to put authoritative immigration reform on the agenda, if not to enact real reform now than perhaps in 2016. 

For educators, the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation is an opportunity to make real connections from America’s past to the present concerning executive power and the rights of those living in this country unrecognized.

Below are three ideas to ignite interest and apply common core understanding to reading and constructing an argument on Emancipation Proclamation and its current relevance with students:

• Do a close reading of the Emancipation Proclamation including an opportunity for students to tweet on: “How has the Emancipation Proclamation affected my life today?” by checking out the Lincoln Cottage’s lesson plan “#EPNow” (and don’t forget to tweet us too @immTeacher #teachimmigration).
•  Identify the structure of Bruce Ackerman’s op-ed argument penned in the LA Times by asking students to use comic book templates as illustrated in this TeachingChannel video
•  Use our “Just What is Executive Action Lesson Plan?  A Lesson from the Principal’s Desk” in order to make the concept of executive action real and applicable for students.

Additionally, you may want to listen to the podcast episode “Tyrannophia: The Uses and Abuses of Executive Power” by Backstory with the American History Guys produced by the Virginia Endowment for the Humanities.

If you are interested in learning more about our grants program which provides educators with financial resources and ideas for teaching about immigration, please sign up here for updates.

Teachable Moments: Executive Action and Immigration Myths

Invariably, if you have a conversation about executive action on immigration in your classroom, misconceptions and strong opinions will arise.  How can an educator create a safe space for open, respectful dialogue that engenders learning rather than relying on he said, she said?  What follows are ways for you and your students to separate reality from fear and myth-making.  If a student brings up one of these points, you can push for a deeper understanding simply by asking “how do you know?”  Often times that question alone allows the student a chance to reflect on where they heard it, who said it, and how.  Still, you might get an answer like “it’s what my dad or aunt said.”  Again, probe deeper in a non-argumentative tone like “oh, so do you know where they got that information from?”  If the source is unreliable or biased, you might respond with “That’s interesting.  Have you thought about what that information is based upon?” or “Hmm, does that sound like fact or opinion to you?"  Then, help students get the right information and encourage further research and discussion.  These often-touted myths and facts are a place to start. 

 

1.      MYTH: Executive action is not within the president’s lawful authority.

Ask students how they define the role of the president.  What can he or she do and what are his or her limitations?  Explain to students that it is a president’s duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” under Article II, Section 3, of the Constitution.  In this administrative action to grant temporary immigration relief, President Obama is not enacting law.  He is not changing the rules for granting permanent residency or citizenship; that action would require a change in law which is something only Congress can do.  It is also good to point out that every president since 1956 has used executive action to grant temporary immigration relief as published in a report by the Immigration Policy Center.  Our corresponding lesson plan on this report will also help students understand the large precedence for executive action on immigration.

2.      MYTH: Executive action is amnesty.

Ask students to define the term “amnesty.”  Encourage them to look up the word in a dictionary if they don’t know it.  In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, amnesty is defined as the “act of an authority (as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals.”  Essentially, it means forgiveness for a crime.  Amnesty has traditionally been used to build compromise after a war such as when President Lincoln granted amnesty to those who fought against the Union.  While undocumented immigrants have entered the US illegally, under Obama’s Immigration Accountability Executive Action, these individuals will have the opportunity to request temporary relief from deportation and work authorization for three years at a time if they come forward and register, submit biometric data, pass background checks, pay fees, and show that their child was born before the date of the announcement.”  After learning the definition of amnesty and reading the above referenced statement released from the White House, discuss with students whether or not this executive action pardons undocumented immigrants or if a penalty is being extracted from them.

3.      MYTH: Executive action is a lasting law that prevents congressional immigration reform.

Ask students what they think the difference would be between Congress enacting a law and a president issuing an executive action.  Students should be able to recognize that executive action is temporary, in this case, three years, while a law is permanent (although it can be overturned by the Supreme Court).  According to the Immigration Policy Center, “there is no action that the President can take that will trump the need and opportunity for lasting, permanent reforms to our broken immigration system.”  Executive action does not prevent congressional immigration reform, because in fact congressional action is still needed.  When Presidents Ronald Reagan and G. W. Bush implemented executive action for immigration relief protecting the spouses and children of unauthorized immigrants who qualified for legal status, beginning in 1986 with The Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA) under Reagan and in 1990 with the Family Fairness Act under Bush, Congress was spurred to take action and implement their work into lasting reform. 

4.      MYTH: Executive action is not needed because people who want to come can wait in line like everyone else.

Ask students if they know when their families arrived in the US.  Chances are many of your students’ families arrived before there were immigration requirements.  For about the first 100 years of our nation’s history, there were no rules on immigration (see our interactive timeline for reference) and it wasn’t until 1921 that Congress passed “The Emergency Quota Act” restricting the number of immigrants entering the US.  So the idea that everyone had to wait in line, especially our ancestors, isn’t exactly true. 

Furthermore, ask students if they are familiar with the rules about immigrating to the country now.  How does someone enter the country legally?  Most immigrants enter the US because a family member or employer sponsors them.  There are four ways to enter the country legally: 1) Family-based 2) Employment-based 3) Asylum and Refugee Status 4) Diversity Lottery (of which only 50,000 are given per year).   In short, the legal immigration process in the United States is complicated, lengthy, costly, and not available to most, especially those who are low-skilled and lack family connections (see this guide for a quick reference). 

5.      MYTH: If you came here illegally, you are probably a criminal or even a terrorist.

Ask students how they know this is true. Hearsay and anecdotal evidence are usually the culprits.  Numerous studies that the Immigration Policy Center has curated in its report show that crime rates in the United States fell as the size of the immigrant population (including the unauthorized) increased dramatically.  The crime rates didn’t just fall nationally, but also in cities with large immigrant populations.   Furthermore, immigrants are five times less likely to be in prison than the native-born, and when they are in prison, it is mostly like for immigration violations.  What Obama’s Immigration Accountability Executive Action will do is divert resources to border security and deporting immigrants who do not pass a background check rather than spend time and money in our courts and prisons on tracking down or keeping illegal immigrants in jails who are neither criminals nor terrorists. 

6.      MYTH: Executive action will encourage more “illegals” to come.

Ask students what they know about crossing the border.  Is it easy or dangerous?  Why would people risk their lives in order to come to the US?  According to U.S. Border Patrol data obtained by the National Foundation for American Policy, “immigrant deaths at the border rose by 27 percent in 2012.”  Additionally, “an immigrant attempting to cross illegally into the United States today is 8 times more likely to die in the attempt than about a decade ago.”  While Obama’s Immigration Accountability Executive Action strengthens border security, it is not likely to stop those who are willing to make a very dangerous journey in order to escape gangs, organized crime, and violence.   Ask students what would be some ways to curb the amount of immigrants approaching our border.  How would working with our countries help in this process?

7.      MYTH: While I feel badly, there’s not enough room for everyone to come.

Ask students where these illegal immigrants are coming from and how long ago did they arrive.  “Under the new policies announced, the Obama Administration will build on the successful Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program by providing temporary relief for the parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. The new program, to be called Deferred Action for Parents Accountability (DAPA), will ensure that millions of U.S. citizen and lawful permanent resident children will remain unified with their parent.”  DACA eligibility will be expanded to cover all undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before the age of 16, and not just those born after June 15, 1981.  Under DAPA, individuals need to have been in this country for five years among other requirements.  In either program, explain to students that these immigrants are already here and have been here for some time.

8.      MYTH: Executive action will allow immigrants to take jobs away from Americans.

Ask students what kinds of jobs they think immigrants are competing for with native-born workers.  Immigrants and native-born workers often fill in for different types of jobs that require a different set of skills, with typically higher-skilled English-speaking jobs going to native born workers.  According to the Immigration Policy Center, the idea that one job can be swapped for another simply is not true as no correlation has been found between immigration and unemployment.  Authorizing legal working permits for currently undocumented immigrants will have no effect on the employment of native born workers. 

Secondarily, ask students what they think will happen when undocumented immigrants are able to work for higher, legal wages.  In a report produced by Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, “the additional demand associated with the expanded economy would offset the additional supply of workers”; this is true even if these workers are highly skilled.  So in another words, more people working at higher, legal wages will increase the demand for all goods and services, thereby creating more jobs to produce these additional goods and services.  It is estimated in the same report that wages would increase by 0.3%.

9.      MYTH: Undocumented immigrants have never paid taxes, but they get benefits.

Ask students to explain how they pay taxes through sales tax.  Undocumented immigrants also pay sales tax every time they buy clothing, an appliance, gas, or food at a restaurant.  They also pay property tax, a main source of public school funding – even if they are renting, and in a report on US Immigration Myths and Facts, the US Chamber of Commerce states, “more than half of undocumented immigrants have federal and state income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes automatically deducted from their paychecks.”  While undocumented workers already contribute $15 billion per year to Social Security, providing a way for immigrants to have legal working permits would help bolster Social Security because more legal workers would mean more people would be contributing payroll taxes to its trust fund, according to an analysis from the Social Security administration.   All in all, according to the US Chamber, “undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars each year in taxes.”  Also key to point out to students is that while undocumented immigrants can receive schooling and emergency medical care, they are not eligible for food stamps, welfare, or health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

10.  MYTH: Executive action will not affect me because I don’t know any immigrants in my community.*

Ask students to think about why an undocumented immigrant would not tell you of his or her immigration status.  It is estimated that there are 11.4 million undocumented immigrants living in the US.  Of that number the Migration Policy Institute estimates that 3.7 million will be eligible for DAPA, the parents of children who are citizens or legal permanent residents and have been here for at least five years, and another 1.5 million will be eligible for the expanded DACA, which allows young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children to stay if they meet certain guidelines.  The other 6.2 million are not covered in this plan.  Chances are your students know both legal and illegal immigrants, but there are good reasons why both groups may remain silent.  Illegal immigrants do not want to risk deportation and some legal immigrants may fear not fitting into a mainstream idea of American culture.  Discuss with students ways you can welcome immigrants in your school and in your community.  You may even want to engage students in an immigrant interview project or a school-wide celebration of immigrant contributions to the US.  Please see our website at the American Immigration Council Community Education for ideas and lesson plans.

Lastly, our latest lesson plan "Just What Is Executive Action? A Lesson From the Principal's Desk" encourages students to collaboratively define executive action through inductive reasoning with a direct application to school. Designed to be relevant and rigorous, these lessons will produce lively, well-informed classroom discussions that lead to fuller understanding.

Thank you for the hard work you do daily with students! We welcome your feedback on how you use our lessons and materials as well as any concerns or questions you have.  Please add a comment or send an email to teacher@immcouncil.org