Ben Shahn, Bookshop: Hebrew Books, Holy Day Books
© Estate of Ben Shahn/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Preparation:
We discussed the three works of art we would see at the DIA: Quilting Time by Romare Bearden, The Piper by Hughie Lee Smith, and Bookshop: Hebrew Books, Holy Day Books by Ben Shahn. See Resources.
Then we visited the museum, where we focused on the Shahn painting and students filled out question sheets.
Worksheet: Ben Shahn painting questions
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After the visit, I went over these questions to enhance their understanding of Ben Shahn, and broaden the discussion to include the reasons immigrants had for coming to America in the first half of the 20th century, and what helped them function in their new surroundings.
Then, students researched the various periods of immigration to the U.S. in order to prepare for their roles on the Immigration talk show with these assignments which can be assessed with the Rubric for Immigration/Migration Assignments:
Letter explaining factors of Great Migration
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Students listed the 5 factors that influenced the Great Migration of blacks to the Industrial North and West during the World War I Era (better jobs, less racial violence, freedom to vote, better education, poor farm economy) in the form of a letter they created as though written by someone living in the South at this time.
Students created the following items dealing with the Great Migration: a map of the changing population levels of Black Americans in 8 major cities from 1910-1920; a chart of the percentage increase on the Black American population in 8 major cities from 1910-1920; and answered questions dealing with 5 important aspects of the Great Migration.
Students listed 5 reasons why immigrants chose to come to the United States from 1840-1930 (cheap land, jobs, political freedom, escape poverty and disease, social changes caused by industrialization and political change)
Students constructed a bar graph that displayed the amount of immigrants that came to America during each of the four waves of mass immigration.
Graph: Legal Immigrants since 1820
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Students created a line graph depicting the changing numbers of legal immigrants that have entered the United States from 1820 -1995.
Students labeled by color coding a political map of the world with the leading countries of origin for immigrants that came to the United States during the four waves of mass immigration from 1840 until today.
Resources:
The name of the 8th Grade Text that is used in my Social Studies class is: The American Nation-Beginnings Through 1877. Prentice Hall, 2000 ed. The pages in the textbook that correspond to the lesson topic are: 381, 502-503, and 570-572.
Annotated Bibliography
Immigration
Alfano, Louis S. The Immigration Experience.
http://members.tripod.com/~L_Alfano/immig.htm
This site contains information about the Castle Garden and Ellis Island immigration centers.
Ellis Island and Immigration, ca. 1880-1920. From the collections of the Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/070_immi.html
This site provides period photographs of the Ellis Island immigration facilities.
World Book Online Americas edition.
http://www.worldbookonline.com
A very good resource for information on each of the four waves of mass immigration to the United States.
Info Please.Com. Countries of Birth of the Foreign Born Population, 1850-2000
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0900547.html
An excellent chart listing the top 10 leading countries of origin for the foreign born. It lists every decade from 1850-2000.
Kapp, Fredrich.
The Ships List-Castle Garden Engravings - State
Emigrant Landing Depot, Castle Garden, New York, from Immigration Commissioners of Emigration. New York: Arno Press and New York Times, 1969 [originals ca. early 1880's].
http://www.theshipslist.com/pictures/castlegarden.html
This site was used for a drawing of Castle Garden that is used for a background piece in the lesson.
Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"Immigrant Max Gudis"
http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/aboutus/history/max/max.html
The article provides a transcript of an immigrant hearing which is enlarged and used as a background in the lesson.
Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2002. The Voyage to America.
A detailed account of a trip across the Atlantic Ocean by an immigrant who sailed in the poorest accommodations.
The American Immigration Home Page.
http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/Immigration/
An extremely information rich site for American Immigration. It contains 16 different topic areas for immigration for each of the four waves of mass immigration to the United States.
The Oxford Companion to United States History. Paul S Boyer, editor. Oxford University Press, NY. 2001.
A very good source of information for each of the four waves of mass immigration to the United States.
Great Migration
Africana-The Encyclopedia of the African and the African American Experience. Editors, Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr. Basic Civitas Books: New York, 1999.
A very good and concise account of the Great Migration. A perfect starting point for any research on this event.
Essence: exodus. (African American move from the south to the north).
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1264/8_30/58361077/print.jhtml
A concise and vivid account of the Great Migration.
Great Migration-Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2002.
A very good starting point for research on the Great Migration.
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