An Immigrant's Journey

Students from Daniel Wright Junior High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois engage in an authentic learning experience of an immigrant coming to the United States in 1907. The use of auditory, visual, and musical components helps to include and engage more students. Auditory and visual learners can interact in ways that were not previously available.

Students use books, resource CDs, and the Internet to research and collect images of the experiences of immigrants in 1907. Students are divided into groups of four to write journal entries for a fictional, yet historically accurate, immigrant to the U.S. in 1907. Each group is assigned to write about a different part of the immigrant’s journey: the decision to immigrate, the voyage, Ellis Island, and the search for housing and a job in the U.S. Each student writes one journal entry for the fictional person.

Students read and assess each other’s entries, and then, as a group, they edit and modify the journal entries until they sound as authentic as possible. Each group uses the journal entries to write the narration for the iMovie project. One person in each group is selected to be the fictional person to narrate the immigrant’s journey. The group reviews the images they have gathered to determine the ones that are most appropriate for their presentation. They import the images as JPEG files into iPhoto.

Next, students edit the project in iMovie, bringing in the narration and incorporating the images. They can also add music to enhance the mood of the project. Students can export the completed movies to QuickTime and burn them on a CD, export them to videotape, or use iDVD software and a SuperDrive to include them on a DVD. The projects are presented to the class and shared with other classes that are studying immigration.

After completing this project, students will be able to:

• Effectively document and share an immigrant’s experience.
• See how the use of technology can create a personalized document of a historical experience.
• Reflect on what they have learned and share their experience with others.

After completing this project, students will be able to:

• Use iMovie, iTunes, and iPhoto to produce an iMovie project.
• Use the Internet to search for appropriate and reliable information.
• Record their narration using iMovie.

• Written journal entries can be assessed using a teacher-created rubric.
• The technical assessment can include creativity, sound and image quality, and overall impact of the project.

Internet

• A web page with links to immigration Internet sites can be created.

Tools

Macintosh computers (computer with a SuperDrive or CD burner is optional), scanner (optional), Internet connection, iMovie, iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD (optional), AppleWorks