tlp_10_mnapoli_teacherside

=Mecky's Lesson Page Teacher Side=

Mecky's Teacher Lesson Page (Student Side)


 * Lesson Title:** “The Man Farthest Down”: Comparing the experiences of African-American migrants and European immigrants


 * Author: Mecky Napoli**


 * Unit Title: Immigrant's Contribution to American Life**


 * Grade Level(s):** grades 5 to 8


 * Age Levels(s): 12 to 14 year olds**

History and Social Studies
 * Subject Area:**


 * Essential Questions:**

In what ways were the experiences of African-American migrants and European immigrants to the cities of the United States 1890-1915 similar and different? Did their experiences as groups live up to the ideal of “equal protection” and opportunity for all?


 * Unit Goals: Be able to conscientize/sensitize students about the immigrants experiences in the build up of American society**
 * Be able to increase students knowledge of the immigrants experiences of the past and their impact in today's America.**


 * Objectives: How would American youth improve on the contributions made by those that had gone before us to make our society more tolerant and equitable?**


 * Curriculum Standards:**

History and Social Studies
 * 5.24** -- Describe the basic political principles of American democracy and explain how the Constitution & the Bill of Rights reflect and preserve these principles.
 * a. individual rights and responsibilities
 * b. equality
 * c. the rule of law
 * d. limited government
 * e. representative democracy


 * Materials/Resources:**

Archives.gov Constitution online Archives.gov Bill of Rights online Library of Congress on African-American Migration: "Heading North, Moving West." Schomberg Center's exhibit "In Motion: the African-American Migration Experience" "The Great Migration" PBS series "Destination America" for background on European Immigration to U.S Library of Congress on Italians (immigrating from Europe and living and working in the U.S.) and Poles/Russians (immigrating from Europe and living in the U.S.) The Booker T. Washington Papers: 1914-15 By Booker T. Washington, Louis R. Harlan, Raymond Smock (Google Books) [|"What has the immigrant contributed to American Life?" (1915)] p. 369-370 [//see images below//] Booker T. Washington //The Man Farthest Down: A record of observation and study in Europe//. See chapter 5 " Politics and Race", pages 77-78, 79-82, 84-85.[| Google Books version] [//selections below//]



Poster-making supplies (posterboard for each pair of students, pens, markers, glue or tape, scissors) and access to computer for printing images as needed.


 * Timeframe:**

4 class periods of 40 minutes each

-- Reading for context and main ideas -- Discussion skills -- Some understanding of the Gilded Age and Progressive eras -- Knowledge of how to make a poster
 * Student Foundational Skills:**


 * Learning Activities and Organizational Notes:**

Day 1-- Students investigate the concepts of "citizenship" and "rights" through examining the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment. Connect the concepts to the standard and to the popular beliefs that the United States is a democracy with equal opportunity for all. Explain briefly the changes brought by the American Civil Rights movement in terms of equal opportunities to all Americans.

Day 2--In three different groups, students discuss separate important topics that will eventully be merged into one whole group discussion topic that is relevant to the goals set out.

Day 3--All three diffent student groups come together to make their contributions and discuss as a whole class, before merging their sub-topics into one classroom Becoming American topic Building up the case of America as the land of Dreams and Opportunities for all.

Day 4-- Justifying the role of immigrants as the quitisential pre-eminence of America's rise to greatness and the herbingers of freedom and democracy in the world.

Extension: Not all African-Americans agreed with Washington. W.E.B. DuBois, a noted African-American leader and contemporary of Washington, disagreed with Washington on many issues. In fact, they are especially famous for disagreeing about how African-Americans in the United States should help themselves. Did they disagree about immigration? Look at this excerpt from DuBois: [|A Philip Randolph] and[| http://www.webdubois.org/wdb-phila.html] What does DuBois’ argue and why? Does he agree with Washington? What does this say about the question of equality of African-American migrants and European immigrants?

Extension: Discuss with students the changes in policy and attitudes toward African-Americans and immigrants that occurred in the 1920s. Harvard University and other colleges enacted discriminatory policies against African-Americans and Eastern European Jews during the 1920s that limited their enrollment and their access to on-campus facilities. This was after Washington’s speech, and it would have severely limited the possibility of the event that the lesson is built upon – the meeting of an African-American and European immigrant student following a speech at a University. What might this say about how ideas of citizenship change over time? Why did Harvard do this, and how did African-Americans and European immigrants respond?


 * Lesson Assessments:**

--Participation in class discussions --Performance on worksheet --Creation of poster

Assessment questions from http://becomingamerica.wikispaces.com/Assessment10_items
 * 2, 3, 5, 7 a & b, 9, 18, 37, 51, 52 and**


 * Which of the following early 20th century African-American leaders was associated with the ideal that African-Americans should "cast their bucket down where they area" and help themselves better their own position in society?**


 * A. W.E.B. DuBois**
 * B. William Monroe Trotter**
 * C. Martin Luther King Jr.**
 * D. Booker T. Washington**

Address historical standard; explains content of Preamble, Bill of Rights, and 14th and 15th Amendments; considers equality as concept. ||  ||
 * // STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO… // || // STRONG // || // GOOD // || // ADEQUATE // || // INADEQUATE // || // WEIGHTING // ||
 * Articulate the concepts of Constitutional protections, especially equality under the law || Address historical standard; explains content of Preamble, Bill of Rights, and 14th and 15th Amendments; considers equality as concept. || Does 2 of following: Address historical standard; explains content of Preamble, Bill of Rights, and 14th and 15th Amendments; considers equality as concept. || Does 1 of following: Address historical standard; explains content of Preamble, Bill of Rights, and 14th and 15th Amendments; considers equality as concept. || Does none of following:
 * Understand the key ideas of Booker T. Washington || Can fully explain what Washington argued, with acknowledgment of complexity. || Can fully explain what Washington argued. || Can list 1-2 items of Washington argued. || Cannot explain or list what Washington argued. ||  ||
 * Explain key aspects of the African-American migrant and European immigrant experience || Able produce list of over 5 items || Able to produce 3 -5 items || Produce small list of items (1-3) || Does not produce significant list. ||  ||
 * Work cooperatively to compare and contrast the experience of two historical groups: migrants and immigrants || Cooperates with both small groups || Cooperates with both small groups || Cooperates fully with only one small group; interacts but is off-task with the other. || Cooperates with neither small group. ||  ||


 * Teacher Notes:**

This topic will require sensitivity to the terms used in the discussion and how they convey values and how the terms change over time (or, why some words are used historically but not today). The comparison chart is divided in Geographic, Legal/Political, Economic, and Social categories. One way to have student work in groups is to have them divide into teams on these topics. Another way is to have groups choose one of the European ethnicities Washington and Park described in their book (Russian Jews, Poles, English, Czechs, etc.), research that group, and compare the experience of that ethnic group to the African-American experience. Booker T. Washington explicitly argues in “What has the immigrant contributed to American life?” that the conditions of blacks and European immigrants were similar because both groups had: --moved in increasing numbers --responded to the increasing demand for industrial labor --moved to the cities of the North (“urban setting”) --moved from agricultural areas (African-Americans from the rural South, European immigrants from the farms of Europe where they had been “peasants”) --experienced discrimination. In his book with, //The Man Farthest Down// Washington also had said that both groups --were similar in their political position (not well supported in their citizenship rights) --were different because African-Americans had the advantage of speaking the U.S.’s native tongue, but immigrants did not --were different because the home countries of the immigrants were far more ethnically mixed than the American South the migrants left. Additional similarities could be: --similar processes of im/migration --ghettoization in place of origin and in the U.S. Others would argue that the social/economic/political position of African-Americans in the U.S. were worse than the white immigrants because of racism, which was expressed in --prejudice (seen in cartoon, newspaper accounts, personal accounts) --living conditions --labor, being paid worse and being employed for more difficult jobs It is also possible to see another position where African-Americans were better off than European immigrants because citizenship for blacks had been guaranteed (14th and 15th Amendments) and that the naturalization process took a long time. Finally, there were conflicts within in each group about how to interpret their experience and how that experience compared to the other group. See information on African-American responses to immigration restriction, such as W.E.B. DuBois, for example. [|A Philip Randolph] [] Also, there is a difficult history of each group cooperating, competing, and responding to the other, in positive and negative ways. For members of the groups being discussed, these might be present issues, while for dominant group members it might not. So, this lesson tries to focus on the initial comparison, in a way that is age-appropriate and encouraged the student to engage in comparative and more complex historical thinking. There is much more that can be learned on the topic, however. Additional Background: Reviews of ,//The Man Farthest Down//

[|Article on BTW and The Man Farthest Down]

[|NY Times Review of The Man Farthest Down] --W.E.B. Du Bois “The Migration of Negroes” //the Crisis// [|http://books.google.com/books?id=ZloEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=w.e.b.+dubois+AND+immigration&source=bl&ots=Lmy8O6rQoN&sig=cxX0ZPknSCPYfwSacFDFU-cCtKc&hl=en&ei=CA46TYSuE8O78ga01KjOCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=w.e.b.%20dubois%20AND%20immigration&f=false] The history of the interactions between immigrants and African-Americans, and their treatment by others, is a complicated one. Here are some additional sources to provide background to help you contextualize the issues for yourself: --American Anthropological Association -- RACE [|"Immigration, Black Migration, and U.S. Colonialism"] --  "Immigrant Indigestion" A. Philip Randolph: Radical and Restrictionist [] Migration North to the Promised Lan d Betty Lapucia, lesson []

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