Submitted by Kathy Walcott

Language: Spanish Unit Cultural Theme or Academic Content Area: Social Studies Target Audience: Immersion Elementary Grade: 4 Proficiency Level: Intermediate High

Standards: Communication:    1.1, 1.2, 1.3 Cultures:    2.1 Connections:    3.1 Comparisons:    4.1, 4.2 Communities:    5.2

Unit Timeframe:

This project will take a total of 7 - 8 weeks:  1 week to introduce the topic of immigration, 3 weeks to complete interviews and write letters, 1 week to assimilate the data, and 2 weeks to prepare the final assessment.

Unit Overview:

In this unit students will learn about immigration into the United States by various people and cultures. The students will discover that people immigrate for a number of reasons and from many different places. The focus of the lessons in this unit will be on recent immigration and those who have emmigrated from Latin American countries. The lessons in this unit will be varied in type from research, read aloud, independent reading, student directed to teacher directed. The final project of this unit will be student selected and varied based on learning style.

Context:

It is assumed that students already maintain a number of language arts skills that they will be using in this unit. Skills such as letter writing, journal responses, note taking and writing in paragraphs are a few of the skills that are needed for some of the activities in the lessons.

This unit was written for a Dual Immersion classroom in the elementary setting. For a number of lessons, resources are given in both English and Spanish assuming that students are learning in both languages. If one language is desired, then choices will need to be made as to which resources fit the target population.

Links or files for unit content:     A new window will open for each lesson.

Lesson 1--What is Immigration?
Lesson 2--Why do people emigrate?
Lesson 3--Comparison of Urban and Rural Life in the U.S. and Dominican Republic
Unit Assessment