Standards: CCSS. ELA-Literacy.R.H.9-10.7
Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g. charts,
research data) with qualitative analysis in print or
digital text.
Objective: The students will be able to trace the various steps of an
immigrant on his pathway to citizenship during various
historical time periods. The students will be able to identify
broad chronological immigration patterns by examining primary source materials.
Evidence: IRAD naturalization records:
[*special note: all the materials are included and are loaded into Flicker and Lib Guides but
their citations are still in question and will be added]
Time Frame: This lesson should take one to two days.
Essential Question: What are some of the reasons that a person would move from one place to another?
Vocabulary: Push factors of immigration
Pull factors of immigration
Set Induction: The students will view photographs of people seeking citizenship. The photographs will
be from three distinct eras, the 1870s, the 1930s, and the 1980s. The students will
formulate written questions about the images and they will pose them to the class in an
initial class discussion.
1. 
2. 
3..
1. Jacob and Maria Magdalena Berschauer were among the immigrants from Kratzke, Russia, who sailed aboard the Frisia in 1876
2. German Jews, seeking to emigrate, wait in the office of the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden (Relief Organization of German Jews). On the wall is a map of South America and a sign about emigration to Palestine. Berlin, Germany, 1935
3. Until 1960, the U.S. Census Bureau did not record the number of immigrants from Guatemala, but it is known that from 1967 to 1980 close to 109,000 Guatemalans immigrated to the United States, due largely to political conflict and a devastating earthquake in 1976. The number has remained steadily around 40,000 in subsequent years. In 1992, Sam and Elida Mejia, featured in Sin País, left Guatemala during a civil war and illegally immigrated to California with their 1-year-old son, Gilbert.
[1] http://amhistory.si.edu/onthewater/exhibition/5_2.html
[2] http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005468
[3] http://www.pbs.org/pov/sinpais/photo_gallery_background.php#.U4dVNicvCIC
Download Lesson Plan
Historical Background
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
Group A
Group B
Group C
Closing
Assessments
Historical Background:
When individuals decide to become citizens of the United States, they undergo a multi-step process called naturalization. The Illinois Regional Archives Depository at the Regional History Center houses naturalization records for eighteen counties in Northern Illinois. The records are dated from as early as the 1840s to as late as the 1980s. These records show the changes not only in naturalization practices over time but they also show a change in the demographics of new citizen populations. Reviewing these records can help students to discover significant and measurable historical trends over time.
Activity 1:
The students will do background reading in order to understand some of the factors that drive migration. This site discusses economic, environmental and cultural factors that push or pull a person from one location to another. After their reading, the students will pair off with a partner and they will identify one push or pull factor that might conceivably motivate a migration. With their partners, the students will write them on the board and discuss their findings with the rest of the class in a brain storming session: http://lewishistoricalsociety.com/wiki2011/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=28
Activity 2:
A. All of the students will read the Digital History article, “Immigration Restriction” pp 1-4, regarding the enforcement of U.S. immigration law over the past 150 years. Found here:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3295
The students will also examine the following immigration timeline:
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/timeline.html
Activity 3:
The students will divide into three groups to examine and analyze primary and secondary source materials for three respective time periods, the 1870s, the 1930s, and the 1980s.
Part A: The students will read the following secondary sources for background information on
immigration for their respective time periods and they will complete a secondary source
worksheet to use for their final assignment:
Secondary Sources and secondary source worksheet:
http://moorewiley.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/2/8/13284226/secondary-source-analysis.pdf
Groups A:
1870s: Changes in immigration in the 19th century:
National Geographic map showing immigration trends in the late 19th century:
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/photo/immigration-1870-1900/?ar_a=1
PBS Documentary information:
http://www.pbs.org/destinationamerica/usim_wn.html
Group B:
1930s: Changes in immigration laws in the early 20th century:
Ellis Island Photograph Gallery of Immigrants from the early 20th century:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?col_id=165
Overview of changes in immigration issues in the US between 1870 and 1930.
http://www.albany.edu/history/HIS530/Immigrationsincethe1870s/immigration.html
Group C:
1980s: Changes in immigration in the later half of the 20th century:
An overview of immigration in America since 1965:
http://www.tahg.org/module_display.php?mod_id=156&review=yes
An article on immigration from Asia in the 1980s:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexnowrasteh/2012/07/09/the-rise-of-asian-immigration/
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Part B: The students will examine three sets of primary source materials from the Illinois Regional
Archives Depository.
Primary Source Analysis Worksheet:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets
/written_document_analysis_worksheet.pdf
Primary Sources:
Group A: 1870s Naturalization papers of Felix Laumiller,
Ludwick Ruthhart, Martin Scheick, Ola Elfson, Peder G. Christenson.
Group B: 1930s Naturalization papers of Anna Wachtler, Bernard Tegtmeier,
Frances Ebitsch, Jan Van der Pal, and Willam Woolf.
Group C: 1980s Naturalization papers of Abraham Scaria Narikkatta, Gidardo Reyes,
Jose Luis Hernandez, . Manoj Khandheria, and Victoria Rantisi.
Assignment: Within their groups, the students will pair off. Each pair will choose one individual from the
naturalization records to focus upon. The pair will then compose an imaginary interview
based upon their primary source materials. The students will take special care to draw from
their secondary source materials on migration pushes and pulls in their individuals time frame
as well. The students will compose at least six thoughtful questions for their interviewee to
answer. They will also compose their subject’s respective answers and have them ready to
present to the class.
Closing:
The students will conduct their interviews in front of the rest of the class and conclude them with a question and answer session.
Assessment:
Informal and formative: Class discussion, primary and secondary source analysis worksheets.
Formal and summative: Partner interview
