Concepts and Skills

Unit 1: The Chinese Exclusion Act.

Students will read and interpret statistical tables.

Students will relate statistical tables to historical events. They will make timelines showing the history of U.S. immigration policies. They will create infographs based on the statistics.

Reading charts and interpreting statistics.

Comparing experiences of different immigrant groups.

Creating infographs on a computer.

Unit 2: The Immigrant Experience of Chin Bark See.

Students will interpret and analyze primary source materials.

Students will read and discuss the immigration file of Chin Bark See.

They will write and perform dialogs modeled on his immigration interview. They will make a family tree based on information from the file.

Classifying information.

Writing and performing a dramatic presentation based on historical documents.

Making a family tree.

Unit 3: Between Two Cultures.

Students will extract salient information from sources.

Students will read the biographies of Lee Towe and Pang Kwai-fong and discuss how they were bridges between two cultures.

Students will study pictures of Chinatown that show cultural diffusion and create their own multimedia collages.

What is culture?

Making a multimedia collage.

Students' reports: heroes in their communities.

Cultural diffusion.

Unit 4: How the Other Half Lives

Students will synthesize information from diverse sources.

Students will read descriptions of Chinatown from different eras and discuss the writers' attitudes.

They will visit Chinatown or another immigrant neighborhood in New York City and write their own descriptions.

Ethnic stereotypes.

Figurative language. Fact vs. opinion. Observation. Writing description.

New York City neighborhoods.

Group presentations.