Illustration courtesy of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Teacher’s Guide IMMIGRANTS The Irish Experience in Boston 1840 and The Immigrants' Experience Today
CREDITS
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BACKGROUND "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out," Mending Wall by Robert Frost
Students have the opportunity to investigate the causes of emigration and the effects of the immigration on the people and society. Students use all levels of Bloom' Taxonomy in their thinking process skills and are free to use a wide variety of products to satisfy the goals of the unit. The subject of the unit is the Irish immigration into the city of Boston during the period 1840 - 1850 and present day immigration. In working through the unit, students "adopt" an immigrant family, make such decisions about living and working as that family might have made them and narrate their stories. In a large part, these decisions are based on actual data for the period 1840 - 1850 and present day data. For example, lists of immigrant families are taken from city records made as passengers disembarked in America. Information about food, clothing and housing costs, and jobs is also based on historical record. Click on the link below for SCHOOL DISTRICT U-46
Our advice is to check with your tech support department before you or your students download any programs from the internet. Some government web sites need Acrobat Reader to view or print
available forms at that web site in Portable Document Format (PDF). You
can download Acrobat Reader which reads PDF by clicking here. The index contains links to Excel spreadsheet worksheets representing:
Please remember to save the file where you wish by going to File and Save as The Excel sheets in the form of text documents can also be copied and pasted into an Excel sheets. Please follow these Windows 95 directions to do so (when a Mac person sends me the procedure, it will be included):
Multiple Stations Classroom: There are five learning sections. Typically students will work through the sections in groups of three. Dr. Ed Moyer of Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy suggests a cooperative grouping that you may use. His idea is that for each part of a section, there are three roles for each group:
Single Station Classroom:
OVERVIEW OF THE UNIT ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
You may want to have your students keep a journal or make a flow chart of the decisions made during the unit to help you understand their thought processes.
In part A, the students will use the Excel spreadsheet file Immgrnt.xls of the text document lists that you can download from the Index. They will choose the sheet "The Alexina" or "The Oregon". Both are manifests (or lists) of all passengers who boarded the ships The Alexina and The Oregon at a foreign port in 1840. They include each passenger's name, age, sex, and occupation; and a list of deaths that occurred during the voyage. Students will describe all the people on one or both of the ships considering the information on the section one page. Students may need practice using your spreadsheet program and functions such as sorting, average, mean, mode, if-then, etc. You may have to devise a spreadsheet file for them to practice with, or perhaps use the excel file which can be downloaded located at http://history.wisc.edu/archdeacon/famine/moktot.xls (this is the same information in "Analyzing Data" in student section 2). This file is from Thomas J. Archdeacon's University of Wisconsin web page on Irish Famine Studies, an excellent source of information. Bernard C. Hollister, formerly of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy Faculty (check out Lincoln as Demographer or The Case of the Wrongful Projections as as an example of his thoughts) suggested that instead of the teacher giving the students questions to answer, your students might be better served if they decided on the kinds of questions and mathematical analysis they need to describe the people on the ships. I think it is necessary that students somehow justify the importance of their analysis (i.e. how it contributes to an understanding of the people on the ships) or this activity becomes a race to see who can do the highest number of mathematical analysis without real meaning. Some of the types of questions they might pose are:
As an example of a student product for Section One, please see Sarah Ryan's Letter to Her Family. In part B they will choose one family with at least one child under the age of 12 and draw a family tree that describes the family selected in detail.
In the Part A , students will read a fictional story about a boy who emigrated from Ireland (Pat's Story Part 1) and use a variety of links to find out what the social, economic, religious, educational, political and cultural conditions of nineteenth century in Ireland. They will use the family they chose in section one and look into reasons why the family might have left Ireland. The teams will devise a product that describes the reasons why the family they selected decided to leave Ireland. Though many of the reference mention the plight of the Irish during the Great Potato Famine, please remind them that the year 1840 is in a period just before the famine. Please look at the rubric further down in the section called Evaluation Considerations and some of the criteria provided in this section. In Part B using the family that they've adopted, the students will devise a product or products that makes predictions about experiences their family expects to have in America, what they hope to find in America, what is pulling them to America, i.e. what is the "American dream" is for each family member. We realize that your students will do much creative thinking in this part. Their dreams may fit the dreams of the times ("The streets are lined with gold"). As an example of a student product for Section One, please see Ryan Family Dreams: A Journal. If you wish, you may add a"real life" scenario at this point. According to our research of the U.S. population in 1840, from United States Historical Census Data Browser, there were 47,313 children between the ages of 0-4 years. By the ages 15-19, there were 37,069. The national figures were 1,265,762 for 0-4 years and 753,034 for 15-19 years. Each age bracket in between showed a proportional decrease. We feel that this is due to the mortality rates of the time period. If you use the Massachusetts data, then about 1 out of 5 people under the age of 20 died. The national figures showed a higher proportion. One cleric in Boston at the time said that he felt that 3 out of 4 children in the slums died befor the age of 20, but these are not hard numbers. For the 20-29 years old age group, there does not appear to be a great decrease from the 15-19 year old numbers. There were about 38,143 average in the 20-24 and 25-29 year old groups. Some of the increase was probably due to immigration (refer to the median age of the people on the Alexina and Oregon). For 30-34 and 35-39 years the number averages is 26,142. The national numbers were 656,617 for 20-24 and 25-29 year old groups and 430,576 for 30-34 and 35-39 groups, reflecting the decrease. Therefore, you may randomly select (perhaps using colored marbles) for each family to see if individuals survived this period. Using the above data, for the 0-19 year old group, one out of five or 1:5 died. For the 20-29 age group, national data from 1850 indicated a 5% decrease or 1:20 died. For the 30 years and older group, about 1:3 died. In Part A , they will read Pat's Story Part 2 and use a variety of links to find out what the social, economic, religious, educational, political and cultural conditions of nineteenth century America. An effort has been made to include as many links to primary sources as can be found. In Part B, the students use the Excel file immigrnt.xls ( or the text version) from the index and will choose the sheet 1840 Housing. From these the students will choose a place to live for their family. Have them record their choice. In Part C, the students use the Excel file immigrnt.xls ( or the text version) from the index and will choose the sheet 1840 Jobs. From these the students will choose who will work and the kind of work they do. Have them record their choice. In Part D, the students use the Excel file immigrnt.xls ( or the text version) from the index and will choose the sheet 1840 Transportation. From these the students will get an idea of transportation costs. Since public transportation such as the trolley was just beginning, my understanding is that it actually cost more for transportation in 1840 than 1850. Because of the fact that some bridges were not built as yet, some locations were inaccessible from others. Have them record their transportation time and cost. In Part E, the students use the Excel file immigrnt.xls and will choose the sheet 1840 Market. From these the students will input the amount of food and dry goods and use the spreadsheet to calculate their weekly and yearly expenditures. This is the first time students can see the power of a spreadsheet to do calculations and to save time. The text version will not of course do calculations, so you may have to have the students make up their own spreadsheet with formulas to do this. Have each group print this sheet. Examine it for its reasonableness. In Part F the students calculate their family's financial condition. Have them use the Excel file immigrnt.xls and choose the sheet 1840 Finances. When the students do this, some of them may decide to make changes in their previous decisions. Such analysis, synthesis and evaluation are important thinking processes for them to go through. Have each group print and submit this sheet. In Part G the students devise a product or products that describes their family's experiences in America. They will describe what they found in America, and how the "American dream" that they wrote in Section Two for each family member changed? Please look at the rubric below and some of the criteria provided in your evaluation. As an example of a student product for Section Three, please see Survival of our American Dreams.
Your students will "adopt" a fictional family who wishes to emigrate to the U.S. in the present era. We suggest that you use the countries from which immigrants in your school's locale are from, because local groups can be a source of information. We also suggest that you make up an imaginary family for each group of students and have them randomly select based on a country of origin (or use whatever manner you decide.) The teams will begin by describing the family they just adopted. The teams will then look into reasons why the present day adopted family might have left their country of origin. We suggest that the students use Beaucoup's Media section with links to newspapers and magazines as well as other sources of information. Also students might use inquirePro, a meta-search engine designed for educational use from the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. You may wish to build a folder of search engines or sites for students to access data from. Of course the teams can also access information on conditions in other countries through sources such as found in a more traditional library, and by interviewing recent immigrants. E-mail discussions with students from other countries might also be used. Our suggestion is that ALL educationally related e-mail go through the teacher's account in order to protect the privacy of the students involved and also so that the teacher can monitor the communications for relevancy and appropriateness. Using the present day fictional family, the students will devise a product or products that makes predictions about experiences their family expects to have in America, what they hope to find in America, what is pulling them to America, i.e. what is the "American dream" is for each family member. In this section your students will make decisions for their present day adopted family to help them as they struggle to survive in the United States, to help them reach their dreams. In Part A, the students will choose a place to live for their family. Obtain information from whatever local sources they can. Have them record their choice and costs in a spreadsheet if possible. In Part B, the students will choose a jobs for their adopted family members. Have them record their choice and costs in a spreadsheet if possible. In Part C, have the students determine the amount of food and dry goods and use a spreadsheet to calculate their weekly and yearly expenditures. In Part D, the students will calculate transportation costs. Have them record their transportation time and cost in a spreadsheet if possible. In Part E, Using a spreadsheet program, calculate the other expenses your family will incur in a spreadsheet if possible. In Part F the students calculate their family's financial condition in a spreadsheet if possible. Have each group print and submit the sheets containing all their financial decisions. In Part G the students devise a product or products that describes their family's experiences in America. They will describe what they found in America, and how the "American dream" that they wrote in Section Four for each family member changed? Make sure they do some research into the climate and conditions awaiting immigrants in present day America. Please look at the rubric below and some of the criteria provided in your evaluation. As a summary activity, we found the panel to be a powerful instrument in helping students understand and empathize with the situations and struggles of recent immigrants. We invited students who immigrated into the United States recently and received permission from their parents to be on the panel. We suggest it would be best to have a mixture of adults and young adults on the panel. We provide a list of suggested panel discussion questions in the Index. Allow enough time, at least 90 minutes for the discussion. Questions will flow both ways.
Some of the points that students should consider in their research are:
More points that students should consider in their research are: and IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA, a WebQuest by Georgia Moretti Ellars http://www.plainfield.k12.in.us/hschool/webq/webq10/migrate.htm
EVALUATION OF : ______________________________________________________________________________________ PERIOD: ________________________________ Section __________ DATE: ________________________________ Part __________ EVALUATOR: Self Group Peer(s) Teacher NAMES: _____________________________________________________________________________________ UNACCEPTABLE (U); INCOMPLETE (I); GOOD (G); EXCELLENT (E) PREPARATION 10 points
A Cause of the Great Potato Famine found in the Index is a text document in which the concept of the energy pyramid is learned in light of the fact that in 1840 about 80% of tillable land in Ireland was devoted to animal husbandry and not crops. Plots of land allotted to the poor farmers were small for two reasons. The first was that it was a custom for a father to divide up his farm for his sons. The second was that the major estates were put under a manager, who rented out plots to people who further subdivided the plots and rented them out. The only crop that could feed a family at the time from such a small piece of land was potatoes. The problem with this was that the Irish were putting most of their food production into one genetic basket, so to speak. Since potatoes were the major crop, when a blight hit the effects were devastating. The concept of the impact of technology on society is reinforced by the industrial revolution in England and America at the time. The demand by the factories for wool was so great that it drove up the price of wool. Crop land was turned over to sheep raising. Also, the price of wool products from the factories put many "cottage industry" (i.e. those who spun wool at home and sold finished products) people out of business. It wasn't worth all the time they invested to sell their products for such a low amount because of the competition from machines and when the cost of the raw materials was so high. The industrial revolution hurt the Irish men and women in other ways. Planting potatoes was very labor intensive, and men and women used to hire themselves out to farmers to help with planting. Since so much land was turned over to raising sheep (which wasn't nearly labor intensive as potatoes), the labor market demand was reduced considerably. Many people had little or no outside source of income except from their plot of land. In America, by 1840 most of the Massachusetts and Connecticut land was already owned. The farmers who came had to move west, but moving west wasn't easy because of the lack of railroads and canals. But another alternative was provided by the industrial revolution which provided jobs in mills and factories in growing cities. Farmers, their wives and their children became laborers in huge numbers. Also, the Irish comprised most of the work crews building railroads and canals in the 1840's. With transportation improved, the west was opened to further waves of immigrants.
The purpose of the worksheet is to have your students consider the culture of Ireland so that they make decisions based upon how an Irish man or woman might make them. The language(s) spoken in Ireland were Gaelic & English. The agricultural product (both animal and plant) seen or mentioned most was sheep. The amount of the plots of farm land noticed that had agricultural plant products growing for human consumption, such as corn, wheat, etc. was very little or none. The size of the plots of farm land in the movie to the size of American farms as you know them were very small. Males of the family inherited the land and buildings, except if a woman were a widow with no sons. In the church scene, different genders sat on different sides of the church. The rules of conduct with respect to socialization between genders were different than the rules of conduct we have today, such as a chaperone accompanied dating, and a matchmaker was used. An unmarried female was called a spinster. A girl had to have the male head of the household's approval before she dated someone. When a woman married, the important financial matters that had to be considered was a dowry. A female did have some control over her own finances, but little over property. The "committee" that was mentioned in the movie was the IRA. The feelings were towards the British were not perfectly pleasant. An example was when Michael said that he was going to talk a little treason. The number of Protestants were much smaller than the number of Catholics in the parish. The Catholic Church was very important in the society. The people went to the priests with all sorts of concerns. The people listened to the priest, and having your name read at mass was a punishment. Teachers Guide last updated 3/10/02 |
