Before students can reason about the immigration problem, they need the raw material: the words, the facts, and the geography. These three activities are fast and front-loaded — the goal is acquisition, not yet analysis.
Introduce and let students sort the unit vocabulary. Sort twice: first by “words about leaving” vs. “words about arriving,” then by student-invented categories (feedback on their reasoning).
| Word | Kid-friendly meaning |
|---|---|
| immigrate | to come into a new country to live |
| emigrate | to leave out of your home country |
| push factor | a reason that pushes people to leave home (hunger, no work, danger) |
| pull factor | a reason that pulls people toward a new place (jobs, family, safety) |
| port of entry | the place where people officially arrive in a country |
| Ellis Island | the main port of entry in New York Harbor (1892–1954) |
| quota | a limit on how many people are allowed in |
| tenement | a crowded, cheap city apartment building |
| naturalization | the legal steps to become a citizen |
| stakeholder | anyone who is affected by a decision or has something at stake |
📚 Background: Library of Congress · Immigration classroom materials ↗ — photos and stories that put faces to the vocabulary.
Split the class into four expert groups, each studying one topic below, then re-mix into home groups where every topic is represented. Each expert teaches their group. (Jigsaw is one of the highest-leverage surface moves precisely because students must teach.)
Sources for each expert group (free, reputable; confirm access through your district — links open in a new tab):
Around 1900, poor harvests, few jobs, crowded land, and unfair treatment pushed millions to leave southern and eastern Europe, Mexico, and Asia.
📄 NPS · Push & Pull Factors ↗
📄 Library of Congress · Immigration 1851–1900 ↗
Factories were hiring, land and wages sounded plentiful, and letters from relatives already there promised opportunity — a strong pull.
📄 NPS · Push & Pull Factors ↗
📄 HISTORY · Ellis Island (opportunity & work) ↗
Most traveled in crowded steamships for a week or more, then were inspected at a port of entry like Ellis Island — a medical and legal check before entering.
📄 Library of Congress · Ellis Island ↗
🎬 NPS · Ellis Island video series ↗
Many settled in packed city neighborhoods and tenements, worked long factory hours, and built communities that kept their languages, foods, and customs.
📄 Library of Congress · Immigration classroom set ↗
🎬 HISTORY · Immigrants at Ellis Island (video) ↗
Check for understanding: each home group writes one sentence answering “Give one push factor and one pull factor for immigration in 1900.”
Using a world map, students trace a few common 1900s journeys: Italy → New York (Ellis Island), Ireland → New York, Mexico → Texas/El Paso, China → San Francisco (Angel Island). Label origin countries, the ocean or border crossed, and the port of entry. Introduce rural / urban as students notice most newcomers landed in and stayed near big cities.
Quick write: “Immigrants came from ______ and often entered at ______, then many settled in ______ (rural/urban) places because ______.”
🗺️ Maps & sources: LoC · Immigration 1851–1900 ↗ · National Archives · DocsTeach: Immigration ↗
Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.16; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX.