This is Problem-Based Learning. Students don't answer questions about immigration — they step inside the problem as stakeholders, and the teacher guides rather than tells. The whole phase runs the problem-solving process named in §113.16(c)(26)(B).
Read the narrative aloud. Read it once for the story, then again for details students will need.
First reaction (not answers yet): what did you notice? What do you wonder? Keep it open — the point is to pull students into the problem.
🗽 The “lady with the torch”: read Emma Lazarus's poem on the Statue of Liberty — NPS · “The New Colossus” ↗ (§113.16(c)(16)(D)).
Assign or let students choose a stakeholder. Each will reason from that person's point of view. Every role has something real at stake.
You must get through inspection and start earning to bring your family. What do you need, and whom can you trust?
Your job is to follow the rules fairly. How do you decide who may enter — and treat people with dignity?
You know the city, the jobs, and the dangers. How much do you risk to help family?
You need workers. What do you offer newcomers — and is it fair?
You help new arrivals with English, housing, and rights. What do families need most?
You wait with two children. What must happen for you to join Benedetto safely?
Build three shared columns on chart paper. This defines the problem and plans the inquiry — the first moves of §113.16(c)(26)(B).
| 💭 Hunches | ✅ Know (from the text) | ❓ Need to know |
|---|---|---|
| Our guesses about what is happening and what might help. | Facts we can point to in the story (it's 1914; he came by ship; some have papers, some don't; family is waiting). | Questions we must answer to help — What were the rules in 1914? What happened to people “without papers”? How could he bring his family? What work could he find? |
Turn “Need to know” into the H of KWHL: How will we find out? (which sources, whom to ask). Record it — this is the class's research plan.
Groups pursue their “Need to know” questions using vetted sources (see the facilitator guide for suggested public-domain sources). Students gather and use valid information, applying the source routine they practiced in Phase 2. Keep filling the Learned column of KWHL as answers come in.
Teacher-as-guide moves: answer a question with a question; point to a source, not the answer; ask “How do you know?” and “Whose view is missing?”
📚 Investigation sources: DocsTeach · Immigration ↗ · LoC · Immigration ↗ · Passenger & ship records ↗ · NPS · Ellis Island videos ↗. Full list + how-to in the facilitator guide.
From their stakeholder's point of view, each group develops a recommendation for how the Baldoni family should build a new life — and defends it with evidence. Assessment happens throughout the process, not only here (the reasoning is the point).
Groups present an 8-part problem/solution brief (poster, slides, or spoken):
Close the loop — the evaluate step of the problem-solving process. Discuss across roles so students hear how the same problem looked from every side.
Connect to today & to the standards: people still weigh push and pull factors and constraints when making big life decisions. Name the six steps students just used — that is §113.16(c)(26)(B).
Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.16; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX. The Baldoni narrative is a teaching fiction based on the early-1900s immigration experience.