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Destination America: Our Hope, Our Future: A 6-8, Social Studies Project
Students travel back in time to the late nineteenth-and early twentieth-centuries as they experience life through the eyes of a European immigrant who first steps foot on United States soil. You may want to print this page as you view the entire Destination America Unit Plan.

Student-Centered
This project is made relevant to students’ lives by asking the Essential Question: Why do people move from one country to another?  Students create a profile of an immigrant for themselves and participate in a simulation of historical events. Students make several choices and complete many authentic tasks, including a portfolio of their experiences and a personal letter home to their family in another country.

Alignment with Standards
Project work is central to the curriculum. Immigration is often part of the sixth through eighth-grade Social Studies curriculum and addresses state and district standards. It involves key historical concepts of immigration, social patterns, and diversity.

Important Questions
The Essential Question, Why do people move from one country to another?, prompts interesting discussions that have relevance beyond the classroom. Content Questions such as, Why did immigrants leave their home countries to come to the United States?, prompt students to think about relevant facts and information that lead to the higher-level questions. Students revisit the Essential Question throughout the unit, and have many opportunities to discuss the question and reflect individually, in pairs, and with the larger group. This not only gives the students opportunities to think about the content at higher levels but gives the teacher information on the students’ understanding. 

Multiple and Ongoing Assessments
Project expectations are reviewed throughout the unit beginning with discussion of a rubric at the beginning to the assessment of final work at the end.  Discussions, homework assignments, and journal writings are opportunities to check for understanding and to keep informed about the progress of students. 

Demonstrations of Learning
Students demonstrate what they learned from the research and their simulated Ellis Island experience through their portfolio. Their multimedia presentations show an understanding of immigration at that time, specifically the influences and effects of immigration from a very personal, distinguished viewpoint.

Authentic Work 
The students make real-world connections through the Essential Question, which asks them to reflect upon their own family origins and the experiences of their ancestors. Students create profiles for themselves and are placed in a simulated event that recreates history. These tasks provide the students with an authentic experience and a personal connection to the content.


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