Amongst our white community.
A Kingship of Immigrants (?)
The home of our high school and the majority of our students, Danville, CA, boasts a thriving population of immigrants. Although this may surprise some, given that white people make up 77 percent of the population,* my students uncovered real immigration stories within their own families and the larger Danville community.
As I challenge students to analyze our notions of race across time, white culture continually emerges as a multi-dimensional character: at once the protagonist and antagonist; the perpetrator and victim; the advocate and bystander; the Liberal and Conservative. And at this point our historical focus remains in the Americas alone, not in the world outside of North America, where racial ideologies continue to negatively affect billions of others. The issues of immigration mirror the issues of race with which our national community still struggles, evoking the prejudices of class and the "other" based on geographical location and language.
At any rate, once again I am proud of all finished products and am excited to share.
*According to the 2017 Danville Market Analysis, accessed on the official Danville website: https://www.danville.ca.gov
The Project
Entry Doc: Immigration
Evaluation: Deliverable 1; Deliverable 2; Deliverable 3; Deliverable 4
Overview: U.S. History juniors spent 6 weeks working on 4 Deliverables that focused around creating animated videos regarding immigration. The first video (Deliverable 1) was a team effort, but the second and third Deliverables were completely individual. Deliverable 4 required some type of community action for immigration education.
Scaffolding: Schedule. On the first day of the unit I presented the Entry Doc which includes the four Deliverables, their rubrics, exemplar models, and the Schedule for the 6- week unit.
Finished Products: 4 Deliverables (see above and Entry Doc).
Student Products: Deliverable 3
Deliverable 3 required that students (a) interview an immigrant, migrant, or refugee, (b) tell the person's story using (the student's) own created images and a voice over, (c) through an animated video. In many ways, Deliverable 3 is the crowning jewel of the unit, which is why I wanted to give students enough time to "ramp up" to it, with the first two Deliverables. Some struggled with the idea of animation (and wasting the ample time I gave them in class), but many soared above my expectations.
The quality of animation did NOT determine much of the final score except maybe 3 points (of 100). The immigration/ migration story and the telling of it remains the most important aspect of this project: those students who met my expectations of the interview and story easily scored an A, provided that they delivered on all other requirements besides animation. See Deliverable 3 for a better understanding of expectations.
For a comprehensive collection of outstanding D3 Videos, see Animated Immigrant Stories. You will see various techniques and approaches that stand out in some bright way. And it is outstanding examples that fuel my mission to get young people involved in their own learning; to inspire a sense of pride in what my students submit to me.
The three I share below shine especially bright, especially for the depth of their historical knowledge, either for the particular immigrant story or added historical details concerning laws and the immigration process. Yes, the animation for all three is at a premier level, too, but only accounts for a small percentage of their high scores (104/100).
The edge
Immigration, as a national topic, includes many aspects that inspire simple and passionate responses to complicated stories. With this unit I wanted to give young people a chance to delve into the complexities of the discourse involved in this discussion, instead of allowing them to repeat the underdeveloped phrases that our politicians promote. And to a degree, I feel that they've succeeded in digging into a deeper understanding. even those young males who insist that migrant parents (hopeful immigrants) who bring children to the U.S. border to apply for amnesty should reconsider their choices.
In this unit I also remind students that my wife is a Mexican immigrant and that my children have dual-citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico. Like my daughters, a lot of students find an immigrant story within their own ancestry... a connection that hopefully starts removing the negative association of the term "immigrant," which informed our national identity for a significant part of the twentieth century.
If we are to change anything for the better, we need to get more comfortable taking part in the uncomfortable conversations that circle our anger and frustration. I hope that engaging young people in the national conversation by connecting them to immigrants and migrants in their families and local community will foster empathy for displaced people. After all, when we associate distant ancestors, grandparents, parents, maids, au pairs, friends, and neighbors with immigration, the topic becomes less sinister and more familiar.
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