Exploring the Theme

Facing and Overcoming Challenges

Through the Topic of

Immigration

The unit topic of “Immigration” is a rich subject that naturally embraces the theme “Facing and Overcoming Challenges.” One of my primary goals for this unit is for students to be introduced to a wide variety of perspectives from a range of different people and time periods. It is my hope that students will be able to empathize with others and will gain an understanding of the challenges people face while emigrating from one place to another. Students will not only gain an appreciation for the challenges that people immigrating into another country undergo, but they will also work toward understanding the essence of what it means to face a challenge.

Learning Targets

Students will know what is meant by “overcoming challenges” and will be able to relate the theme to their lives as well as to literature provided in class.

Students will be able to identify characteristics that are typically present in a person who faces and overcomes challenges and will be able to identify these characteristics by using evidence in text.
Students will be able appreciate and understand what the experiences of moving from one country to another might be like for a variety of different cultures and time periods.
Students will participate in group discussions and will share ideas and/or questions that pertain to “facing and overcoming challenges.”
Students will learn how to use the strategies of inference and prediction while reading and will be able to summarize text in the verbal and written form.

Generalizations

In order to overcome a challenge, one needs to possess one or more of the following characteristics: perseverance, adaptability, confidence, courage, and ability to rely upon and use one’s strengths.
Immigrants face a wide variety of challenges during their voyage as well as after having settled in the new country.
Being able to face and overcome challenges is a valuable as well as necessary trait to possess in order to continue striving ahead in life.
Everyone has his or her own unique set of challenges.

Annotated Book List

Chapter Books:

Lord, B. (1986). In the year of the boar and Jackie Robinson. New York: Harper Trophy.

Shirley Temple Wong leaves her hometown in China to come to America with her family. Because she does not know English, Shirley struggles to make friends. The story takes you through her trials and tribulations as she adopts pieces of American culture into her own life, including the game of baseball.

Park, B. (2002). The graduation of Jake Moon. New York: Aladin Library

The graduation of Jake Moons tells a story of the frustrations and challenges that a young adolescent boy faces while watching his grandfather suffer from Alzheimer’s. He painfully watches his grandfather deteriorate and must face the many caveats of the disease.

Ryan, M. (2002). Esperanza rising. New York: Scholastic Inc.

When 13-year-old Esperanza’s father dies, her life drastically changes. She must abandon her comfortable life style in Mexico and move to America. When her mother becomes ill, Esperanza learns the importance valuing her closest friends and of being able to draw upon her inner resources to overcome the hardships of her life.

Picture Books:

Garland, S. (1997). The Lotus Seed. New York: Voyager Books.

The main character is the granddaughter of a woman from Vietnam who “saw the emperor cry” and from that day forward carried a lotus seed with her. The granddaughter describes the difficult times her grandmother goes through, and emphasizes that her grandmother kept the seed with her for strength.

Hest, A. (1997). When Jessie Came Across the Sea. Cambridge: Candlewick Press.

An adolescent Jewish girl reluctantly leaves behind her homeland and immigrates to New York. She desperately misses her grandmother and works for three years sewing lace until she can afford to bring her grandmother overseas to New York. As a result of her perseverance and willingness to face the challenge, Jessie is able to overcome the obstacles and eventually is able to reunite with her grandmother.

Levine, E. (1993). If your name was changed at Ellis Island. New York: Scholastic Inc.

This book is an accumulation of questions and answers that pertain to immigration, specifically to Ellis Island. It provides thorough, easy to read, historically accurate accounts of immigrating to America. It also especially provides relevant details describing the various challenges that people faced while immigrating to America.

Levine, E. (1989). I hate English! New York: Scholastic Inc.

This is a simple story that describes one young Chinese-American girl’s battle in learning the English language. Finally, the young girl builds a relationship with a patient and caring teacher who guides her and eventually makes her feel comfortable enough to speak English.

Say, A. (1999). Tea with Milk. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Young Japanese girl strives to be like her American friends even though she comes from a traditional Japanese family. Her family decides to move back to Japan where she then struggles to conform to the Japanese way of life. Eventually, she adapts and finds a job in Japan that provides her with an opportunity to use certain values and skills that she acquired in America. She demonstrates the personality trait, adaptability, that one must posses in order to overcome obstacles.