CECsst.254


TITLE:  How Many Days to America?

AUTHOR:  Lisa Crow, Harwood Jr. High School; Bedford TX

GRADE LEVEL:  8th grade;  U.S. History

OVERVIEW:  Activity for 8th grade U.S. history to compare
the experiences of recent immigrants to those of the first
colonists in North America.

OBJECTIVES:  This lesson helps make the history learned more
relevant to today's world and also makes students more
sensitive to the prejudice experienced by some immigrants to
the U.S. today.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS: "How Many Days to America?" or a
similar story.

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
     Read to the class the children's book How Many Days to
America?
     In class discussion, ask students to list all the ways
the characters in the story are different from the colonists
who settled Jamestown and Plymouth.
     Then make a list of all the things the characters have
in common with the early colonists.
     After the discussion, you can have the students do a
writing assignment or possibly plan some class project to
help "adopt" an immigrant family and help ease their
transition to life in the U.S.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
I used this lesson the last day of school before the
Thanksgiving holidays and had really good results in terms
of getting the students to think and respond to the story.