Our teacher resources are designed to support educators as they encourage students to become historians in the classroom. With the Save Ellis Island resources and lesson plans, students are able to develop critical thinking skills while engaging in inquiry and develop the historical thinking skills needed to interpret historical sources. Through the use of primary sources, oral histories, and historical photographs, these lessons can help to prepare the students for a visit to Ellis Island or support deeper conversation about immigration within the classroom.
Lesson Plans
MY JOURNEY TO AMERICA: A PERSONAL JOURNEY THROUGH IMMIGRATION
Grade Levels: Grade 5 to Grade 8
Through creating a scrapbook of a fictional immigrant’s experience, students will begin to understand how we can learn about the past through a variety of sources...
IMMIGRANTS IN THE WORKFORCE
Grade Levels: Grade 7 to Grade 12
Through the exploration of primary sources about the immigration inspection process and the industrial workforce, students will draw connections between the screening process at Ellis Island and the development of the modern workforce...
SIMULATION: THE PROCESS OF PASSING THROUGH ELLIS ISLAND
Grade Levels: Grade 8 to Grade 12
Through this simulation, the students get to experience the different roles that individuals had on Ellis Island, which led it to be the busiest immigration station in America...
READING A PHOTOGRAPH
Grade Levels: Grade 4 to Grade 7
Students will be able to develop the skills needed to read and analyze a photograph as well as other primary sources...
EFFECTS OF US PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY ON IMMIGRATION
Grade Levels: Grade 7 to Grade 12
By using inquiry-based methods, students will compare and contrast primary and secondary sources to understand and explain the impact of the Ellis Island medical inspection and hospitalization would have on the experiences of immigrants and their families...
THE IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH TO THE ADMISSION OF IMMIGRANTS
Grade Levels: Grade 2 to Grade 4
Students will be able to understand the medical process on Ellis Island and how the immigrants were treated when ill...
