Eagle+Song+Reinforcing+Activity

Materials: Copy of //Eagle Song//, classroom set of laptops, poster board, and markers

Objectives: - Students will be able to create posters about their family's heritage. - Student will be able to compare and contrast their heritage with that of their classmates.

The homework assignment due for the day of the reading of //Eagle’s Song// is to find out about their heritage. They are supposed to ask their parents how their family came to America and bring in any artifacts they have at home relating to their family's past. The other thing they are to do is find out what their heritage is. Are they Italian, German, Hispanic, French, etc.? They are instructed to take notes on this and bring it in for the day we read //Eagle’s Song//.

Once we have completed reading //Eagle’s Song//, I will put them to get into small groups of four. I will have them discuss these questions.

1. How did Danny’s heritage isolate him from the rest of his class? What are some examples from the book? 2. How do you think your relatives felt coming to America? Do you think they were scared, excited, hopeful? 3. How would you have felt coming into a new country at Danny’s age? 4. Why were your relatives coming to America? 5. Discuss some of the stories your family told you about your heritage.

I will have the students write down some of their main ideas to share with the class as they are discussing. We will share these thoughts and ideas at the end of class and create a concept map to display all of the big ideas.

The next day I will have a set of laptops for the classroom. I will have each student research one of his or her ethnic groups. They will research their ethnicities and find out facts and information such as what areas they settled in, what types of jobs they did, what types of foods they ate, what was significant about that particular ethnic group. Once they have completed their research, I will pass out cardstock poster board. The students can draw pictures, share facts, or a personal story on their poster.

For the next couple days in class, we will take time to share stories and information. This will open up the students’ eyes to how the United States was formed and how Europe influenced the way the United States is shaped today. This will be a lesson that opens up my students’ eyes to immigration in the United States.

I will hang up the posters around the room to show how even though we all come from different backgrounds, we are all similar. Most of our families came to the United States looking for opportunity, land, and hope.