Friday, November 15, 2013

More Time in the Library to Continue Researching our Family's Immigration History

PROJECT DUE on MONDAY (PD. 1) or TUESDAY (PD. 2)

TURNITIN.COM LOGIN INFORMATION:
Period 1: ID: 7280837 PASSWORD: history
Period 2: ID: 7282218 PASSWORD: history

Changes to the Project:
1. Do your best to find 3 primary sources and 1 secondary source online. If you are unable to find primary sources online, you may use your own primary sources such as photos, census records, art, etc. 

2. Though it does not need to be a "journal entry"-style type of writing (from someone's perspective) you still need to write at least 2 paragraphs describing 2 things:
1) a major historical event, movement, or issue that affected your IMMIGRANT GROUP (not necessarily your family)
2) an anecdotal experience or information from your family/your own immigration history (if possible).

For example, instead of me writing from my father's perspective ("I came to the U.S. in 1966"), I would write about what assimilation is, and how "my dad assimilated relatively easy to American culture because..."

If you're still wondering about what issue or event to focus on, start with the wikipedia page for "History of immigration to the United States" but then you need to find other secondary sources and primary sources. Go to the WHS library site that Ms. Garcia set up for our class for suggestions!

Like I said, I had some difficulty finding primary and secondary sources, but this is what I found:

Primary Sources: These are news articles appearing in a Queens, New York online news site. It documents the current struggle of larger concentrations of Nepalese immigrants. 
Workers Rights and Becoming Other than "Other" in the U.S. Census. I can use quotes or statistics or even pictures as primary sources.

Secondary Source: This is a scholarly article from the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies discussing how Nepalese people assimilate into American culture. (click here for link to full text)






Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Poster Project/Library Time

Today, we are in the library to help us learn more about America's immigration history.

Here are the poster project requirements. (CLICK HERE

Please read the requirements carefully. You will be building on the information you already have from your artifact, your family history survey, as well as the key vocab/concepts/migration theories you researched earlier. Take out your survey to review your family info PLUS the brief research you did on the mass immigration history (on the back of the sheet).

Again, the purpose is to know more about our family's immigration history, connect it to the larger landscape of immigration history in America/U.S., and then, continue to learn how to find, analyze, and utilize primary/secondary sources. (I will pass out a timeline of American immigration to help you identify potential issues to discuss.)

In the library, Ms. Garcia points us in the direction of lots of primary/secondary source resources. Here's a link to the library site she set up for us. (CLICK HERE)

A sample search query to start might be, for example, if you're of German ancestry: "German immigration" or "German immigration to U.S." or "German immigration to America". You're not necessarily looking for your exact family's immigration (that's what your survey is for), but for the mass immigration of your ethnic/cultural/national group, and the issues they faced as they arrived and lived in the new country.

You will be evaluating if these sources are legit, using a process with questions under the acronym "RAMBI".
Reliability: How reliable is this source? Do other sources say the same thing? Is this from an expert organization or individual? Can I trust it and why?

Accuracy: How accurate is this source, and how can I tell? Is this from an expert organization or individual? Were there multiple editors to this information who've verified it's truth?

Motive: What motive might the author have had when creating this source? What's the purpose of this source?

Bias: How is this author biased (in favor of or against another thing, person, or group? Who's perspective are we hearing? Who's perspective are we not hearing?

Immediacy: When was this written? Soon/long after the actual event? How might this affect the source's accuracy? For example, how reliable is a witness' memory 50 years later?

PERIOD 1+2 HW DUE on FRIDAY: PLEASE FINISH GATHERING YOUR SOURCES! You will need to submit RAMBI files (CLICK HERE) for 3 primary sources and a similar source evaluation file (CLICK HERE) for 1 secondary source to turnitin.com. You can even get started working on your journal entry or paragraphs! :O)

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Eleven Twelve Thirteen


Today, we will be practicing how to think historically, by examining ethnocentrism, analyzing primary sources, and building our international community.
Entry Tasks: 1) Take out your family history survey (TBS: to be stamped) and artifact. 2) Come up and mark a dot where your families emigrated from.
Primary Source Gallery Walk