The Tenement Museum is actually in a preserved tenement on the Lower East Side of New York City, where many immigrants first settled in America during the latter half of the Industrial Revolution. This site provides virtual tours, information about the museum, educational resources, and some interesting activities - like the Immigration game. This game gives players a little view of the immigrant experience during the late 1800s-early 1900s. Players choose identities, cross the Atlantic Ocean, stop at Ellis Island, and finally come to their new tenement dwelling. In testing it, I performed several of the tasks before even realizing there were more explicit instructions - which is a good sign for English language learners who might have difficulties with the text. The activity to follow the game would be to write or draw a story in which the student pretends to be an immigrant to America from that era. They will need to consider factors such as having to pack only what could fit in one bag, the condition of the tenement, and the limited choice of jobs.
Tancil, J. (Producer). (2008). Immigration game.
http://www.tenement.org. Retrieved from
http://www.tenement.org/immigrate/
I like this website and the fact that it's very interactive. I might actually try to find a way to use this for my students. This website, in my opinion, will give your students another perspective on immigration - what is it like to be an immigrant?
ReplyDeleteThis interactive website is so appealing to me, much more to the students! It will definitely give the students the virtual experience of migrating to another place while learning about immigration history.
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