HAUPPAUGE STUDENTS ARE IMMIGRANTS FOR A DAY

Hauppauge Middle School 8th grade students recently “became immigrants for a day” as they immersed themselves in the immigration process and took away thought-provoking details about the history of U.S. immigration during the school’s Immigration Day program.

As the middle school gymnasium was transformed into the “Great Hall of Ellis Island,” students learned about the reasons people immigrated to the United States. Prior to the Immigration Day event, the students created an immigrant profile for themselves in their Social Studies classes. The middle school students were divided into 22 groups – each of which was led by Hauppauge High School History Club members. The students brought their profile information with them as they journeyed to the school’s gymnasium. The students went to the medical, mental and legal stations to determine their qualification for entry into the United States. The students then visited other stations, where they learned about other aspects of immigration, including: “recent immigrants” (students and a teacher) who spoke about their experiences; the citizenship test; political cartoons on immigration; reader’s theatre; virtual tour of Ellis Island; virtual tour of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum; Steps to American Citizenship; political reasons for immigration (refugees and asylum); video clips; racism/segregation and immigration; ethnic foods; memoir station; and the Statue of Liberty. Theatre 3 also presented Voices from the Fire about the Holocaust, which demonstrated persecution as one reason for immigration.

Each student also wrote a short essay on the essential question of the day: How has immigration impacted the United States? Immigration Day concluded with a lively debate where groups of students were assigned to take a stand for or against immigration.