Bringing It Home
By Carol Macken

Classroom guests from around the world Mrs. Hosangady, a parent, from India.

Why did they leave home?" asked Taylor as I turned the page of a picture book about the Haitian immigration experience called How Many Days to America? by Eve Bunting (Clarion Books, 1990). My goal in reading the book was to teach questioning as a reading comprehension strategy. We looked back at the text and reread. The children inferred why the characters were leaving their home. A discussion ensued about how some people leave their home countries and go to other countries to live. We defined these people as immigrants.

A study in immigration. The idea of parents coming from other countries is not unusual for the first graders in our suburban town 20 miles west of New York City. Parents hail from places as diverse as Turkey, the Philippines, Mexico, Italy, Peru and Egypt. However, I found that the children of both immigrant and non-immigrant parents had only vague ideas about why their families had come to America. I applied for, and received, a grant from the American Immigration Law Foundation to design a unit to introduce primary grade children to immigrants and immigration. The study was entitled "Why Did They Leave Home?" and explored the multiple reasons people choose to immigrate to the United States and the challenges immigrants face. I hoped my young students would develop, through children's literature and personal interviews with immigrants, an appreciation of the rich contributions immigrants make to the fabric of our community.

Classroom guests from around the world are (from left to right) instructional aide Mrs. Martino, from Sweden; Mr. Vicchio, a parent, from Italy; student teacher Mrs. Hourra, from Iran. (Not pictured is parent and Italian immigrant Mr. Russillo.)

Expanding understanding. In a pre-assessment in late October, the children were asked to respond to the journal question: "Why do some people leave their homes in other countries to come to America?" My goal was to determine what the children knew about the factors that motivate immigrants to come to the United States. Their responses included such things as, "They want to learn a new language," "Some people are being mean to them" and "They want to learn about a new country." After reading their responses I was eager to begin expanding the students' understanding of immigration.

In November, we read aloud five picture books related to immigration: the previously mentioned How Many Days to America?, The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland (Harcourt, 1993), Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books, 1993), Oranges on Golden Mountain by Elizabeth Partridge (Dutton Juvenile, 2001) and The Color of Home by Mary Hoffman (Dial, 2002). The children recorded the characters and the setting of each book along with the reasons why the characters left home for America. During post-reading discussions I recorded responses on a class chart as well.

Conducting the interviews. I set up interviews with five immigrants from the school community – a student teacher, an instructional aide and three parents. The children generated a list of questions, including, "What country did you come from?", "Who did you come with?", "What is the best part about living in America?", "What do you miss about your native land?", "How old were you when you came?" and of course, "Why did you leave home?" The questions were recorded on a chart for the students to reflect upon and new questions were added as they arose.

The interviews with our immigrant guests took place over the course of three weeks beginning in December. During the visits, one child pointed to the words for each question while others took turns reading the interview questions. Photos were taken of the visitors and of artifacts from the native countries that the visitors brought with them.

The children discovered that two of the immigrants were from Italy; the others hailed from Sweden, Iran and India. Some had came to America when they were children, some as teens and others as adults. The instructional aide told of coming to America from Sweden at the same age as the first graders, and of the ease with which she learned English at school just by listening in class and playing with the other children. Another interviewee arrived from Italy as a teenager and told of a more difficult transition. He explained about how hard it was at that time in his life to leave his friends behind.

Old traditions in a new country. The children learned how the immigrants have retained traditions from their home countries by asking questions about what holidays they celebrate and what possessions they have from their native land. The second grade student teacher from Iran explained the history and traditions of Ramadan. She told the children about how she feels connected to her mother, who still lives in Iran, during the holy days when they both observe the same traditions. The mother of a first grader who hails from India brought in candleholders her family uses to celebrate Diwali, and she wore her sari for the presentation.

The immigrants' responses to the students' questions about their favorite place in America included New York City because of its multi-ethnic neighborhoods and the Statue of Liberty. The New Jersey shore, Florida and California were cited as well. "What is the best thing about America?" received the same answer from each guest: freedom.

A broader understanding. With information gleaned from the interviews along with the photographs, the children worked as a large group to plan and write text for a book about each visitor's immigration experience. These completed books were delivered by the children to the local library, where they were were placed on display for public reading.

After completion of the project the children were again asked the question, "Why do some people leave their homes in other countries to come to America?" The children now offered a wider array of reasons for immigrating that reflected their reading and interviews and in turn showed an understanding of immigration and the challenges immigrants face. They told about immigrants who come to America to escape wars, find new jobs, reunite with family members who had immigrated, live in a country with a better tax system and live in a democracy. They reflected upon the challenges immigrants faced learning a new language, finding homes and jobs and fitting into a new culture. They now understood why their immigrant families and neighbors had come to America.

Carol Macken is a first grade teacher, reading specialist and language arts curriculum project developer in the Caldwell/West Caldwell, NJ School District.