As part of coming to understand immigrant experiences and cultures, you will complete an immigrant experience project. You will interview a person who has immigrated to the United States. This person must have attended at least 3 years of K-12 school in the United States and speak a language other than English as his/her first language. You will record your interview with a video camera and create a documentary that reflects what you have learned in class.
This project will help you and your classmates to hear and analyze firsthand accounts of immigration and acculturation experiences from multiple perspectives. Being able to apply the theories and research that we learn about in this class will help you when you become a teacher. When working with culturally and/or linguistically diverse students (or any students, really), you need to apply your understanding of identity development and relations of power. These understandings will help you to understand student academic, language, and cognitive development as well as their classroom behavior. This understanding will support you in creating an inclusive classroom/school environment and lessons that help your students to make powerful connections to your content area curriculum.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CabVxi2X3jc[/youtube]