By Ms. Gersh

Christopher Columbus High School

Throughout the semester, you have been reading the novel, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan. The story is about four mothers from China who came to America searching for a better life. While the mothers are trying to hold onto their Chinese heritage, each of their daughters become more “Americanized”, becoming unfamiliar of their Chinese culture. This story focuses on immigrants assimilating to a new culture, and the differences both mothers and daughters have in adapting to their new country.

The U.S. government is interested in creating a new department for immigration services, called Immigration and Assimilation. This new department would focus on how immigrants from different parts of the world assimilate into their new homeland, America. This new department will help the government learn about the struggles faced by immigrants assimilating, along with understanding ways to make the assimilation process easier for one to adjust to.

Congratulations! You have been chosen to be an immigration agent for this new department. As an agent, you will participate in researching the history of immigrant assimilation. You will first research people immigrating to America from different countries and the different periods they have come to America. You will observe pressures posed to different groups coming to America in the past. Through your research, you will also focus on how the assimilation process, both past and present, affects the family. Solutions will also be considered in how to make the assimilation process easier for immigrants coming to America.

Your research team will be producing a report that can result in immigrants having an easier time adjusting to their new life in America. Using the TIPS Public Policy Analyst, you will be able to develop convincing arguments for the use of specific policies.

You will complete the following as an immigration agent:

1. You will work in groups of four to complete all tasks and worksheets.

2. You will hand out survey questionnaires on assimilation to 5 different people (per agent) and gather the information from the completed surveys.

3. You will create a graph from information gathered from survey.

4. Group Project: You will research and write a 2 page report about findings on different immigrant assimilation experiences , both past and present. You will include problems they faced, survey findings and solutions to assimilation problems in your report.

5. Each group will make an oral presentation of report and survey findings.

6. Individual Project: Each member will reflect on their own assimilation experiences when first coming to America. You will reflect on your experiences by choosing one of the following:

· writing a song

· writing a poem

· writing a short essay

· drawing a picture

Use the 6-step Public Policy format. In your groups, complete the handouts to collect information for each step.

1. What is the problem?

Define the social problem-Worksheet #1

2. Where is the evidence?

Gather evidence - Worksheet #2

3. What are the causes?

Identify causes- Worksheet #3

4. What is the existing policy?

Evaluate a policy – Worksheet #4

5.What policies can you create to correct the problem?

Develop solutions – Worksheet #5

6.What is the best policy to correct the problem?

Select best solution – Worksheet #6

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/newamericans/index.html

Immigrants from different parts of the world share stories of coming to America

http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/Immigration/index.html

History of American Immigration

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200202/04_williamsb_africans/assimilation.shtml

Problems of assimilation- One man’s story

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/irish3.html

Adaptation and Assimilation of Irish immigrants

http://www.worldandi.com/newhome/public/2002/december/clpub.asp

Problems among Hmong people in America- Assimilation and Family

http://www.needham.mec.edu/high_school/cur/kane98/kane_p6_immig/chinese/ClCl.htm

History of Chinese immigration in America

Your work will be graded according to the following rubric:

	4	3	2	1
REPORT (Written and Oral)	Accurate information. Shows an excellent grasp of the issue. Successfully presents multiple strategies and/or resources available.	Accurate, specific information. Shows a strong grasp of the issue. Discusses more than one successful strategy and/or useful resources	General Information Uses one specific strategy and/or resource. Has limited understanding of issue.	Inaccurate information
	No errors of grammar/punctuation.	Few minor errors of grammar/punctuation.	Has errors of grammar/punctuation that do not affect comprehension	Serious errors that affect comprehension.
FORMAT	PPA Format followed exactly	PPA Format followed generally	PPA Format is followed inconsistently	Little evidence of PPA Format
GRAPH	Information clearly used from surveys Successfully created a chart from survey information gathered	Some information used from surveys Some directions followed to complete chart	Little information used from survey Directions not followed to complete chart	Little evidence of survey information gathered

Social Studies Standards

1. Examine how the Constitution, United States law, and the rights of citizenship provide a major unifying factor in bringing together Americans from diverse roots and traditions

2. Compare and contrast the experiences of different groups in the United States

English Language Arts

STANDARD 4

1. Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

2. Students will use oral and written language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.