In this project, we looked back at the history of immigration to the United States, and then to the future by writing and presenting policy memos to various governing boards around San Diego.
History of ImmigrationTo better understand the history of immigration in the United States, we examined two texts. First we read the first chapter of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. It was important for us to start with the first peoples in the Americas as this is an often overlooked and silenced part of our history.
We then moved onto the first chapter of Harvest of Empire, another critical text that emphasizes the influence of Latinx immigrants in the Americas prior to and after the formation of the United States. In our reading responses to these texts, I emphasized multiple modes of expression. Students drew key concepts from An Indigenous People's History, they enacted scenes of the European arrival to the Americas, and we had gallery walks of posters of images of race in the early Americas. |
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Writing about Our HistoryAfter our study of immigration history, we transformed this knowledge into essays that explained what our opinions about immigration were, what evidence from history supported these opinions, and how this connected to our policy proposals we were presenting to various governing boards around San Diego.
I was open and vulnerable in my own essay I shared with the class, and I was impressed with the openness and vulnerability I received in turn. |