WESTLAKE, Ohio – An estimated 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island, the nation’s busiest immigration station from 1892 to 1954, on their way to a new life in America. Today, many youngsters may not be familiar with the role in history that the landmark, which sits in New Jersey and a part of New York, played.
Students in Hun Piazza’s fourth-grade class at Holly Lane School in Westlake got a look at what it might have been like to be an immigrant at Ellis Island in the early 1900s during a simulation project on Feb. 1.
An “immigrant” talks to an inspector during an Ellis Island immigration simulation at Holy Lane School in Westlake. Photo provided by Westlake schools.
With help from some Honors American History students from Westlake High School, Holly Lane was turned into a miniature Ellis Island. Students adopted the identity of an Irish, Italian, Polish, Chinese, Russian or Syrian immigrant. They assumed the life of a specific ethnic family to learn about their life, family and the issues that prompted them to leave their native country.
The project focuses on the fourth-grade International Baccalaureate Planner: Where we are in Place and Time, which is an inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.
Project-based learning motivates students to gain knowledge and remember it longer, Piazza said.
“Projects give students the chance to apply the skills they learn in school to personally relevant and real-world situations,” she said. “Students also learn how to think critically, solve problems, work in teams and make presentations. These skills will help students succeed in the future, both in school and in today’s work world.”
Students went through a series of lessons to better help them understand what it was like to decide to leave one’s homeland, travel to the United States by ship, go through Ellis Island or Angel Island and settle in a new country. Students will compare and contrast immigration experiences over time.
During the simulations, the “immigrant families” experienced what the real immigrants did when they arrived at Ellis Island. They walked to different stations for medical and eye examinations and the interview process to earn admittance to the United States. Some “immigrants” were rejected and had to plead for admittance in front of an Immigration and Naturalization Service panel of judges.
Westlake High School students acted as immigration officers, inspectors and physicians. They tagged immigrants, evaluated the overall physical heath of each immigrant or acted as INS officials to hear final pleas and make decisions on admittance or denying passage.
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