Mr. Paulson's Inquiry Based Learning Project

Jordan Mosser

James Paulson

Unit: Cultural look at immigration

    Persistent Issue: Immigration

    Central Question: What will the outcome of the Immigration policy be?

Lesson One: Grabber and Introduction

Have the students write down based on what they already know, what they think are some of the influences of immigration and how it can affect a country.  Only give them around 5-10 minutes to do so.

Begin by presenting the articles of the assaults in Munich on New Year’s Eve (Each student is given a copy of the article). Students are asked to look at what happened, and discuss with peers.  Discuss why this happened, and if it could have been prevented and any other initial thoughts.

• Instruct the students to write notes  or highlight key parts in both articles so that students have some ideas written down for the subsequent day.

Introduce the second article focusing on the positives of immigrants (Each student is given a copy of the article. Discuss what happened after so many immigrants entered the country, and the effects they had.  After reading both, compare the articles, and have the students break up into different small groups  in order to discuss.

• If the class is struggling to continue their discussion either give them some questions to think about like: why do you think that in (some country) … happened but in (another country) immigration had a different effect?

• Or you can end the discussion early and bring the class back together.

• Go around actively and make sure that the students are actively participating in the activity and if they aren’t ask them personally how they felt about the article?

Then after 15 minutes or so bring the class back together and discuss as a class about the two articles and then make some sort of Venn diagram and have the students come to the board and brainstorm some possible ideas about immigration in general. Have students be able to relate the information that we looked at in the articles, to the material we are looking at in class.

Culminating Activity: The debate

    At the end of class on the first day, divide students into two groups, one for immigration, and one against.  Have the students prepare for the debate by finding information both from the articles read in class, as well as articles found on their own.  At the beginning of the next class, give students their topic of immigration, and have the students present their information during class.  At the end of that class period, discuss what ideas were brought up, and how students feel about the materials we talked about.  If teacher feels that not all students had the ability to share their thoughts, they can continue the discussion the next class.  If the teacher also feels that the class is too big for two groups, the teacher can break the class into smaller groups with smaller discussion times.

Articles :

Document 1:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35250903

Description:

This article looks at the assaults that happened to several women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. By giving the students an article that shows recent acts of violence towards women due to the influx of immigrants, it gives the students an insight on the seriousness of the situation. By evaluating a sadder effect of immigration it makes the students think about what other consequences are possible because the increase in assaults would not be something that students would initially guess as a result of immigration.

Document 2:

http://www.globalissues.org/article/537/immigration

Description:

This article explores how immigration patterns have opposing effects in different countries in general. As you can see, it shows how immigration in the United States and the United Kingdom have been affected by influxes of immigrants. This article provides students with economic and societal possibility changes with an influx of immigrants by referring back to examples that have happened in countries before. By providing students with possible options it allows for students to make their own conclusion on how immigration can affect a country and allows for them to further research about the topic.

Graded Reflection:

After the discussion students are to write a brief summary about what side they personally choose based on what was discussed in the debate ( they are not required to choose the side that they were assigned to in the debate) and why. Students are expected to give examples of why they believe the possible outcomes of the the Immigration policy.

Graded Reflection should include:

• Name

• Their opinion about the debate

• At least three reasons for why

• Evidence and explanation for each reason

Rubric for Graded Discussion: