“Here I Am! See Me”: Immigrant Stories

“Here I am! See me.” 

These words from Adela, a recent immigrant to the United States, lay the foundation for a lesson in which students explore a variety of short, personal immigrant stories that provide compelling insights into contemporary “push” and “pull” factors, the diversity of migration experiences, and the challenges of navigating the U.S. federal immigration system. 

Students across the country are engaging with today’s national dialogue around immigration issues, and they are witnessing, and even experiencing, ICE raids and other enforcement activities of federal mass deportation policies. This lesson puts first-person accounts from recent immigrants to the United States such as Adela at the center of an engaging one-day activity at a time when it is as important as ever to ensure immigrants’ own stories are front and center in the classroom.

Objectives

In this lesson, students will: 

• Engage in active reading, analyze a primary source, and participate in small group and whole class discussions. 
• Closely examine one individual’s story of immigration to the United States.
• Work with partners to explore immigration themes within and between sources. 
• Reflect on shared and unique experiences of immigration to the United States and the value of first-person accounts. 

Resources

• Additional Information for Teachers: Teaching about Immigrant Experiences and Overview of Sources
• Slideshow: Immigrant Stories—Framing and Concluding Activity
• Handout: Graphic Organizer—First-Person Stories of Immigration
• Handout: Immigrant Stories

In the Classroom

Note on Teaching about Immigrant Experiences – Teaching about immigration requires intentionality and sensitivity. Remind students that conversations about immigration will raise issues related to power and identity, which can be emotional. As you discuss these issues with your class, remind students that it is important to be respectful of the experiences of others, to think before they speak, and to be prepared to support their statements with facts. We encourage teachers to carefully consider the dynamics of their classrooms as they prepare to use these materials. Please see Additional Information for Teachers: Teaching about Immigrant Experiences and Overview of Sources for recommendations on approaching these stories with your students as well as overviews of each source.

1. Frame the Lesson: Write or project the statement “Here I am! See me” on the board and tell students that these are words from a recent immigrant to the United States. Ask students to reflect on these words and what they might mean coming from an immigrant. Give them a few minutes to jot down ideas as they reflect. Then, ask students to share. Alternatively, or in addition, you may wish to use one or more of the short videos or quotes in the slideshow to help prompt students’ reflection.

2. Examine the Personal Story: Explain that each student will closely read one individual’s story of immigration to the United States. Distribute Graphic Organizer—First-Person Stories of Immigration to each student. Distribute one story from Immigrant Stories to each student as well, making sure each of the selected stories are distributed throughout the classroom. Instruct students to read their first-person story and fill out Part I of the Graphic Organizer. Make sure students read the short introduction above each source that provides important context for each individual’s story. You could also have students partner up and read the source and fill out the Graphic Organizer together.

3. Jigsaw: After completing Part I of the Graphic Organizer, have students teach and learn from one another about their respective individuals’ experiences of immigration. Create new groups of three students who each read different stories. You may wish to designate one student in each group as “Group Leader” to help facilitate the discussion. Ask each group member to share with the rest of the group their answers to the questions from Part I of the Graphic Organizer. Encourage students to identify both unique and shared experiences of immigration as they share. Then, students should work together in their new groups to complete Part II of the Graphic Organizer. Each group should choose one of the three final questions to answer, based on the relevant themes they identify across their three sources.

4. Final Discussion: Facilitate a class discussion in which students reflect on their learning about different experiences of immigration. What stood out most to students about their individual’s story? What did they find most interesting, important, or surprising? What did they learn about their individual’s “push” and “pull” factors, journey, and/or experiences in the United States?

Next, ask students what they learned from engaging with their classmates about other individuals’ stories of immigration. What shared experiences of immigration did they notice across the sources? What aspects were unique to particular individuals? What different factors might account for such diverse and unique experiences of immigration (such as race, social class, immigration status, language, sexuality, family situation, access to local support networks, etc.)? How were immigrant experiences affected by various governmental and nongovernmental institutions, policies, or individuals? How did people seek to maintain connections to their countries of origin while in the United States? How did immigrants seek to build community in the United States?

Finally, ask students to reflect on the words that began this lesson: “Here I am! See me.” Ask students, again, to reflect on these words and what they might mean coming from an immigrant. Why should we study immigrants’ personal stories? Why is it important to listen to immigrants about their experiences? What can we learn by listening to immigrants’ stories that we might not get from U.S.-born politicians, journalists, or officials? What might we overlook or misunderstand about immigration if we do not engage with immigrants’ own stories? 

5. Conclusion: Personal Reflection: Conclude the lesson by asking students to consider how engaging with these personal stories affects their own reflections on their experiences and understanding of the world. Assign students a journaling activity in which they respond to each of the following “Mirror, Window, and Sliding Glass Door” prompts. (See below for explanation. Those prompts are also included in the final slide of the slideshow.) Students should write in the first person and reference specific examples from the source(s).

• MIRROR: A mirror provides a reflection of ourselves and our experiences. What is one specific idea, theme, or aspect in the source(s) that provided a “mirror” to something about your own experience? This could be something you yourself have experienced, thought about, or witnessed/heard about.
• WINDOW: A window allows us to see the experiences of other people. What is one specific idea, piece of information, or experience in the source(s) that served as a “window” into something new to you? Or what is one thing that you read about that you have never previously considered about immigration and immigrants’ experiences?
• SLIDING GLASS DOOR: A sliding glass door allows us to enter and experience the world of other people. What is one example from the source(s) that helped you “open the door” and “step into the world” of another person to better understand their daily lived experiences (i.e., empathize with them)?

Extra Challenges

You may wish to consider alternative, extended ways for your students to engage with this source collection. For example: 

• You could assign students multiple stories to closely read before sharing with peers. 
• You could have students learn about the stories of different immigrants with a “walk & talk” activity instead of a jigsaw. Instruct students to walk about the classroom. Once students have spread out, tell students to partner up with the person nearest to them. As soon as everyone has a partner, direct students to introduce their individuals to their partner using their responses to Part I of the Graphic Organizer. Emphasize that students should not roleplay their individual, but rather describe their individual’s experiences in the third person. Repeat this activity for two or more rounds. You could then have students complete Part II of the handout with a partner or a small group. 

Supplementary Resources

Some of these sources were collected from the following books: Alien Nation: 36 True Tales of Immigration (2021), edited by Sofija Stefanovic; Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings (2022), edited by Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca; Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives (2008), compiled and edited by Peter Orner; Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America (2019), edited by Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman; Chasing the Harvest: Migrant Workers in California Agriculture (2017), edited by Gabriel Thompson; and The Immigrant Other: Lived Experiences in a Transnational World (2016), edited by Rich Furman, Greg Lamphear, and Douglas Epps. 

Special thanks to Sarah Christensen, Max Chervin Bridge, Renee Kuo, Sinclair Harris, and Jazz Carlson for their work developing and supporting the production of this lesson.