Activities:
Pre-Viewing
Discussion/Vocabulary building
Ask students to define in their own words: immigrant, refugee
Hand out copies of the
Glossary of immigration terms
. Do a quick review and discuss any
terms the students are not familiar with.
Discuss the following:
1. Why would someone choose to leave their country to come to the United States?
2. If you had to leave this country to go live someplace else, what would you miss the most?
3. What does being an American mean to you?
4. What do you think America represents to someone coming here from another part of the
world?
Ask the class for words that define "America." Encourage the students to think about all
aspects of life in this country, e.g., places, people, sports, politics, history, food, etc., and
provide single words (nouns, adjectives) that can be used to define America. Write these on
the board and keep the list for use in a later activity.
Viewing
NOTE: It is recommended that you view the film before showing it to students. Segment times correspond to VCR
timer by setting the timer to zero just as the film begins.
Have the students watch the first segment of the film:
00:00 09:26 (from the beginning through the section about Nhat, ending
with "...so we can talk to them.")
Students should use the following questions to focus their viewing:
· Can you tell which of the five students in the video are immigrants and which are refugees?
· What does each student miss about his or her native country?
· What does America seem to represent to each of the students?
Have a class discussion of these questions right after the students have viewed the film
segment.
Show the following segments:
a. 10:22 - 11:12 (Tureya with gym teacher, asking how long she's been in the U.S., and
ending with "...like being deaf.")
b. 37:55- 38:18 (Nhat doing homework, ending with "...not outside school.")
Have the students write about a time when they were new to a group, a school or a
community. Some general focus questions are:
· How did you feel?
· What obstacles were there to feeling comfortable and to making friends?
· What or who helped you eventually become part of the group or community?
1.
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