Complicating Stereotypes Students learn about history of untrue narratives about different groups of people, understand how immigrants and migrants build structures of support to combat stereotypes, and hear human stories that foster connection.
Theme: Complicating Stereotypes | Grades 3 – 5
1930s Baldizzi Family
The Baldizzi Family story features an Italian-American family and their 1935 tenement home. Students will learn about the push and pull factors and immigration regulations impacting their immigration journey to the United States. Through guided exploration of the recreated apartment, oral histories, and historic documents and photographs, students will consider how the family created a home in a time of crisis: the Great Depression. Students will learn about the places in the neighborhood, city, and government where the Baldizzi’s could turn for help. Students will make past to present connections to consider where people go for support today.
Themes: Complicating Stereotypes, Push and Pull Factors
Topics: European Immigration
Duration: 60 minutes
Connections to our Curriculum:
- Baldizzi Family Story
- Lesson Plan: Listen closely to Josephine’s oral history
- Lesson Plan: Teaching with Oral History – Upper Elementary
1916 Meet Victoria
Meet Victoria is a costumed interpretation program. Students will be transported back in time to 1916 to interact with an actor playing Victoria Confino, an actual 14-year-old girl who immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island in 1913. Victoria will show students her home and daily life, tell stories about her life experiences, and share how her family keeps their culture alive through food, language, holiday celebrations, and more. Students will explore the differences and similarities between life in and today while exploring how people cope when they move to a new place and are uncertain about the future—an experience as relevant today as it was in 1916. Throughout the program, students will engage with Victoria through questions and connection making.
Themes: Complicating Stereotypes, Culture and Identity
Topics: European Immigration
Duration: 60 minutes
Connections to our Curriculum:
- Confino Family Story
- Lesson Plan: Explore the Confino Family Ship Manifest from 1910
- Lesson Plan: Explore Victoria Confino’s 1914 Report Card
- Kastoria Postcard c. 1900
- Confino Family Photograph, 1913
1970’s Wong Family
The Wong family story features a Chinese American family and their 1970’s tenement home. Students learn about the push and pull factors of Chinese immigration and the long history of laws that restricted Asian immigration. Through exploration of a recreated apartment and garment shop, students will examine how the Wongs made a home in a growing Chinatown. Video interviews and family and neighborhood photographs will allow students to consider how different generations of the family navigate language, schooling, media, and work leading students to consider how they themselves form their own senses of identity and belonging.
Themes: Complicating Stereotypes, Culture and Identity, Industrialization and Labor, Push and Pull Factors
Topics: Asian Immigration
Duration: 60 minutes
Connections to our Curriculum:
- Wong Family Story
- Lesson Plan: Community Action – Footage of 1980’s Chinatown Garment Factory
- Lesson Plan: Respond to Kevin Wong’s Oral History about his name
- Lesson Plan: Define Immigration and Migration (ft. Epstein, Saez Velez, and Wong Family Photograph)
Teaching Resources
We offer teacher-designed, teacher-tested lesson plans where students learn to interpret objects, oral histories, and primary sources while making modern connections. Find unit plans, lesson plans, primary sources, and non-fiction family stories, made for flexible use in your classroom.
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