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 6 – 8
1916 Meet Victoria
Meet Victoria is a costumed interpretation program. Students will be transported back in time to 1916 to learn from and 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, tells stories based on her life experiences, and share how her family keeps their culture alive through food, language, holiday celebrations, and more. Students will learn about the push and pull factors bringing immigrants to the US at the time as well as cultural adaptation to a new home. Throughout the program, students engage with Victoria by asking her questions and making connections.
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
1970’s Wong Family
The Wong family story features a Chinese American family and their 1970’s tenement home. With the help of immigration scholars, students learn about push and pull factors of their immigration and its relation to the Chinese Exclusion Act and subsequent immigration laws. Through exploration of a recreated apartment and garment shop, students will explore how the Wongs made a home in the neighborhood and how their experiences reflect the growth of Chinese communities and the garment industry in New York. Video interviews and family and neighborhood photographs will allow students to examine how different generations of the family navigate language, schooling, media, and work, leading students to discuss how they themselves form their own senses of identity and belonging.
Themes: Complicating Stereotypes, Industrialization and Labor, Culture and Identity
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)
- 103 Orchard Online Exhibit featuring the Epsteins, Saez Velez, and Wong families
- Online Exhibit, Tenement Women: Agents of Change
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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