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8th Graders Explore Plight of Early Immigrants

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In American History the 8^th graders have been studying the struggle of early 20th century immigrants and how they affected the United States at the turn of the last century. One lesson involved students collaborating in small groups to answer the following questions: What is the problem?, What are the effects?, What are the causes?, and What is the solution to the problem? Within their groups, they presented their research through skits they developed. Each group did a great job of expressing the problems and solutions in the skits. The whole class (through all the skits presented) then developed a general problem statement that immigrants faced, and came up with a solution in a discussion post on Schoology.

Group 1: Juan, Nolan, McKena, Julie explored what it was like for the first laborers working in factories and all the hazards that came with the job.

Group 2: Karlie, Tyler, River, Kizziah examined the birth of the first labor unions and their effect on factory workers’ pay and working conditions.

Group 3: Eli, Jon, Natalie discussed the setbacks of the labor unions

Group 4: Daniel, Maci, Parker examined how labor strikes helped the laborers’ causes.