CURRICULUM MATERIALS

Rita Arias Jirasek

Overview

Main Ideas

The 2000 census identifies Latinos as the fastest growing minority group of the century. Of this diverse ethnic group, Mexicans make up the largest percentage. The long history of Mexicans and Mexican Americans and their contributions to Illinois and Chicago are not well known since their communities are seriously underrepresented in both history textbooks and popular history. In addition, the role of women in this experience has not been well explored. The material presented here will help build a base from which to under

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stand the uniqueness of the Mexican immigration experience, as compared to the traditional European immigration model. It presents the transnational character of Mexican immigrants and hints at their impact on the economies of both the United States and Mexico. It provides opportunities to explore more specifically key experiences of Mexican women in this larger context. Connection with the Curriculum These activities are designed to complement units in United States history about immigration to Illinois with particular focus on Chicago. They may also be used to work with units on civil rights, women's history, the Depression, labor history, and other general social science courses. The activities may be appropriate to the Illinois Learning Standards in Social Science 14.D.2, 14.D.4,14.E, 16.A.2C, 16.B.5c(W) i.e. Mexican Revolution and Guerra Cristera, 16.C.3A, 16.C.3b,16.C.4c(US),18.C.3b. In addition, the activities may be appropriate to the Illinois Learning Standards in English Language 1.B.4 a, 1.C.4a, and 3.B.4.a and Foreign Language 29.E.5. Teaching Level These activities were designed for high-school students, and with modifications may be appropriate for junior-high learners. Materials for Each Student Each student should receive a copy of the narrative portion of the article, copies of the Document Analysis Worksheet (Activity 1), and access to copies of the documents. Those may be prepared as overheads. Objectives for Each Student • To investigate topics and issues relevant to immigration from Mexico • To compare and contrast immigration from Mexico and from Europe • To explore more specifically key experiences of Mexican women • To evaluate and analyze primary documents • To use factual information to create original narrative writing or visual art that humanizes the statistical nature of the information and synthesizes important concepts. • To construct and conduct a census and format a report of the collected information. SUGGESSTIONS FOR TEACHING THE LESSON Opening the Lesson The narrative portion of the article presents a comprehensive overview of Mexicanas in Chicago from the early decades of the twentieth century. If this lesson is presented as part of a larger unit on immigration, students will benefit from an opportunity to recall, discuss, and/or brainstorm what they already know about immigration. Developing the Lesson This discussion can be facilitated by a cognitive rehearsal strategy called KWL. WHAT WE KNOW WHAT WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT WE LEARNED                Have students work in pairs to fill in the first two columns. Each pair can then use their answers to help fill out a master list on the board, or they can share their lists with another pair to make a cuarto. Use the lists to generate discussion and/or to rank information that is deemed important by the students. After the lesson students can fill out the third column, WHAT WE LEARNED. As a classroom chart it can be used to review important information before testing. Alternate opening activity— Anticipation Guide Pedagogical basis Copies of the following anticipation guide should be available to students. This strategy helps motivate readers by asking them to react to a series of statements related to the reading and, helping them to anticipate or predict what the reading is about. Committing to the statement creates a meaningful purpose for acquiring information with improved comprehension. Teacher-mediated discussions allow for students to experience extension beyond the text. Adapted from Mark Forget, "Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum" (MAX Teaching with Reading and Writing MAX Teaching, Inc. Box 1852 Decatur, GA 30031) www.maxteaching.com Structure-Procedure As you hand out the guide explain that this reading activity is designed to help students practice making predictions, a skill that most excellent readers use. Tell them that this guide has statements on it. Some of the statements will have evidence in the text that supports them, some will have evidence that negates them, and others will have evidence that may be conflicting. By the teacher

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discussion of the strategy in the context of class work, students are allowed to practice important metacognitive strategies as they make their thinking apparent during the discussion.

Step 1: Ask students to fill out the guide individually before they read the text.

Step 2: Ask the students to read the text silently looking for evidence to support their interpretations. It is important for them to check the anticipation guide for reference, and that they should note specific areas of the text that verify or refute their choices.

Step 3: When most of the students have finished reading, tell them to form the small groups and ask them to come to a group consensus about whether a statement should be checked or not.

Step 4: When at least one group has come to a consensus on the prediction guide statements, use their decisions to conduct a whole-class discussion to attempt to achieve a classroom consensus. It is important that you act only as a mediator; do not tell the students the answers. Several of the statements might have more than one interpretation. Students may opt to change the statements in order to arrive at consensus.

Step 5: Ask students to report on their use of the skill of predicting. Ask, "Did the process of predicting what you were going to read before reading and discussing it with your peers help you in concentrating on and understanding the reading? Did it help you focus and stay focused while you were reading?" Anticipation Guides: H. Herber, Teaching Reading in the Content Area. 2ded. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall 1978). John E. Readance, Content Area Reading: An Integrated Approach. (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt,1981).

Anticipation Guide—Mexicanas in Chicago

Before Reading the article: In the space to the left of each statement, place a check mark (/) if you agree or think that the statement is true.

___Immigration of women from Mexico to the United States is relatively recent and has not made much of an impact on either country.

___The decision to leave one's home and family is an easy one, especially for a woman.

___The United States government has welcomed Mexican laborers with open arms.

___Immigrant women met with relatively few barriers after arriving in the United States.

___The development of "colonias" was due in large part to the arrival of women and the establishment of families.

___Traditional cultural patterns seemed to prohibit women from working outside the home and isolated them from men in social situations.

___Mexican women who arrived in the early 1900s and those who are newly arrived or born here tend to have the same priorities and interests.

Words to know: Pre-reading. Can you guess what these words might mean? Are they all in English? Are some of them in Spanish or are some of them "Spanglish," that is a mixture of English/Spanish pronunciation or meaning? What are words that are the same in both languages called? See if their meaning becomes clear after you read the article.

migration
repatriation
enganchista
colonia
traqueros immigration
transnational immigration

Read the article silently.

After reading the article: Add new check marks or cross through those about which you have changed your mind. Keep in mind that this is not like a traditional "worksheet." You may have to put on your thinking caps and read between the lines. Use the space under each statement to note the paragraph(s) where you have found information to support your thinking because you will be asked to present your evidence from the text to defend your choices. Some of the between-the-lines evidence can come from your own experience. Remember that good readers most often predict what will be found in the text. It is not so important if you are right or wrong; it is important that you are reading for information, not just for a one- or two-word answer.

Information about the terminology: just in case there are questions

Hispanic Origin Descriptors made by U.S. Census

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census of Population, Public Law 94-171 Redistricting Data File. Updated every 10 years. http://factfinder.census.gov.

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Definition:

Hispanics or Latinos are those people who classified themselves in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 questionnaire—"Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano," "Puerto Rican", or "Cuban"—as well as those who indicate that they are "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino." Persons who indicated that they are "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino" include those whose origins are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, the Dominican Republic or people identifying themselves generally as Spanish, Spanish-American, Hispanic, Hispano, Latino, and so on.

Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race.

What are some of the other terms (non-pejorative in nature) used to identify people in this group? What would the group serve to gain from the more specific identification as Mexican or Mexican American?

Extra information:

The author of the narrative portion of the article consistently identifies the group written about as Mexican. Do you think that this is an important distinction? Why?

For additonal information students should check the following websites:

http://www.gliah.uh.edu/mexican voices/ \mexican voices.cfm

http://www.archives.gov/digital classroom/ introductory activity.html

http://teachers.eusd.k12.ca.us/jleff/pamryan.html

It may also be helpful for teachers to pose essential questions as frames for further investigation:

Do Mexican communities (colonias) exist only in Chicago?

To read an illuminating article on new immigrants by Dave McKinney, direct students to Illinois Issues online at:

http://illinoisissues.uis.edu/features/2001oct/immigr.html

Concluding the Lesson

Student presentations or exhibits would be an excellent way to conclude this lesson.

Extending the Lesson

• Show the PBS documentary "Chicago Stories-The First Mexican Church", available from WTTW Chicago, Chicago Stories 219.

• Visit the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago's Pilsen Neighborhood especially to see the exhibit: "Mexican Chicago - Huellas Fotograficas -Photographic Footprints." Look for pictures of women.

• Allow students to examine the book by Rita Arias Jirasek and Carlos Tortolero, Mexican Chicago (Chicago: Arcadia Press, 2001), in order to see more photographs documenting the history of Mexicans in Chicago.

• Encourage students to "surf the net" looking for articles, information regarding the topics that were addressed in those lessons.

Assessing the Lesson

• Allow students to construct simple rubrics to evaluate how well they have synthesized information.

• Construct observation checklists to assess group work and student participation

• Evaluate written assignments with a rubric that identifies clearly criteria based on the accuracy of information, the clarity and correctness of the mechanics of language, and the organization of ideas.

• Ask students to keep learning logs or reflection journals.

• Use simple descriptive scales to label student performance.

Work shows:

No evidence of ...Minimal evidence of ....Partial evidence of ....Complete evidence of.....

Task
Not attempted...... Meets minimum standards...... Partial completion......Complete......

Adapted from Joan L.Herman, Pamela R. Aschbacher, and Lynn Winters, A Practical Guide to Alternative Assessment. (Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Design, 1992).

• Ask students to develop criteria for assessment and have them judge student work as it is displayed or presented

• Teacher-made assessment

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—Classroom Activities—
Mexicanas in Chicago

Narrative story writing: Using information from documents is to be done after reading the article and analyzing the accompanying document. Each student should have access to the article and copies of the documents. At the teacher's discretion, students may work individually, but more engaged behavior is promoted when students work in cooperative groups.

After reading the article, the teacher may choose to make overhead transparencies of the documents and display them on an overhead projector. Students may also work with the documents individually. If the students work in cooperative groups, each group can come to consensus on the answers to be written on the form. The major elements for the narrative or drawings should be verified and discussed both in groups and as a class depending on the classroom dynamic and teacher preference.

Task description: As part of the class exploration of immigration issues, students will analyze the Alien Head Tax document and use the information to write individually or in groups a historical fiction piece. Teachers may also assign the following historical fiction exercises to different groups so as to have several different pieces to be read aloud, displayed or presented.

Activity 1a: Document Analysis

Step One: Observation and information collection. This personal document tells a story. Examine it carefully using the Document Analysis Worksheet to help organize the information that you see. Your task is to develop a short fictional narrative piece using the information that you have collected. More specific information follows the document analysis sheet.

Obverse side of document A
Look carefully at both sides of the document.
Reverse side of document

Documents courtesy of Carmen Martinez in Rita
Arias Jirasek and Carolos Tortolero, Mexican Chicago
(Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2001).

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Written Document Analysis Worksheet Adapted from U.S. National Archives and Records Administration www.archives.gov 1. What is this document called? 2. Where was it issued? 3. What is the issuing agency? 4. Why do you think it was issued? 5. To whom was it issued? 6. Does it list more than one person? What might the relationship be between these people? 7. When was it issued, and do you think that it has been used more than one time? What is the evidence that supports your answer? 8. List three pieces of information from the document that can help you write a description of the main character in your story. 9. List two pieces of information from the document that you could use to infer what this person planned to do. Why might it have been included in this article about Mexicanas in Chicago? 10. What are some questions left unanswered by the document that you could imagine answers to and use as material for your story? Going deeper - essential questions for conversation/dialogue What does the existence of this document say about the society that created it? Does the document have any relevance today?

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Activity 1b

Using information from the both the text and the Alien Head Tax Document, students will be given the task to create one of the following :

1. A short story starring the woman named in the documents.

2. A short skit or one-act play starring the woman named in the documents.

3. A letter written home to Mexico describing the events of the day the document was issued. Remember the age and gender of the document owner, the language she probably speaks, and the age of her traveling "companion."

4. A newspaper "interview" written about the woman in the documents dated near the time that the document was issued.

An alternative assignment that engages another set of skills:

1. Design and draw a portrait or mural of the characters on the day the document was issued including as many details as possible from the document.

2. Design and draw a comic strip that tells the story of the same characters.

Developing background information: Using information from the narrative portion of the article and the accompanying photographs, discuss the historical context of this document. What are some historical occurrences either here or in Mexico that might serve to give your written piece more depth, accuracy, or detail? Check the Internet for photographs that might have been taken at the time that would give you additional information. Check the Library of Congress photo archive.

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—Exploring the PUSH — PULL Theory of Immigration, identifying reasons for immigration and return.

Ask students to go through the narrative portion of the article carefully looking for historical events, legislation, and social realities that might be considered either a reason for leaving Mexico to come to the United States (pulls) or reasons for returning to Mexico from the U.S. (pushes). (Did you know that in Mexico the United States is called the EEUU?)

The lists that the students develop may be used in several ways;

Each topic listed, i.e. the Johnson Reed Act of 1924, may be developed as the topic of an individual research assignment.

The events may be written out on pieces of paper and placed on a three-level time line with dates. Areas of overlapping influence may be shaded or colored. How did the event affect immigration? Speculate how being female may have provided additional incentives or disincentives for immigration.

Ex.

Dates: 1910-1918

World Events	World War I
Events in the United States Events in Mexico Dates: 1929-1933	lack of laborers, suspended European immigration chaos after the Mexican Revolution

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After reading the article, use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the European and Mexican immigration experience.

Venn Diagram

Consider such realities as:

• Common borders on the same continent versus an ocean between continents

• Establishment of Mexican/United States border as a result of a treaty at the end of a war where Mexican territory was ceded/taken over

• Immigrants rarely returned to mother country versus repatriation, deportation by legislative act, and/or desire to return "home"

• Reasons for leaving home country, i.e. war, religious persecution, famine, keeping families together

• Culturally proscribed roles for women

• Discrimination against new arrivals

• Continued immigration

• Family needs to establish ethnic neighborhoods and institutions

• Rate of assimilation of single men versus families

• Language

• Celebration of cultural traditions

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—Mini census: Collecting data to answer the essential question Who among us is an immigrant?

Ask students to construct a short questionnaire to collect information about the ethnic/racial groups that make up their school population. What questions do they need to ask? Ideas for sharing the information: Students can • Construct graphs or charts to present data. • Use world maps to calculate distances traveled • Compare stories of their family's immigration or migration from other parts of the country • Interview the oldest female family members about why they immigrated. • Track down stories of "family beginnings" such as courtship, weddings, births • Find family photographs similar to those used in the narrative portion of the article and compare them. Final question: If you were immigrating to a new country, what would you take with you that means "home?" Do male and female students answers differ?

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