Teaching about Angel Island through Historical Empathy and Poetry

Abstract

<p>When immigration is taught in schools, students usually learn about Ellis Island and Europeans arriving in the Northeast. Less often do they learn about immigrants from other continents, so, when I was asked by the local school district to develop a series of lessons for the first through fifth grades that would be used during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I decided to teach students about Angel Island. The lesson described here was taught in a combined (grade three and four) classroom and focused on the movement of Asians—the Chinese in particular—to America via the immigration station at Angel Island. A previous lesson introduced students to the diversity of Asian and Pacific Island nations and cultures; later lessons were about Asian immigrants’ past, and their recent contributions to farming and food industries in the United States.</p>