ELL Teacher Pros November
2016 Newsletter
Thanksgiving was and is my favorite
holiday. Not only did we get out of
school but we got to eat turkey and cranberry sauce (two of my all-time faves)! My mom would make pumpkin, apple and pecan
pies, mashed potatoes from real potatoes (she usually used powdered), sweet
potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, etc.
My mother’s side of the family was far away from their immigrant
roots. My dad’s family, however, was
not. He was first generation American
and his family was from The Ukraine and very poor. As a child, he never had some of the foods we
ate every Thanksgiving.
As
I was thinking of my Thanksgivings I thought of my dad’s background and stories
I’ve been told by other first generation folks and adult ELLs and thought about
how we could validate their experiences through an exploration of the
experiences immigrants have had with their first Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving
in general.
The
book, Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen, is directly about this
experience and even older learners might enjoy having it read to them as a starter
for discussion, project or unit on immigration or Thanksgiving. The book is written for upper elementary
school learners and is at a third grade reading level.
For
elementary level learners there are a group of free lesson suggestions at:
For older learners, there are resources on the web that cover immigrants’
experiences with Thanksgiving and which could be used as reading
activities. This holiday includes
culture, history, human rights, immigration and friendship – many themes to
work with. These articles could be used for reading skill development as well
as an introduction to personal experiences with Thanksgiving.
Some sites to review for Reading Skill work:
· Reading Comprehension Skills for English Language Learners
· Increasing ELL Student Reading Comprehension with Non-fiction Text
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/increasing-ell-student-reading-comprehension-non-fiction-text
·
Reading Comprehension
Strategies for English Language Learners
A lesson plan for
Thanksgiving and the Immigrant Experience
LESSON
PLAN Thanksgiving 2—The Pilgrim Story and My Immigrant Story
Articles covering the
immigrant experience and Thanksgiving Immigrant Experience
http://www.ibtimes.com/newly-arrived-immigrants-navigate-their-first-american-thanksgiving-turkey-all-1728786 An article in
“International Business Times” on people from France, Burkina Faso, Mali,
Yemen, and Dominican Republic.
“Beyond Turkey: The Migration
of Thanksgiving Tradition”
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/immigrant-thanksgiving-chefs-draft.html
Seriouseats.com Cooks
talk about food for Thanksgiving, from Ecuador, Turkey, Greek, Middle East,
France, China, & Italy
“First Thanksgiving”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/news/ct-abn-first-thanksgiving-st-1122-20151122-story.html Story in Chicago
Tribune on immigrants from Dubai, Mexico, India, Nigeria
An article on Vietnamese
immigrants and their Thanksgiving experience
http://www.northjersey.com/news/modern-day-pilgrims-in-north-jersey-mark-their-first-thanksgiving-1.1462539 Immigrants from Syria & Cuba
“NorthJersey.com”
“Immigrants adapt
Thanksgiving feasts with tastes from home”
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/sf-ethnic-thanksgiving-food-immigrant-families-20141124-story.html “Sun Sentinel” FL, Immigrants from Brazil, Basque area in Spain,
Egypt, Haiti & the Virgin Islands
“Thanksgiving is a story
of immigrants”
“The First Immigrant
Thanksgiving”
As
an idea to help this along, I want to share the story of a co-worker whose
family emigrated from Italy and a tradition her family created for
Thanksgiving.
As Molly did, Marie
came home from school and told her mother she had to make a Thanksgiving
dinner. One of the foods was to be a
stuffed turkey. Her mother did not know
what the stuffing could be and, of course, Marie had no idea either. After thinking about it for a while, Marie’s
mother created a rice-based stuffing which the family uses to this day.
We
hope these sites contribute to a rich discussion on immigration and different
cultures and tales on how immigrant families develop their own traditions for
this iconic American holiday.
Have
a great Thanksgiving Break!
Marnie, Denise,
and Cheryl
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at TEACHING SUCCESSES WITH ELLS
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