E-Portfolio Projects

One of the most ardent questions students want answered is, “why do we have to learn this?” The students need to be reminded that what they think and are told shapes who they become. The answers lie in history and literature; they lie in the social and cultural spaces they navigate.

One’s story and how one chooses to tell it is a gift that many people have not had the chance to form for themselves and let alone tell. Students can gain the foundational knowledge to identify the elements of a narrative and determine when it is incomplete or incorrect.

This foundational knowledge in research and analysis has expansive possibilities that have an impact on the quality of their lives.

1. What make a complete story/narrative?

2. What is bias? How do biases affect the way a story/narrative is interpreted?

3. How do media sources influence point of view?

4. How does a narrative create, inform, and affect identity?

Texas High School Social Studies Standards, World History

WH.28A: Identify methods used by archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and geographers to analyze evidence.

WH.28B: Explain how historians analyze sources for frame of reference, historical context, and point of view to interpret historical events.

WH.28C: Analyze primary and secondary sources to determine frame of reference, historical context, and point of view.

WH.28D: Evaluate the validity of a source based on bias, corroboration with other sources, and information about the author.

WH.28E: Analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, drawing inferences and conclusions, and developing connections between historical events over time.

WH.30B: Use effective written communication skills, including proper citations and avoiding plagiarism.

WH.30C: Interpret and create written, oral, and visual presentations of social studies information.

WH.31A: Use problem-solving and decision-making processes to identify a problem, gather information, list and consider options, consider advantages and disadvantages, choose and implement a solution, and evaluate the effectiveness of the solution.

More information on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies can be found here.

Common Core Standards, English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Grades 9-10

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1

Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2

Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.3

Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.5

Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.6

Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9

Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

More information on the Common Core Standards can be found here.

Teachers also have the option of using standards from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. They can be found Here

Transcripts of “The Danger of a Single Story” – Online transcript found Here

Copies of The New York Times article on El Paso Immigration Center here 

Copies of Transcripts from PBS News Hour’s A Firsthand Report of ‘Inhumane Conditions’ at Migrant Children’s Facility here 

Copies of excerpt from Annual Report Immigration Enforcement Actions: 2017 here 

Copies of BBC News: “Is there a Crisis on the US-Mexico Border?” article here 

Copies of from Management Alert-DHS Needs to Address Dangerous Overcrowding Among Single Adults at El Paso Del Norte Processing Center (redacted). Online report.

Copies of Dust Bowl from History.com Link to websource: Here

Copies of Use the primary sources about the Dust Bowl During the Great Depression teaching and learning resources from the Library of Congress. Link to websources: Here

Copies of Surviving the Dust Bowl: The Great Depression. Link to websource: Here

Copy of world map from an Australian perspective. Link to websource: Here

Copy of world map from the American perspective. Link to websource: Here

Copy of world map from an Asian perspective. Link to websource: Here

Copy of upside down map of the United States and Mexico. Link to websource: Here

Copies of photographs, cut in half. Link to websource: Here

Activity 1 - Story Telling

Open the class with these questions. Teacher can choose which question to ask:

How do you tell a good story? Or What makes a bad story?

Give students time to write down their ideas. Share.

Note: Teacher may choose to write students on white board or on chart paper, so that the entire class has access to all the responses shared.

The teacher should then pose the following questions:

What responses are most popular? What can we assume if 8 responses say “a good story has interesting characters” or “a good story should teach a lesson/provide opportunities to learn”? What ideas should we think about in a story for class?

Students should then examine compelling pictures that have been cut in half. Have students list what information they have learned from looking at the photograph and what the questions they have about the photo. After students have created their lists, they should then find the other student in the class with the other half of the photograph and compare lists. Open source quality photos can be found here: Here

Provide students the opportunity to share what they have discussed.

Then have students watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Ted Talk “The Danger of a Single Story”

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en

After viewing the video: Asks students to write one lesson that Adiche learned and one lesson that they learned. Then answer why these two lessons are important.

How do you tell a story? Use ideas from the video. Does her video answer our class essential question? Students should respond by writing a micro essay.

Alternative to writing: Students can create a concept map. Sample can be found in the Assessments Section.

Activity 2 - Identity through Ethnocentrism

By the end of this activity, students will identify key elements that influence their view of the world through the lens of their own background. In turn, this activity will help them appreciate how others are influenced into their decision making.

The activity familiarizes students with how historians have to tackle and process sources that can be sometimes unfairly biased. When historians are aware of these biases, they can extract proper and useful information from them.

By the end of this activity, students will be able to define ethnocentrism so they can filter their own cultural biases. They will realize there are multiple ways of viewing things, but the interpretation depends on the ethnocentric perspective of the viewer.

The central question for this activity that students will answer is: How can ethnocentrism influence decisions?

1. If you have assigned seating for your students, allow them at the beginning of class to sit with whomever they want in groups of three or four students. (students will typically sit with their friends)
2. You will then ask students to write down five to ten things that they all have in common within their group.
3. After the five minutes, students will share with the class what they have in common.
4. The teacher poses another question: Why did you not sit with a different person or group outside of the trope they described? They are to reflect by discussing within their own groups and write down five to ten reasons. (5 minutes)
5. After the five minutes, students will share the reasons for not choosing to be in a different group.

Recurring themes that students will share about their commonalities will be: previous friendships; they come from the same middle schools/elementary schools; they are family; they like the same music. Reasons for sitting for not sitting with others; do not know them; they are different; we do not have classes together. This helps students understand why people gravitate towards what they are familiar with.

   6.  Give copies to each group so that they can examine all the maps.

        a.  Map from the American perspective: https://www.freeworldmaps.net/world/america-centric/

        b. Map from the Australian perspective: http://www.jamesborrell.com/maps-world-conservation-perspective/#!prettyPhoto

        c. Map from an Asian perspective: http://themechanicredwoodcity.com/world-map-asian-perspective/world-map-asian-perspective-1-hema-pacific-cnetered-large-dd433a9f-64da-42d5-8b42-7b71da3596cd-jpg-v-1527483875/

       d. Upside down map of the U.S. and Mexico: http://www.wiseguymaps.com/upside-down-map-page.html

  7. Have students examine all copies of the maps and have them discuss what they notice about them. Students will remark that they are drawn differently than from what they are used to. The conversation should lead towards how most of the maps are created from the perspective of the cartographer.This is connected to their selection of the groups of students they initially sat with because it has largely to do with how they gravitate towards the familiar.

     a. Explain how historians are influenced by their own ethnocentrism to study the things that interests them. However, they are aware of their ethnocentric lens so that when they do research they make sure that they gather information from different perspectives to make better informed decisions.

 8. By using all of the information and evidence presented to them, students will then answer the central question: How does someone’s ethnocentrism influence their decisions? Students will do a reflective short essay and turn in at the end of class.

Activity 3 - Identity through Narrative 

What constructs a narrative? How is a narrative influenced? Students often times find themselves bombarded with so much information, or not enough, about what is happening around them that they often times make erroneous conclusions. This, in turn, can create a false identity of what the true story is.

Historians encounter the same problem, but they corroborate to look at multiple accounts by collecting evidence to try to determine what happened in the past. In this activity, students will investigate the narrative about the border between the U.S. and Mexico. They will do this through close readings, contextualizing, evaluation of sources, and corroboration.

The central question for this activity that students will answer is: Are Immigrants along the United States-Mexico Border Being Treated Fairly? 

1. Students will receive a quick-write question: What do you know about the border? Students are allowed to define “border” as they wish.
2. Students have the chance to share what they wrote.
3. The teacher will write common themes/definitions on white-board
4. Students should conclude that they are capturing/defining/conceptualizing based on external sources and constructs.
5. In groups of 3-4 students, they will examine the following sources. Each group will get one. Duplicate groups are OK.

As you are passing out the sources, provide quick background on what they have, the kind of sources, and the timeframe of each source so that students are familiar with what they have.

The New York Times article on El Paso Immigration Center. Excerpt here 

Link to article: Immigration Holding Cells President Trump and the need for securing the borders to prevent terrorism

Link full report from the Department of Homeland Security: Management Alert-DHS Needs to Address Dangerous Overcrowding Among Single Adults at El Paso Del Norte Processing Center (redacted). https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2019-05/OIG-19-46-May19.pdf

PBS News Hour transcript of A Firsthand Report of ‘Inhumane Conditions’ at Migrant Children’s Facility. Excerpt here

Link to article: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-firsthand-report-of-inhumane-conditions-at-a-migrant-childrens-detention-facility#transcript

Annual Report Immigration Enforcement Actions: 2017. Excerpt here 

Link to full report: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/enforcement_actions_2017.pdf

BBC News: Is there a Crisis on the US-Mexico Border? Excerpt here 

Link to article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44319094

6. Students to present their discussions to the class (Options: of creating chart paper, writing on the board, creating visual display or graphic). Audience members are required to take notes.
7. Students should be able to identify the commonalities between each document.
8. Students should also be able to identify different perspectives on the issue at hand.
9. By using all of the evidence presented to them students will then answer the central question: Are Immigrants along the United States-Mexico Border Being Treated Fairly? Students will create a presentation. Rubric for presentation here.

Activity 4 - Story as a vignette

To begin the class, the teacher should direct students to complete the quickwrite below. 

1. Quickwrite - What is a story in your family that you enjoy hearing? Why is it your favorite? What story do you despise hearing? Why do you hate it? What are your favorite stories to tell about someone in your family? What about it makes it your favorite? (Note students do not have to actually tell the story. Answers can be as short as: “I like the story of how my mom and father met and fell in love” or “I hate the story about how I was scared to flush the toilet when I was little because my mom always tells it on my birthday”)

After giving students time to complete the quickwrite, the teacher should have students share what they wrote. Then the teacher should lead the following discussion:

(a) How long does the telling of these stories take? Minutes? Seconds? Hours?

(b) Do they have a beginning, middle, and an end?

(c) Do these stories have figurative elements?

(d) What are the emotional responses? How strong are they? Fleeting? Intense?

2. Teacher will present definition of vignette to students. They should add definition to their notes.

(a) Vignette (pronounced vin-yet) is a short scene that captures a single moment or a defining detail about a character, idea, or other element of the story. Vignettes are mostly descriptive; often include little or no plot detail. They are not stand-alone literary works, nor are they complete plots or narratives. Instead, vignettes are small parts of a larger work, and can only exist as pieces of a whole story.

3. After presenting the definition, the teacher should students:

Using the definition answer the following: in what ways is the story you shared like a vignette? Is your story important? Why?

The teacher has the option to have students write answers on paper, discuss answers with a partner, or simply choose students to answer out loud.

4. Teacher will then present the rationale for vignettes as a literary style and provide other facts about the literary style .

• Vignettes are important because of their descriptive nature—they can illuminate significant information, create depth of character, or provide insight about past events or circumstances. This helps create a more complete picture of the greater story. All stories rely on vignettes to provide detail. Without them, stories would be little more than plot outlines.

Examples of vignettes from literature: Out of the Dust, The Things They Carried, Harry Potter (Final Book). In Film: Orange is the New Black.

5. Provide students with handouts on the 1930s Depression and Dust Bowl

Students will work in collaborative groups to fact find 5 facts from the handout. They will then share with the class.

1. Dustbowl from History.com Link to websource: Here
2. Use the primary sources about the Dust Bowl During the Great Depression teaching and learning resources from the Library of Congress. Link to resources: Here
3. Surviving the Dust Bowl: The Great Depression. Link to article: Here

Teacher should provide students time to share their findings with the rest of class.

After ask students the following about their findings: What is missing from the story? What do we (as readers) still need to know?

Review: Passages from Out of the Dust here. What do we learn from this passage? Why is this important? What do we want to know? Why is this important?

Read a passage from House Built on Ashes: A Memoir here.

As a writing prompt or class discussion, the teacher should ask students to consider the following questions:

What do we learn from this passage? Why is this important?

What is missing from this story? What do we (as readers) still need to know?

This activity is an opportunity for students to revisit the skills they practiced in the previous activities. Students learned that complete narratives are fluid, complex, and constantly need to be verified and validated.

Exit Ticket: Vignettes provide an opportunity to explore social issues (ex: racism, obesity, drug addiction, dating, smoking). What social issue could readers explore from today’s readings?

Activity 5 - Oral Stories

Students will view a short video of various groups and write a mini essay in which they discuss the juxtaposition of what is miscommunicated about the group featured in the video and what information is more clear.

Teachers can access oral stories from these sites:

Bracero History Archive

University of Texas at El Paso Institute of Oral History

American Civil Liberties Union: New Mexico

Suggested Rubric for Evaluation can be found: Here 

Activity 6 - Putting it All Together

Students will complete a mini research project, in which they investigate and transform narrative that they have misunderstood about another person, group, culture or event. The student’s final project must demonstrate that they have considered: Elements of a Good Story, Ethnocentrism, and Vignettes.

The mini research project can be in any form that the student wishes: poem, letter, play, a news story, cartoon, PowerPoint, drawing, essay, interview. The final product must include a list of materials used to create the product as either References (APA style) or Works Cited (MLA style).

For example, topics could include:

1. Homeless community
2. Obesity
3. A person who speaks languages other than English or Spanish
4. Alcoholism or Drug Addiction
5. Unfamiliar race/ethnic and or social group
6. Migration (of an unfamiliar group) to the US

Students can gain an understanding of how history, their knowledge and misconceptions of history, and images can influence storytelling. This storytelling and how it is told has significant impact on themselves and others. Students can understand that these concepts by themselves can create deficits in their depth of understanding. They can gain understanding that possessing a solid foundation in each of these ideas provides the foundational knowledge needed to have a better understanding of themselves and others.

• Students can write their own vignette in the style of Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Sandra Cisneros or Tomas Rivera where they share some aspect of their life that they feel people often misunderstand about them.
  
  
• Students conduct an interview as another part of the investigative process. Some questions to have them think about are, whose voice is not being considered and why is their narrative not being included in the national discussion?
  
  
• Students can watch or listen to a news segment or a podcast, and make connections to related topics in migration and immigration. Some areas of focus for students to think about are the cultural, political, and economic connections.

1. Activity 1 summative assessment: Students will create a concept map. See sample 
   
   
2. Activity 2 assessment: Students will produce a reflective paper to answer the central question. See lesson plan for more details.
   
   
3. Activity 3 assessment: Students will create a presentation. See lesson plan for more details. Online rubric for presentation used here.
   
   
4. Activity 4 assessment: Students will submit an exit ticket. See lesson plan for details.
   
   
5. Activity 5 assessment: Student will write a mini essay. See lesson plan for details. Suggested rubric for the essay used here.
   
   
6. Activity 6 assessment: Students will be creating a final product and must include a list of materials used to create it by referencing the citation style they used, either APA style or Works Cited (MLA style). More information on these two styles can be found here

1. If material is available in multiple languages, allow students to choose their preferred language to read the material.
   
   
2. If reading material is not available in English: provide an outline of material for the student before reading a selection.
   
   
3. Allow students to access bi-lingual dictionary.
   
   
4. Reduce the number of pages or items on a page to be completed by the student.
   
   
5. Break tasks into smaller subtasks.
   
   
6. Provide additional practice to ensure mastery.
   
   
7. Substitute a similar, less complex, task for a particular assignment.
   
   
8. Develop simple study guides to complement required materials.
   
   
9. Pre-Teach vocabulary terms.
   
   
10. Allow extra time to complete tasks

Note to teacher: Multilingual students enhance the learning community. Their presence in your classroom provides many learning opportunities. Encourage these students to share their experience navigating through different languages and cultures. If materials are available in multiple languages, encourage students to use them in the language in which they are most comfortable.

Common Core Standards - Career and College Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading

Key Ideas and Details

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

Craft and Structure

4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
5. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently

Texas College and Career Readiness Standards:

Social Studies

SS.I: Interrelated disciplines and skills

SS.I.A: Spatial analysis of physical and cultural processes that shape the human experience.

• SS.I.A.2: Analyze the interaction between human communities and the environment.
• SS.I.A.3: Analyze how physical and cultural processes have shaped human communities over time.
• SS.I.A.6: Analyze the relationship between geography and the development of human communities.

SS.I.C: Change and continuity of political ideologies, constitutions, and political behavior.

• SS.I.C.3: Explain and analyze the importance of civic engagement.

SS.I.E: Change and continuity of social groups, civic organizations, institutions, and their interaction.

• SS.I.E.2: Define the concept of socialization and analyze the role socialization plays in human development and behavior.

SS.II: Diverse Human Perspectives and Experiences.

• SS.II.A.1: Define a “multicultural society” and consider both the positive and negative qualities of multiculturalism.
• SS.II.B.6: Analyze how individual and group identities are established and change over time.

Cross-Disciplinary Standards

CDS.I.B: Reasoning

• CDS.I.B.1: Consider arguments and conclusions of self and others.

CDS.I.E: Work Habits

• CDS.I.E.1: Work independently.
• CDS.I.E.2: Work collaboratively.

Students’ learning is enriched when teachers collaborate. It was our goal to use the rich materials provided during our time at the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Borderland Institute in order to provide our students with multiple opportunities to practice the skill of critical thinking and analyzing material. These skills are more enhanced when students have the ability to question and evaluate ideas using a plethora of mediums, such as literature, primary sources, art, oral stories and historical artifacts.

Our unit came to life because our students, in particular, are not only trying to navigate their own binational heritage, but are doing so in a society that is more polarized than ever. Giving students the opportunity to build these skills and explore these ideas using the backdrop of the Borderland is very exciting.

Microessay