August 1, 2006
“Immigration.” Library of Congress Learning Page Project. 1 Aug 2006.
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/introduction.html
This interactive site, geared towards middle and high school age students, provides information about the history of immigration to the U.S. for a wide variety of ethnicities and nationalities, including African, German, Irish, Scandinavian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, Puerto Rican/Cuban and Polish/Russian. The site also features a section on Native Americans and how they have been affected by immigration. Each link to a specific nationality includes a timeline of major immigration events/legislation and a map of where each immigrant group settled. The site includes interactive games, a recipe book (under the “Potluck” link), and several teacher-created, teacher-tested lesson plans on U.S. immigration (under the “Resources” link). This website is a great way for educators and students to gain access to primary source material from the Library of Congress in an entertaining and approachable form.
The real highlight of this website, however, is the “Interviews” link which accesses a database of student-performed interviews of immigrants in their own communities. Students are encouraged to add their own interviews to the site.