Refugees in the Classroom

This article, The United States Is No Longer the World Leader in Resettling Refugees (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/the-united-states-is-no-longer-the-world-leader-in-resettling-refugees/), is one that could be used in the classroom to introduce refugees and what the United States, and the world, do to help those in need. This can show students the numbers of how many refugees and where in the world they come from.

This could be done by first introducing the concept of refugees and what the word means. There may be some misconceptions in the classroom as to what they are and the legal stigmas that pertain to them that may need some ironing out. I would have the students think of any examples of refugees that they know of coming to the United States and ask them to explain how they are refugees. After this discussion, I would have the children look at the article and look at the numbers of people who were entering the country and are now entering within the last couple of years. I would then ask them to write a short opinion of how many people the United States should take in and why they thought that. I would emphasize that there would be no right or wrong answers. This would give me a better perspective to the children’s understanding of refugees as well as a view on their morals and/or politics that they have been most exposed to. This way I can further the lesson with a better idea of how the students view refugees and further correct any misconceptions that the students may have.

Standards:

-explain how and why…immigration… may be interpreted differently according to the points of view of participants, witnesses, reporters, and historian

-examine biographies, stories, narratives, and folk tales to understand the lives of ordinary people and extraordinary people, place them in time and context, and explain their relationship to important historical events