This document provides a lesson plan for a unit on immigration. It includes daily activities focused on developing oral language skills and content knowledge about the challenges immigrants face in a new country. Each day covers vocabulary, reading comprehension strategies, and spelling/grammar practice. Students learn about immigration through Ellis Island, discussions, videos and the story "Ten Mile Day" about building the transcontinental railroad.

1. +
Ten Mile Day
By Mary Ann Fraser
Week 1.5

2. +
Day 1 – What challenges do immigrants
encounter?
 What are the immigrants in this picture doing?
 What does the Statue of Liberty stand for?
 What do you think these immigrants are thinking about?
 Arrival at Ellis Island - http://www.history.com/topics/ellis-
island/videos/arrival-at-ellis-island

3. + Concept Map
Read Aloud: Journey to
Ellis Island
Amazing Words:
immigration
Ellis Island
belongings
anxiously
In “Journey to Ellis Island,”
we read about immigration
officials. What context
clues tell me the meaning
of this word?
Discuss with a partner:
Why might people seek
immigration to a new
country? What do you think
immigration officials do at
Ellis Island?
Challenges immigrants encounter
New
country
New
language
New culture Missing their
homeland

4. +
Comprehension Skill: Cause and Effect
Comprehension Strategy: Text Structure

5. +
Vocabulary
 Plants and trees could not grow in the barren field.
 What do you think a barren field looks like?

6. + Vocabulary
barren deafening lurched
unable to
produce much
or any plant life
stunningly loud leaned or
rolled suddenly
loudunproductive stagger

7. +
Spelling – Take your Pretest on Spelling City!
Then write down your words in your spiral.
Conventions – Finish working on Grammar pg 5
after your guided reading group time.
handwriting – complete the next two pages in your
cursive packet.

8. +
Day 2 – Content Knowledge
Oral Language
 9 Facts you might not know about Ellis Island -
http://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-
ellis-island
 “There were rows and rows of wooden benches crowded with
men, women, and children and their bundles of belongings.” –
”Journey to Ellis Island”
 What does belongings mean?
 What belongings would
immigrants bring with them?
 What words could be used
in place of belongings?

9. +
Concept Map
Amazing Words:
allegiance
emblem
Is the Statue of Liberty an
emblem of the freedom
found in America?
What do you think emblem
means?
Brainstorm and write:
With a partner think of
emblems you see at
school, or at a sporting
event. Create a list in your
reading spiral.
Challenges immigrants encounter
New
country
New
language
New culture Missing their
homeland

10. + Vocabulary
previous prying
coming or
being before
moving or
forcing open;
searching too
curiously
inquisitivepreceding
surveying
looking over or
viewing
observe

11. +
Word Analysis: Suffix -ing
 The Old English suffix –ing can be added to a verb. It signals that an action is happening
and is continuing to happen.
 Words with the suffix –ing can also be used as adjectives, or words that describe (the
baking cookies)
 Create a chart in your reading spiral like the one below.
 Determine the meaning of words with the –ing suffix by using the words as verbs and
adjectives.
 Some words are typically used as verbs, while others are normally used as adjectives.

12. + Literary Terms: Sensory Details
 Sensory details are words that help the reader experience the way
things look, sound, smell, taste, or feel
 Find some sensory details in this quote:
 “The hall was hot and stuffy, and it echoed with noise – babies crying,
people talking anxiously to each other in many different languages, and
officials calling out names.” – “Journey to Ellis Island”
 What sensory details did you notice?
 Is there other sensory details in the following paragraph?

13. + Vocabulary Skill: Multiple-Meaning Words
 After you have read
“A New Place To Live”
pretend you are a
construction worker
building a skyscraper.
Create your own journal
entry describing what you
see and hear as you
work. Use the words from
the Words to Know list.
 Words to know: barren,
deafening, prying,
lurched, previous,
surveying.

14. +

15. +
 Expository text tells about
real people and events. An
exposition is an explanation.
 Expository texts explain the
nature of people, events, or
things in the real world.
 Look at the title and
illustrations. What do you
predict will happen?

16. +
Spelling – Practice your spelling words by playing a game
on Spelling City!
Vocabulary – Worksheet 90
News-o-matic – Read a news article of your choosing from
News-o-matic. Fill in the News-O-Matic summary sheet!

17. +
Day 3 – Content Knowledge
Oral Language
 Transcontinental Railroad
http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad
 “As the supply train was unloaded, three men rushed to the end of
the rails, what they called the end o’ track. The three pioneers
scrambled ahead to the first loose ties. Then they began lifting,
prying, and shoving to the center the bare tires on the grade.” –
Ten Mile Day p. 150
 Why does the author call the men “the three pioneers”?
 What are the ties that the author is referring to?
 What are the men doing when they are “lifting, prying, and shoving
to center the ties”?

18. +
Concept Map
Amazing Words:
sustenance
adversity
Yesterday we read about
how hard the laborers
worked to lay ten miles of
track in a day. They will
need food for sustenance
to help them work.
What do you think
sustenance means?
What are some examples?
Challenges immigrants encounter
New
country
New
language
New culture Missing their
homeland

19. +
 Expository text tells about real
people and events.
 Why did the three men rush to
the end of the rails as the
supply train was unloaded?
What is the effect of their
actions?
 Once the supplies were
unloaded and put into place,
what was the order of the
groups of workers?

20. +
Spelling – Quietly practice writing your spelling words
on a dry erase board with a partner.
Conventions – Finish Common, Proper, and Collective
Nouns WS 42
Type to Learn – Work on type to learn for 10 minutes.

21. +
Day 4 – Content Knowledge
Oral Vocabulary
 Coming to America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfvRxpPlYC0
 “With the completion of another two miles of track, the second
supply train pulled back to the siding and the third train
steamed forward, belching thick clouds of black smoke.” –The
Ten Mile Day p. 154
 This sentence says “the third train steamed forward.” What
other words can we use in place of steamed?
 Train engines ran on wood or coal, which when burned
produced ash, smoke, and steam. Sometimes we use the idiom
run out of steam. What do you think this idiom means?

22. +
Concept Map
Amazing Word:
established
homeland
In the reading Ten Mile
Day, you can tell that the
workers have established a
good routine for laying the
tracks What is the meaning
of the word established?
How would you know if a
routine had been
established?
Challenges immigrants encounter
New
country
New
language
New culture Missing their
homeland

23. +
21st Century Skills
 Technology is all around us. What types of technology do we use
every day?
 What is e-mail? How does it work?
 What are ways we can keep in touch with a friend who moved
away?
 Let’s compare e-mail and regular mail. Copy the Venn diagram
below in your reading spiral.

24. + Vocab and Listening
 Adage
 An adage is a short but
memorable saying that expresses
a meaningful idea. For example,
“An apple a day keeps the doctor
away” means that eating healthy
foods will keep you healthy.
 Practice It!
 Read through Ten Mile Day with a
partner and try to find several
adages. Explain the meaning and
how they apply to the story.
 Job Advertisement
 A job advertisement is a public
notice that gives information about
a job.
 With a partner create a
descriptive, detailed ad for a job
with the Central Pacific Railroad
Company. Discuss where to
place your ad – newspaper, radio,
TV or the Internet – and explain
why. use information from Ten
Mile Day to help you create your
job advertisement.

25. +
Spelling – Get on Spelling City and practice your words
with a spelling game.
Conventions – WS 94
Vocabulary - Center

26. + Day 5 – Content Knowledge
Oral Language
 This week you have learned
ten Amazing Words related to
challenges encountered by
immigrants.
 immigration, Ellis Island,
belongings, anxiously,
allegiance, emblem,
sustenance, adversity,
established, homeland.
 Use the concept map and
what you have learned from
this week’s discussions and
reading selections to form and
– a
realization or big idea about
challenges immigrants
encounter.
 In your spiral write down a few
sentences about your
beginning
with, “This week I learned…”
Challenges immigrants encounter
New
country
New
language
New culture Missing their
homeland
new
allegiance
speak clothing adversity
new
emblems
understand food limited
belongings
new
government
read customs

27. +
REVIEW
 Comprehension Skill – Cause and Effect
 A cause is what makes something happen. An effect is what
happens as the result of the cause.
 Look back through Ten Mile Day. Find an example of cause and
effect with a partner.
 Make sure you identify whether the cause or the effect is listed
first in the text.
 Extra Practice – WS 44

28. +
REVIEW
 Vocabulary Skill – Multiple-Meaning Words
 Multiple-meaning words are words that have the same spelling but
different meanings.
 Use context clues to help determine which meaning is being used.
 Use a drill to make a hole in this board.
 Our teacher will drill us on multiplication tables over and over again.
 What does drill mean in each of these sentences?
 What context clues are there in each sentence?

29. +
REVIEW
 Word Analysis – Suffix –ing
 The old English suffix –ing can be used to signal a continuous action.
It can also be used to describe.
 Create a chart like the one below in your spiral. Write the meaning of
each of the –ing words.
Word Meaning
embracing
forbidding
following
aching
deafening

30. +
REVIEW
 Literary Terms – Sensory Details
 Sensory details help the read experience the way things look, sound,
smell, taste, or feel.
 Create the chart below in your spiral. As I reread “Journey to Ellis
Island” listen and write down sensory details in the correct column.
See Hear Smell Taste Feel

31. +
Spelling – Take your post test on Spelling City!
Type to learn – Work on your typing for 15 minutes.