The Refugee Project Collaboration  

lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/photos

 This wiki is designed to give educators access to resources, activities, and lessons that introduce students to the experiences of some of our refugees in Vermont and the United States.  The project is widely adaptable to different subject areas, but is especially appropriate for English/Language arts and social studies classes.  We (Olga Benoit, ELL teacher; Sue Brennan, English teacher; and Linda McSweeney, librarian) first began working on this project in the spring of 2008 and are entering our fourth cycle with it.  We have been piloting the project with general-level senior English classes, but, again, it can be adapted to any grade or ability level. (The cosmetology program in our tech center read one of the books:  Kabul Beauty School!)  ELL students in the school eagerly participate in the project. They share their own stories, some anonymously via the wiki, some openly by coming to classes and talking to the students. It reinforces the importance of the topic and brings it to life, providing the connection between refugee and local communities.

The project usually takes about 3-5 weeks of class time and starts with general discussion on the topic. The students are introduced to the project by reading related articles, playing an interactive online game and watching a video. The discussion questions that we found most useful were:

1. What did you learn about refugees and immigrants living in the US?

2. What is the difference between immigrants and refugees?

3. Why do immigrants come to the US?

4. Why do refugees come to the US?

5. Which countries do immigrants and refugees usually come from?

6. Looking into the future, which countries do you think we should expect refugees and immigrants to come from next year? 

For more discussion questions and introductory lessons for elementary, middle and high school follow the two links: Children of War Resource Guide, Appreciating America's Heritage.

The next part of the project is taking a deeper look into a life of a refugee by choosing one of the memoirs to read. The students are brought to the library and presented a collection of books and brief overview of each memoir. The introductory assignments, reading schedule, response topics, additional information of the author and the country of a chosen book are provided on the Wiki. Upon completion of assignments on the Wiki, students created Google Lit Trips based on their book using Google Earth.

The final event of the project is an in-school field trip which consists of four parts:

1. Movie.  

2. Guest Speaker.

3. Presenations of Google Lit Trips.

4. Book discussion groups. 

All participating students come together on the last day to share what they have learned.  We usually try to share some food as well, to make the day as festive as possible.  (Last time around our guest speaker, from the Congo, who runs a samosa business, let us purchase some of her samosas for part of our celebration.)

Click here to see students' evaluations of the project.