Who I Am, Where I’m From

Posted on August 18, 2020 Updated on August 18, 2020

This summer the AGSL K-12 Fellowship went virtual! Our Public Services Librarian worked with four awesome teachers in the Milwaukee area as they developed curriculum for their upcoming school years. To see the projects and lesson plans, check out the AGSL’s Resources for Educators.

My name is Erin Sivek, and I am an English Language Arts (ELA), Social Studies, and English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at the International Newcomer Center (INC) in Milwaukee Public Schools. The INC is a specialized program for middle school newcomer refugee English Learners; currently, I serve students from Central and Eastern Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Depending on how many refugees are resettled in the US (and specifically Milwaukee) each year, my student population changes in both number and in cultural background.

The curriculum I created through the AGSL grant is titled “Who I Am, Where I’m From,” and focuses on students’ home countries, and how these places have changed over time. Because the majority of my students have spent their childhood in refugee camps or resettled in countries of asylum, they often desire learning about where they’re originally from.

In this unit, students will analyze maps of their homelands from the AGSL Digital Collections dated as recently as 2018 to as far back as 1721. Specifically, students will use three pre-selected maps that include their home countries’ region. After identifying and writing about their homeland, they will study how its name and borders have changed through the time period of these maps. Students will then perform research using online databases to learn how and why these changes occurred. During this unit, students will also acquire new academic vocabulary while gaining insight into how people in power have changed our world.

My students have been learning in a virtual setting since April, and are becoming more skilled in using the tools of this environment. I will teach this curriculum through whole and small group video classes, while also supporting students through live documents, discussion boards, and interactive videos. In culmination, students will create a final assessment piece to demonstrate understanding of their new knowledge using a digital platform. Students will meet various standards in ELA and Social Studies surrounding History, Geography, Inquiry, and Research; such as evaluating people’s relationship to places, connecting past and present, and using geographic tools to analyze the world.