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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page summation and discussion of an article concerning teaching immigration issues in a manner that furthers the social studies curricular goals. The pedagogy that educator Bill Bigelow describes in his article “Rethinking the line between us” (Educational Leadership, 2001) offers a template that shows teachers how the social studies curriculum can promote critical thinking among students concerning Mexican and US immigration issues. Furthermore, the activities described by Bigelow also promote active learning, which goes beyond rote memorization by helping students to assimilate an accurate understanding of the complexity of related positions. No additional sources cited.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khiibig.rtf
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curriculum can promote critical thinking among students concerning Mexican and US immigration issues. Furthermore, the activities described by Bigelow also promote active learning, which goes beyond rote memorization by helping
students to assimilate an accurate understanding of the complexity of related positions. Bigelow begins his comments by asserting that "Despite ferocious public debates public debates about immigrations policy, standard
curriculums in U.S. schools fail to help students think historically and critically about immigration issues" (Bigelow 47). He points out that U.S. students have traditionally been kept ignorant of
the known facts concerning the history of U.S.-Mexican relations, particularly the nineteenth century war in which the U.S. annexed a considerable portion of Mexican territory. In Mexico, all schoolchildren learn
the history behind the annexation of the American West from Mexico following the 1846-48 war. Therefore, Mexicans learn that "...there is nothing sacred or inevitable about the line that divides
the two countries" (Bigelow 47). This position contrasts sharply with the attitudes of U.S. students. Bigelow comments that "...in my students minds the line dividing Mexico form the United States
is as clear as if it had been decreed by some border deity" (Bigelow 48). He goes on to cite considerable historical detail, such as an eyewitness account from
the era who states that it appeared that the U.S. government intentionally sent an expeditionary force into Mexico with the express purpose of initiating as war (Bigelow 48). In the
activity devised by Bigelow, students assume the identity of significant Americans who expressed a position relative to the Mexican-American war, such as Frederick Douglass and Henry David Thoreau, who opposed
it, and Jefferson Davis, who support it. The students then "circulate through the classroom, meeting one another in their roles," as they try to find the answers to a series
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