First Text Set Immigration, citizenship and ideas about what it means to be an American are closely intertwined.

These concepts can also be very relevant to English Language Learners who immigrate to the United States. This semester I am working with two students; I will refer to them as Jason and Jonathan. Jason and Jonathan are both from the Dominican Republic. Both boys are in the eighth grade. Jonathan has lived in the United States for six years and Jason came to the United States four years ago. Jason and Jonathan attend a middle school in southern Queens and are both in the same class. As a result, both of them are receiving the same instruction and also get pulled out of class by an ESL teacher. Additionally, as eighth graders, they are studying American History in their Humanities class. The second unit of the year related to immigration. In this unit, students were asked to think about what it means to be an American. Similarly, they reviewed aspects of nativism, citizenship and naturalization. On more than one occasion, Jonathan shared his opinions about nativism, which he realized were influenced by the fact that he is an immigrant. However, he also considers himself an American, as does Jason. For this reason, I thought I would delve deeper into these concepts with Jason and Jonathan. The texts that I focused on pertain to different aspects of being an American. The texts can be grouped together under the umbrella theme of American identity. Nevertheless, the texts provide different perspectives for the students to consider in addition to their own. I wanted to choose a theme that I knew would be relevant and interesting to Jason and Jonathan. After gauging their attitudes about being an American and what it means in light of immigration, I decided to move forward with looking for texts. I want to make it clear that it should not be assumed that students who are born in other

countries naturally enjoy talking about these concepts or even want to talk about these concepts. Nevertheless, Jason and Jonathan were both outspoken about their citizenship and their expectations of America. The first three texts that I chose include a poem, a song and a speech. As Cloud (2009) states, a good text set includes a wide variety of written texts and materials that vary in length, difficulty, and structure, and encompasses texts that are interesting, relevant, and accessible to most students (54). Accordingly, I chose a poem that is fairly short, a song that is a bit longer and lastly, Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream speech. The speech relates to what it means to be an American and also highlights inequality. Similarly, the poem I chose by Langston Hughes, titled, I, Too, Sing America pertains to the unequal treatment of and discrimination against African Americans or simply, any person of color. These texts range in complexity and both of them contrast with the song I chose to include, Proud to Be an American by Lee Greenwood. I wanted to incorporate audio, so I figured music would be great way to do so. Lee Greenwoods song offers yet another perspective in reference to being an American. The song also adds an aspect of rhythm. According to Cloud, poetry and rhyme are especially effective in supporting early writing because they are predictable, recursive, rhythmic and fun (57). While the poem and song incorporate rhythm, the speech also does the same to some extent. Screening a video or playing an audio version of the I Have a Dream speech can help Jason and Jonathan understand the mood of the piece (a transcript of the speech) by simply hearing the tone of voice. It would also enable them to further highlight the rhythmic and sound aspect that can add meaning to the text.

Second Text Set The texts that I have chosen for this first text set give students multiple entry points to a unified theme. Based on a learning styles inventory and interview with Jason and Jonathan, I found out that Jason prefers audio materials and Jonathan prefers visual materials. Approaching the text through different mediums allows both students to conceptualize the texts in more than one way, as they are given video or audio to understand the text. In reference to the chart in Teaching Readers of English (Hedgcock, Ferris 2009), I believe the combination of the poem, the song and the speech along with the multiple entry points through different media will provide an interactive and integrated view. In addition to these three texts, my second text set includes two articles as well as a poem. I wanted to balance the literary texts containing figurative language such as the poem and song in the first text set with two informational texts. Consequently, I decided to incorporate two articles. The articles offer different viewpoints about naturalized citizens. In Naturalized Citizens Explain Why Theyre American by Choice, the author explains how naturalized citizens undergo a very long process to become American. The article also describes the reasons why individuals want to become American citizens. A different image of immigrants is painted in The New Case Against Immigration Both Legal and Illegal. In this text, the author explains the negative effects that immigrants have in America. Lastly, I decided to include another poem. This poem titled, Immigrants in Our Own Land offers yet another perspective of being an American in light of discrimination and inequality. Students can compare this poem with the Langston Hughs poem in the first text set. The poems are similar in content but differ in length. The second poem is a lot

more detailed. However, after reading the other texts and discussing pertinent concepts relating to the texts, this poem should be easier to grasp. Also incorporating the media pieces along with the texts as well as analysis of those texts should make it easier to take on more difficult texts. Writing Activities One of the structures that repeat across these texts is the copula. A writing activity that specifically targets the different forms of the copula with the subject I allows students to review grammar and be self-reflective as well. Hopefully students can use the Langston Hughs poem as inspiration to write sentences where the they fill in blanks with symbolic words representing who they were, who they are and who they will become. The song also lends itself to a writing activity wherein students can create a rap. Students would have the option of writing about being an American or being of a different nationality. They would have to take note of the rhythm and perhaps even rhyme in order to complete this activity. Following the I Have a Dream speech, students can write their own speeches. Listening to this speech becomes really important, as does tone. After writing the speech, students can actually pretend like theyre giving the speech and focusing on clear articulation and expression. For the two informational texts, writing activities to follow could include a Venn diagram to compare and contrast information. A chart can also be used to break down the central idea and supporting details of the article in order to write a summary of the more complex text.

Lastly, after reading two poems, students can write their own poems. After introducing different types of poems, students can use The American Dream as inspiration. They could refer to their own lives or to the lives and perspectives of those they read about.

Reference List Baca, J. S. (1977)Immigrants in Our Own Land. Cloud, N., Genesee, F., and Hamayan, E. (2009). Literacy instruction for English Language Learners: A Teachers guide to research based practices. Edward, J. (2007). The New Case Against Immigration Both Legal and Illegal. Greenwood, L. (1984). Proud to be an American. Hughes, L. (1994). I, Too, Sing America. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. King, M. L. (1964). I Have a Dream. Rodriguez, R. (2012). Naturalized Citizens Explain Why Theyre American by Choice.