New Edition: Energy of a Nation: Immigrants in America, 3^rd Ed.

The Advocates for Human Rights proudly announces the publication of Energy of a Nation: Immigrants in America, 3rd Edition. This curriculum is a distinctive, comprehensive guide to teaching students about immigration in the United States. Designed for 8^th grade to adult audiences, with a module for upper elementary and middle level students, it provides important fundamental concepts, such as:

·   Definitions of key terms;

·     Informational background summaries;

·     Admission categories and processes; and

·   Statistics and trends of immigrants over time.

In addition, this teaching guide elevates students’ basic understandings and expands their perspectives through critical context, such as:

·     Root causes of undocumented immigration;

·     The complex realities of removal through the immigration courts;

·     Other countries’ experience with, and response to, immigration;

·     Nativism and public discourse around immigration;

·     Push and pull factors that cause people to move;

·     The special case of refugees and asylum seekers;

·     The human rights of immigrants;

·      Local and national U.S. policy considerations; and

·      Service learning opportunities to create a welcoming school and community.

The curriculum is filled with engaging, student-centered activities that follow best practices for human rights education (HRE). Students learn by exploring their own immigrant history; role-playing a refugee’s journey; deciding under what conditions they might risk being undocumented; playing games to understand the immigration system; drawing representative pictures of policies; rehearsing deliberative dialogue; constructing a gallery of nativism over the centuries; and creating a service learning project for their classroom or school.

Using the HRE framework for immigration allows students to acquire the knowledge to understand immigration topics, but also to gain the skills and values necessary to process future information or experiences. Students learn to put information in context, check it against reliable sources, consider root causes, make essential connections, and participate in democratic processes. They are provided the opportunity to view themselves and the United States as actors in a global, fluid movement of people and to see the human beings that make up these mass flows as individuals - each with a story, a life, and the same rights that bind us all.
 

The entire curriculum will be available to school and community educators online, free of charge. In addition, staff will respond to teacher requests to demonstrate lessons in K-12 classrooms and provide trainings to teachers and other school staff on immigration and human rights through professional development workshops.