T. C. Boyle - A digital scrap-book about "The Tortilla Curtain"
Boyle - "Tortilla Curtain" & the topic:
(illegal) immigration from Latin-America to the US
 
group-project: printmedia & the Web
texts - methods
useful links
Group-project: getting more knowledge
Quite obvious, a novel dealing with the topical issue of (illegal) immigration from Latin America into the US wants the reader to have a look at reality as well - and here's the 'Landeskunde' topic after having worked though the novel!
No knowledge about all this without reading: Articles from newspapers and magazines, from the US, GB as well as from Germany, some print-outs from the
web.
 
First step:
The teacher hands out 13 articles, group-work absolutely necessary. Idea: First approach by help of print-media, questions will arise, hopefully a web-research will offer at least some answers, we'll see. First things first: Phase one, reading, talking, gathering information, trying to get a picture of the current situation - and learning some new words. Groups present their first results to the course.
 
Second step:
Research on the web; the groups know what to look for after having worked through the articles. Special interest: the legal situation of (illegal) immigrants; how can a baby, born to illegal aliens in the US, have the US citizenship and their parents aren't allowed to stay? Facts, statistics, numbers, description of situation of illegal aliens etc. WWW-reasearch in a double-period, loads of print-outs taken home and to be evaluated in the next period.
 
Third step:
The additional results are summed up in the groups and presented to the course, as well orally as in a written way: A Klausur is looming in the air, the topic will be "Illegal immigration to the US".
To get in touch with a matter-of-fact-text on this topic we work on
"Walking the Line with the agents in green" (El Paso Herald-Post March 29, 1997):
http://www.heraldpost.com/news/97/march/29/border.html
 
Method:
Four groups of 3-5 pupils; each group gets different articles, one takes over the role of a group-captain who is in charge of informing all group-members, copying articles, etc.; he/she delegates and co-ordinates work of the group.
  • in between: principles of group-work on the board with some explanations (following the ideas of Heinz Klippert: "Methodentraining")
Presentation of contents, main aspects of the topic, list of words necessary to know and worth learning when dealing with the topic "(illegal) immigration into the US"
Texts for the groups:
 
"The migrant reality: Interdependence" (USA Today 30-09-98)
 
"Leidiges Englischschwatzen" (SPIEGEL 30/96)
 
"English only at Californian schools-voters say no to bilingual education" (Read on 8/98)
 
 
 

 

 

"Migrants blocked from US cities risk death in desert" (Guardian 7-9-98)
 
"No place like home" (Newsweek June 15, 1998)
 
"Endstation für Träume" (STERN 37/98)
 
"State Leads Anti-Immigrant Wave" (SFO Chronicle 29-3-94)

 

 

 

 
"California’s Gatekeeper project under fire" http://cnn.com/US/9608/23/gatekeeper.probe/index.htm
 
 
"Border No Mans Land Transformed by Army and Border Patrol" http://clui.zone.org/clui/site_ext/perimete/brdrsd.html
 
"Senate Oks get-tough immigration bill" http://cnn.com/US/9605/02/immigration.update/index.html
 
"Coming to America: Melting pot starts to boil" http://cnn.com/US/9603/immigration/18/index.html
 
"Well, OK, since you asked...." http://www.usbp.com/rays_story.htm
 
"The Smith Diaries" http://www.usbp.com/smith.htm

 

 

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