Kommunikativer Englischunterricht: “The Ellis Island Experience”

Über die intensiven Eindrücke während der Simulation sowie die Vor- und Nachbereitung dieses Projekts haben die Schülerinnen und Schüler Artikel für die Schulhomepage verfasst. Im Folgenden finden sich Beispiele von drei verschiedenen Autorinnen dazu:

1.Beispiel:
In our English class we talked about New York City and Ellis Island. During the project “The Ellis Island experience” we worked in groups, created passports from Irish, Italian and German immigrants and created ID cards from immigration officers who worked on Ellis Island. The backside of the ID cards and passports was used as a cheat sheet for the simulation of the immigration process. After that, we acted it out.

In my opinion it was a great idea because when you do a role play, you can imagine in a better way how the immigrants felt and you can understand their feelings. We, in our roles as immigrants felt sad and angry because some immigrants weren´t allowed to enter the US. Most immigrants had negative feelings and we were torn between hope and despair. But the officers felt sorry for the immigrants as well. But sometimes other pupils do things they shouldn’t do in a role play, like laughing all the time. All in all the group work, the preparation and the simulation was very successful and we learned by playing.

In my opinion it was a very good idea because it was a great experience and we could learn things by ourselves. I would recommend a simulation or a project like “The Ellis Island experience” to every class and subject because you can have fun and learn a lot.
(Susanna Thiem, 8A)

2.Beispiel:
"The Ellis Island experience" was about slipping into the role of an immigrant from a European country who wanted to enter the US. Other pupils had to play the role of an immigration officer in the US. It was a great experience because of the different feelings. The project was very well made for recognizing how the immigrants felt when all of this happened in the past. The group work was sometimes loud but it was fun.

In my role as an immigrant I felt very desperate and sad. The officers sent me back home because I was coughing a little bit and they said it could get more serious. After the simulation I can imagine better how all the immigrants have felt and feel today and what they hope for. It would be great if other classes do a simulation like this because then they won’t say anything against the refugees and immigrants. Maybe they will feel sorry for them. (Angelina Wagner, 8A)

3.Beispiel:
In our last English lesson we did a roleplay about Ellis Island during the 1920s. The project “The Ellis Island experience” was about the immigration officers and the immigrants.

Within the roleplay (simulation) I was an immigrant. On the one hand, I felt happy during the simulation because I was allowed to enter the US and my husband and son were allowed to enter, too. But on the other hand, I was sad because the dad of my husband was too old and too ill to follow us into the US. Besides, I as an immigrant felt nervous because I didn’t know how life would go on, if it was better and how I could deal with the new life. Furthermore, I was under much pressure because of the reading and writing test. Everybody looked at me and I wanted to do everything right. In addition, the officers didn’t have an easy job. In some cases they had to send people back to their home countries and separate their families.

There are many positive and negative points about a roleplay like this. First, I want to begin with the positive ones. In my opinion a very good point is that we have to speak English to communicate with other pupils.  A very positive aspect is that we do something in teamwork. Therefore, everybody has to do something. We have to do something together and have to learn to decide something in a group.  My last positive point is that we as the students have a lot of fun and maybe the teachers while watching us, too. It is a different kind of English lesson, not the normal way to learn something. I would like to emphasise that we have learnt how the people felt. It was a very difficult situation for the immigrants and for the officers, too. I think we all wouldn’t like to be in the situation of a person on Ellis Island. But a roleplay like “The Ellis Island experience” has negative aspects, too. Sometimes there are students who don’t get involved enough or don’t participate at all. Then, the other team members have to do everything. Another negative argument against a roleplay is that maybe there is one student who works alone and doesn’t decide with the other team members.

Personally I think that these lessons (preparation and simulation) influenced my way of thinking about immigration, in the past (America), but also in today’s situation (Germany and Europe). We should be very thankful that everything is wonderful here. We have a great life, no persecution and no war. The immigrants had a very sad and bad life and escaped from their home countries to the US.

I definitely would recommend such a roleplay to other classes and subjects. My most important argument for a roleplay is that we learn something about how people in different situations feel. We often can’t imagine such bad and sad things because the life we have is a great one. Unfortunately, we don’t appreciate it. In addition, the arguments for a roleplay like this were more powerful than the ones against it because the negative ones don’t occur in every group, only in some groups. I also think slipping into other roles and imagining unknown situations are very important and interesting. (Victoria Pompetzki, 8A)