Migrant+Children+in+the+Classroom+Websites,+Videos,+Other+Research

Migrant Children

United Farm Workers. http://www.ufw.org/
This is the webpage of the national organization of the UFW. The website provides up-to-date information on current events that affect migrant workers and promotes activism for social justice for farmworkers. It provides a forum for people who are interested in the rights and living and working conditions of farmworkers to share information, photos, videos, and commentary. This site would be useful for teachers looking for authentic ways to include Cesar Chavez, one of the founders of the UFW, in their curriculum. It may be interesting for children and young people to realize that Barack Obabma's signature line, yes we can, originated out of the UFW. Here is one example of a story highlighted: 10/4/08: KPFA Evening News Segment re: [|National Organizations Asking Whole Foods to Stand Up for Social Responsibility]

[]** This is a collection of teaching materials and websites put together by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This is specifically created by educators for teaching so the links are useful for student and teacher research. A nice collection of briefly annotated resources.
 * Migrant Farmworkers

This website provides links to several great lesson plan ideas for using the text The Circuit and other books by Francisco Jimenez in your classroom. These ideas are most appropriate for students in 4-6th grade but might be modified for younger students. The idea I particularly liked was the idea of comparing and contrasting the lives of Cesar Chavez and the experiences related in The Circuit. This lesson plan includes useful websites that students could use for their research.
 * Lit Plans: Francisco Jimenez**
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This is a documentary about the experiences of migrant farmworkers' children trying to get an education. It is a documentary and so parts of it are more difficult to follow than others. It is almost one hour long which felt quite long. I would suggest previewing and perhaps using parts of the movie along with literature or other research to help build students' understanding of the life and experiences of migrant children. The video would probably be of most interest to middle-school or older children. I have watched the video more than one time and had difficulty watching it all-- it drags in many places.
 * Escuela (videorecording).** **, Hannah Weyer & Selina Lewis-Davidson (Producers), Hannah Weyer** **(Director). (2002)**. This video is available from the ASU library.

This is a video documentary based on a PBS series. It is very interesting and engaging to watch. It is really about immigrants and refugees, and not necessarily migrant farmworkers, but it would be an excellent video to watch with other teachers for staff development. The video focuses on the adaptations families have to make as they transition to a new country and also depicts some of the reasons that families would choose to leave, or be forced to leave their home land. This video is great because it would help teachers see how the whole family life, life-style and decisions might influence a child's education. The emotional lives of the families are portrayed in a way to build empathy in the viewer. This video also comes with a resource guide and questions to help facilitate reflective viewing. This video is also available from the ASU library.
 * The New Americans. (2004).** Ka**rtemquin Films.**

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 * The North Carolina Justice Center

This page would mostly be of use to collect resources and information on the rights and advocacy for farm workers in North Carolina. It also has useful links to other consumer and labor organizations in North Carolina. "The Justice Center’s Immigrants Legal Assistance Project provides direct legal representation to immigrants and migrant workers in selected cases related to employment law." For teachers, it would be a good resource if you needed to know about organizations and services to offer parents who are migrant workers.

[|http://www.extension.org/pages/Migrant_Farm_Workers:_Our_Nation's_Invisible_Population]
 * NC State Cooperative Extension: Migrant Farmworkers: Our Nation's Invisible Population**

This is an informative and easy to read article that defines who farmworkers are, why many farmworkers come to the United States and discusses their legal status and lack of political power in the U.S. Many farmworkers in North Carolina are in the state on guest worker Visas which provide them with few to no legal rights or are undocumented. This is a very brief and basic article that could be used in student research. It is basic enough for students in upper elementary to access.

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 * The National Center for Farmworker Health**

As the title suggests, this website focuses on providing information and resources related to health issues and statistics of farmworkers in the United States. One useful resource for teachers is a list of fact sheets that might be used in student research.

This website is a collection of student created life-stories. While not extensive, these are quite interesting and provide the perspective of real kids. These could be used for student research or could be used as a model if you wanted to ask students to create their own website with life-stories.
 * Migrant Workers' Children**[]