Teaching about Immigration

Books for Teachers

Books for Students

Films

Organizations

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The No Human Is Illegal Resource Guide: An Educator's Guide for Addressing Immigration in the Classroom
By NYCORE | 2006
Helps educators to take on the important issues that teachers and students have been tackling in their activism INSIDE the classroom. Free download.

The Line Between Us: Teaching about the Border and Mexican Immigration
By Bill Bigelow | 2006 | 160 pp
The Line Between Us explores the history of U.S-Mexican relations and the roots of Mexican immigration, all in the context of the global economy. The Line Between Us is a timely new book by Rethinking Schools, featuring interactive lessons on the history of the border, life on the border, and more. One of the best resources for providing students the background and "people's stories" regarding the current debates about immigration.

The Power in Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States
By Bill Bigelow and Norman Diamond | 2009 | 196 pp
Offers lesson plans for teaching labor history.

The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy: A Compact and Irreverent Guide to Economic Life in America
By Nancy Folbre and Center for Popular Economics, United for a Fair Economy, and National Priorities Project | 2000 | 224 pp
Numbers, charts, stories and cartoons on all aspects of the U.S. economy, including a chapter on the Global Economy which features sections on unemployment in other countries, cross border-conglomerates, cheap labor and imports, and more! Each page can be read and discussed by students from grades 2-12.

Asian Americans: The Movement and the Moment
Edited by Steve Louie and Glenn K. Omatsu | 2001 | 350pp
Documents the rich, little-known history of Asian American social activism during the years 1965-2001. This book examines the period not only through personal accounts and historical analysis, but through the visual record-utilizing historical pictorial materials developed at UCLA's Asian American Studies Center on Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese Americans.

Sabemos y Podemos
By Rachel Martin and Alejandra Domenzain | 1999 | 222 pp
Sabemos y Podemos challenges teachers to teach evaluation, composition, judgment, and other higher order thinking skills while using topics that are as socially meaningful as they are personally motivating. Although billed as a guide for adult education, it would work for all students with mid to upper levels of ESL proficiency as well.

Caribbean Connections Series
Published by Teaching for Change | Set of Six Books
Highly acclaimed collections of fiction, nonfiction, oral histories, interviews, poetry, drama and songs on culture, politics, and the immigrant experience. For high school and college social studies, English, and Spanish classes. Sold individually or by the set of six. Titles include: Overview of Regional History, Moving North,The Dominican Republic (also available in Spanish), Haiti, and Jamaica.

Building a Race and Immigration Dialogue in the Global Economy: A Popular Education Resource for Immigrant and Refugee Community Organizers
By E. Cho, F. Arguelles, M. Louie and S. Khokha | 2004 | 287 pp
BRIDGE is a popular education resource of exercises and tools with eight workshop modules that include activities, discussion questions, fact sheets. Topics include: The History of Immigration 101; Migration, Globalization, and Workers’ Rights; Introduction to Race, Migration, and Multiple Oppressions; Migrant Rights are Human Rights; LGBT Rights and Immigrant Rights; Immigrant Women’s Leadership; and Migration, Race and Demographic Change.

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One Green Apple by Eve Bunting
Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del Otro Lado by Gloria Anzaldua
A Gift from Papa Diego/ Un Regalo de Papá Diego by Benjamin Alire Saenz Landed by Milly Lee
Creativity by John Steptoe Behind the Mountains by Edwidge Danticat
Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
The Dragon Child: A Story of Angel Island by Lawrence Yep
Journey of Dreams by Marge Pellegrino Drawing from testimonies shared by refugee families from Guatemala, Pellegrino has written a moving novel of a 12-year-old girl, Tomasa, and her family who flee for safety as their village is burned to the ground. While traveling north, they see how big landowners quickly take over the farmland after the indigenous people who have lived there for centuries are killed or forced out by soldiers. Every night of their journey, Tomasa’s father shares legends and family stories as he did each night in their village. After a harrowing border crossing into Mexico, Tomasa’s family finds help from the Sanctuary Movement. The book ends with their arrival in the United States. It can introduce young adult readers to the experience of Central American immigrants and the long journey north, which is even more difficult today.