EDSS 512 - Ellis Island and Immigration in the 19th & 20th Centuries (3)

The story of Ellis Island is the story of what it means to be an American. It is the symbol of American immigration, standing alongside other great monuments as part of our nation’s founding mythos. For more than 60 years, Ellis Island was the gateway for millions of our ancestors into the United States. 

In this course, you will develop strategies for teaching about this time and place of unparalleled immigration in American history from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. You’ll cultivate resources and lesson ideas to help your students understand the intense and bittersweet accounts of all the people who came through Ellis Island, including the immigrants, officials, interpreters, and social reformers. In addition, you’ll examine the untold story of the Ellis Island Hospital, where the germs of the world converged-a fateful crossroads for hundreds of thousands of hopeful immigrants, which had untold effects on public health. 

Using the techniques from this course, you will be equipped to help your students authentically connect to this dynamic period in history and how it shaped the nation America would become.