Shared Journeys is a series of six educational workshops for Adult ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes. Each workshop includes a tour of a restored apartment in the historic tenement at 97 Orchard Street and a discussion about the connections between immigrant experiences past and present. The program provides a unique context for English language learning, helps students place their own immigration experience within a broader historical and political framework, and promotes critical engagement with civic issues.
YOU MAY CHOOSE TO PARTICIPATE IN ONE, SEVERAL OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING WORKSHOPS, IN ANY ORDER. THE PROGRAM IS APPROPRIATE FOR INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED ESOL STUDENTS. SHARED JOURNEYS IS A FREE PROGRAM.
Our Immigration Histories: Telling Our Stories
In this workshop, participants visit the apartment of a Sephardic Jewish family and meet a costumed interpreter playing 14 year-old Victoria Confino, who lived in the tenement in 1916. Victoria tells participants about her culture, and discusses with them the challenges of being an immigrant in 1916. After meeting Victoria, participants work in small groups to discuss their own immigration experiences. Can be adapted for beginner level ESOL students
Immigrants and Social Welfare
Visit the apartment of Natalie Gumpertz, a single mother who raised her children on her own during the economic depression of the 1870s. Participants will use this story as a foundation for a discussion about the challenges of making a living and raising a family in the United States today.
Making a Living
Visit the 1897 home of the Levine family, who ran a small garment factory in their home. Conditions in factories such as this sparked a national debate about what constitutes acceptable working conditions. Participants learn how immigrants organized for better working conditions in the past and discuss the challenges of making a living, and working conditions today.
Health Issues In Our Communities
Visit the 1869 apartment of the Moore family. The family is in mourning because their youngest child has died of marasmus, known today as malnutrition. Participants will use the Moore story to discuss issues related to immigrant health and the barriers immigrants may face when trying to access health care.
Coming to the United States
Visit the 1935 apartment of Rosaria and Adolpho Baldizzi, Italian Catholic immigrants who came to the United States during the height of the first immigration restrictions. Participants will compare their own immigration experience with that of the Baldizzis, and discuss "Who should be able to immigrate to the United States?" and "What does it mean to be 'American'?"
Housing, Then and Now
In this workshop, participants discuss the question "What are acceptable housing conditions?" They learn how immigrants helped shape ideas about housing standards between 1863 and 1935 and the steps they can take to improve housing conditions today. Participants take on the role of housing inspectors in the early 1900s and, using the 1901 Tenement House Act, "inspect" the tenement building at 97 Orchard Street. They are then given information about current housing laws and consider whether their own homes meet today's standards of acceptable housing.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is pleased to present High School Shared Journeys, a workshop series specially designed for transitional bilingual education, dual language, and ELL classes. In each of the workshops, students tour the museum's historic tenement building, learn new English vocabulary words, and participate in discussion activities about how their own immigrant experiences compare to those of immigrants past.
Our Immigrant Histories: Telling Our Stories
Students take on then role of a newly arrived immigrant family in the year 1916 and interact with a costumed interpreter playing the role of fourteen year old Victoria Confino, former resident of 97 Orchard Street. They discuss issues such as the challenges of adjusting to a new culture, retaining one's cultural heritage, and making a home in a new country. After meeting Victoria, students break into small groups to discuss the connections they see between immigrant experiences in 1916 and their own experiences immigrating to the United States.
Learning about Discrimination
Students visit the apartment of the Sicilian Baldizzi family, who immigrated to the United States in the early 1920s, when there was a great deal of discrimination against Italians. Students discuss the causes of anti-immigrant sentiment and participate in small group discussion activities about discrimination against immigrants today.
Making a Difference: Immigrants and Social Change
Students visit the recreated apartments of a family that worked in the garment industry at the turn of the last century and learn about the efforts of reformers, workers, and others to improve working conditions in garment shops and factories. Students then learn about people who are taking action to improve the lives of immigrant workers today, and about steps they can take to make a difference.
Program Availability
Monday- Friday, 9-11 am and 6-8 pm.
note: If your class is late, your workshop may be shortened or cancelled.
Reservations
Phone: 212-431-0233, ext. 241
TTY: 221.431.0714
Fax: 212.431.0402
Reservations are required for all groups and must be made at least 3 weeks
in advance. To make a reservation, please call, or send an e-mail to
groups@tenement.org. The available slots fill up quickly, so please call
as far in advance as possible and have alternate dates available.
Group Size
There is no minimum group size. The maximum group size is 15 people.
If your class is larger than 15 people, you will need to book two simultaneous workshops.
Please let us know of any special needs your group has. The Museum
offers assistive listening devices and large print materials. 97 Orchard
Street is not wheelchair accessible, but programs are available in our
accessible Visitors Center at 108 Orchard Street. Please inquire.
Fees
The Tenement Museum offers Shared Journeys workshops to ESOL classes free
of charge. Space is limited, so please call today to book your free workshops! For more information call 212.431.0233, extension 244
Shared Journeys made possible, in part, through generous support from
Axe-Houghton Foundation. Additional support is provided by donors to the
Tenement Museum's Education Fund including The Max and Victoria Dreyfus
Foundation, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the
Kettering Family Foundation, MetLife Foundation, the National Park Service,
the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and The Harold and Mimi
Steinberg Charitable Trust.
The Museum is excited to partner with We Are New York, an Emmy Award-winning television show created to help immigrant New Yorkers practice English while informing them of the city's resources.
Run by the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs in all five boroughs, WANY is a free program that features the stories of people who have come from all over the world and now call New York City home. The program is being offered in partnership with University Settlement.
DATES:
10 weeks beginning in February 2012
TIMES and LOCATION:
Sundays, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at University Settlement (273 Bowery Street)
Tuesdays, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Tenement Museum (103 Orchard Street)
TO SIGN-UP:
For Sunday classes at University Settlement, please call 212.475.5008.
For Tuesday classes at the Tenement Museum, please call 212.431.0233.
REGISTRATION IS FREE FOR EVERYONE.
Please note classes are pending on availability of facilitators and number of people that sign up.
PARTICIPANTS AND
INSTRUCTORS HAVE SAID
"Many immigrants think they are the first ones to have experienced what they are living.
This program gives them the sense of the greater experience."
"It brought topics to the surface that can be hard for a[non-immigrant] teacher to bring up, and it gave us
a chance to discuss them all."
"I learned a lot of history about people who emigrated from different parts of the world and [it] is interesting because sometimes
I see myself reflected."
"It makes me feel I'm part of
the American history but in a
new way ."
"I like the tenement tour, I think
the people who lived there, and
they were workers just like me.
It feels familiar because the way
they were living…it was like
they struggled a lot."
