Introducing The story
As an introduction to immigration, play the Neil Diamond song “America” (from The Jazz Singer Soundtrack, originally recorded in 1980). You may wish to show this video of Diamond singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inLrQS5q2E8 _
Discuss the following in addition to student questions and reflections:
- What do you think this song is about?
- What brought people to America?
- Do you recognize the last few lines of the song? They are from “My Country ’tis of Thee.”
Discuss the title and cover.
- Ask students to explain what the term “journey” means. Ask,“Have you ever traveled to a distant city or country?” Have them share a journey they have taken. Locate these cities or countries on a map.
- What do students believe the book might be about?
- Encourage students to look at the person in the illustration and his clothing. Who might he be? Where was the picture taken? Where is he going?
- Explain the terms “immigrant” and “immigration” and the fact that Grandfather’s Journey is about the author’s grandfather who “immigrated” to America from Japan.
- On a map, point out where Japan is located as well as San Francisco, where Grandfather ultimately lived. Have them suggest what routes Grandfather may have taken from Japan to America’s West Coast traveling by ship.
Reading The Story
Read the first two pages of the book aloud. Have students describe the clothing that Grandfather was wearing when he lived in Japan. Have students compare it to the clothing he wore on the ship taking him to America. Ask why he might have changed the style of clothing he wore.
Read the rest of the book and encourage discussion of the following, as well as student observations, questions, reflections, etc.:
- Grandfather explored North America and visited many different areas. Can students identify where he might have been when he saw the “rocks like enormous sculptures,” the “endless farm fields,” “huge cities of factories and tall buildings,” or the “towering mountains and rivers”?
- Why did Grandfather leave America and return to the place of his birth (Japan)
After The Story
Discuss with students:
- If you were to leave your home, what things about your city,state, or country would you miss most?
- As appropriate, an extension of this discussion might be discovering a way that appreciation for a person, place or thing that would be missed could be expressed.
- Allen Say, the author of the book, decided to live in America, yet he returns to visit Japan when he can. At the end of the book he wrote, “The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other.”
- What do you think “homesick” means? Why might a person become “homesick”?
- Ask students to think of the places in their life that feel like home.
- What attributes of a place are necessary to make them feel that way?
- Do they have multiple places that feel like home (be sure to be sensitive and supportive to the needs of children who might have atypical home living situations)
- How can being with your family make a place feel like home?
Family Journeys
Assign students the task of discovering their own family’s history of home and culture, Tracing the countries that their families have lived for previous generations, as far back as possible.
Post a large world map in the classroom and give each student a different colored marker, and ask children to plot the living locations of their families on the map. Each child should connect the places their families have lived (this means that the plots will overlap, particularly near where you community is located. Look for patterns and concentrated areas.
Encourage each student to find a way to celebrate their family’s heritage, giving the students options that might include bringing in a snack, type of music, image or other presentation that presents the culture of their family’s location in previous generations.