Activity 3.1: Who is Sammy Lee? What was the Immigrant Experience of his Family?

Lesson 1: The Korean Diaspora and Korean Americans

  1. Teacher Guide
  2. Alignment with California Content Standards
  3. Activity 2: Where Was the First Koreatown and Who Was Dosan Ahn Chang Ho?
  4. Assessments
  5. Extension: Civic Engagement Support

  1. Teacher Guide
  2. Alignment with California Content Standards
  3. Activity 3.1: Who is Sammy Lee? What was the Immigrant Experience of his Family?
  4. Activity 3.2: How did U.S. Immigration Laws shape Sammy Lee’s Life?
  5. Assessments
  6. Extension: Literature and Writing Extension: Book Reviews and Storytelling

  1. Teacher Guide
  2. Alignment with California Content Standards
  3. Activity 4.1: How was the Korean Independence Movement Impacted by Wilson’s Fourteen Points?
  4. Activity 4.2: How did the Korean Independence Movement shape and become shaped by Formation of the Korean American Identity in the United States?
  5. Assessments
  6. Extension: Writing Extensions

  1. Teacher Guide
  2. Alignment with California Content Standards
  3. Activity 5.1: Who was the First Asian American to Command a U.S. Battalion?
  4. ​Activity 5.2: How is Colonel Young Oak Kim an Unsung Hero?
  5. Assessment & Extensions:: Argumentative Essay

  1. Teacher Guide
  2. Alignment with California Content Standards
  3. Activity 6.1: Aftermath of the Korean War
  4. Activity 6.2: ​Korean War Orphans
  5. Activity 6.3: ​Experiences of Korean Transnational Adoptees
  6. Assessment
  7. Extensions

  1. Teacher Guide
  2. Alignment with California Content Standards
  3. Activity 7.1: A Cry for Justice
  4. Activity 7.2: Experiences of Korean Americans during the 1992 LA Civil Unrest
  5. Activity 7.3: The Legacy of Saigu
  6. Assessment
  7. Extention: Research Project
  8. Extention: Research Project Supplemental

  1. Teacher Guide
  2. Alignment with California Content Standards
  3. Activity 8.1: Hallyu and K-Pop: A Global Phenomenon
  4. Activity 8.2: Oscar Winners: A Closer Look at Minari
  5. Activity 8.3: Korean Americans Past, Present, and Future
  6. Music Video Resources
  7. Assessment & Extension

Activity 3.1: Who is Sammy Lee? What was the Immigrant Experience of his Family?

  Students explore the life of Sammy Lee and his experiences as an immigrant to the United States.  They identify similarities and differences in immigrant experiences and consider ways that Sammy Lee and other immigrants have contributed to the United States. 

Activity Questions

  • What does it mean to be an immigrant to the United States? How does immigrant status affect experience?
  • Who is Sammy Lee? What was the immigrant experience of his family?
  • What issues did Sammy Lee face as an immigrant? How did he overcome them?
  • What are similarities and differences in the experiences of immigrants and their families?
  • How have Sammy Lee and other immigrants contributed to the United States?

Instructional Strategies

  • To support these activities, use the Lesson 3 Presentation.

​Quick-Writes

  • Provide students with the following prompt and allow them five minutes to Quick-write their response. Call on student volunteers to share their reflections, including any examples of Korean Americans. NOTE: Students will use these Quick-writes as their rough drafts for the Summative Assessment.
    • Write for 5 minutes about someone who is or was an immigrant to the United States.  This may be someone famous, someone you know, or even a character from a book, movie, or TV show. Use these questions to guide your response: • Who are they? • Where did they come from and when? • Why did they immigrate? • Were they alone or with their families? • What difficulties did they have becoming part of American society?

Introduction to Immigrant Experiences

  • Introduce the differences between citizens and immigrants. Ask students to share whether immigrants in your story become permanent residents or citizens.
  • Introduce issues faced by immigrants and ask students which issues were faced by the immigrants in their stories.
  • Have students add a few sentences to their Quick-Writes response regarding immigrant status and issues faced.

Introduction to Dr. Sammy Lee

  • Briefly introduce Dr. Sammy Lee and engage students in the story of his early years through one of the following options:
    • Direct students to the website, A Life Well Lived: The Story of Sammy Lee, and have students take notes on important life events and issues encountered by Sammy and his family members because of their immigration status.
    • Have Students view the narration of the children’s book, Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds​, and take notes on important life events and issues encountered by Sammy and his family members because of their immigration status.
  • Distribute the handouts: A Biographical Overview of Dr. Sammy Lee.  Have students mark the text to note important life events and issues encountered by Sammy and his family members because of their immigration status. They may use the information on the slide, Top Issues Faced by Immigrants, to identify and make a note of which issues were encountered.
  • Have students share their findings with a partner or small group.

Identification of Similarities and Differences

  • Have students return to their Quick-Writes Response and identify at least two similarities and two differences between Sammy Lee and the immigrant they wrote about.
  • Have them organize their ideas in a Venn Diagram.

NOTE:  These activities are important prewriting activities for the Summative Assessment Comparison/Contrast Essay (see Lesson 3 Assessments).   Closing the Activity

  • End class with review and discussion of the activity questions.
  • NOTE:  Have students save their Quick-Writes responses, annotation of Sammy Lee’s biography, and Venn Diagrams for their Summative Assessment Comparison/Contrast Essay.

Resources

  • Lesson 3 Teacher’s Guide and Lesson 3 Presentation are found under Lesson 3.
  • Handout: A Biographical Overview of Dr. Sammy Lee 
  • Website: A Life Well Lived: The Story of Sammy Lee 

Video: Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds   

A Biographical Overview of Dr. Sammy Lee (PDF)

Video: Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds (YouTube)