Struggles in our Lives

Assignment: Over the weekend, you will begin to create a project that will explain personal struggles in your own life. 

Some questions to think about before beginning your project: 

1. What is a struggle in your own life?

2. How did / do you deal with this struggle?

3. How is this struggle related to a struggle from the Great Depression?

4. Are the struggles similar or different in nature? Why?

5. How has your struggle built your character?

6. How did struggles during the Great Depression build people's characters in the 1930s?

Class Ideas:

Home: 

I have a strange father. We never talk a lot. Also, I don't want to talk with him because he is so strange.

My struggle at home is that I have to study alone.

In China, my father lost his job when I was 16 years old. I was preparing for a test, but there was no income and I couldn't take the test.

My mother always struggles for me to have a better life.

My struggle is that I lived in my country my whole life and this is the first time  moving. When I moved to another country and wasn't easy for me.

Peers:

I can't hang out with my friend anymore because I had to move to another country.

I had to leave my home country and move to the United States. Now, I feel very sad about this situation.

Sometimes when I speak my pronunciation is not very good, so people will laugh.

I can't speak English very well yet, but still manage to make friends.

School:

I work very hard to earn good grades.

My friends every day tell me that I never am going to learn and be a good student :(

When I came to Emma Lazarus, I felt very bad. I didn't know any English. I couldn't communicate with my teachers or classmates. I don't yet have friends.

I go to school, then I have to work after school. After this, I have to finish my homework and this can be very tiring.

I always work very hard because I want to become a nurse.

I can't get good grades even though I work very hard.

My difficult struggle is that I want to pass all of my final exams. I studied until 1 a.m. every night.

I am discriminated against by teachers and other students. It has helped me build my character.

I need to work most of the time after school because I must pay for my own rent or anything else that need.

Nation:

When I came to the U.S., I didn't understand the country at all. I don't know its culture or how people think. So I have to communicate and learn the culture through English. But, my English is not very good.

In my home country I was considered to be in the lower class. People thought that I had no money because of the way I dressed and because sometimes I had to borrow money from my friends.