National Immigrant Heritage Month

Immigrant Heritage Month gives people across the United States an opportunity to annually explore their own heritage and celebrate the shared diversity that forms the unique story of America.

Description & History

Since June of 2014, Immigrant Heritage Month has given immigrants and allies an opportunity to discover common experiences and unite as human beings. While showcasing the contributions of immigrants to the United States of America, this month powerfully demonstrates the unique history of the melting pot. The I Stand With Immigrants / I Am An Immigrant Initiative, by the FWD.us Education Fund, Inc., encourages every American to explore their heritage and share their stories.

Professional Learning Resources

Devices displaying knowledgequest.aasl.org with a faded background of books

Culturally Responsive Teaching in the School Library

In this Knowledge Quest post, blogger Maureen Schlosser explores the questions “Why does culturally responsive teaching matter?” and “How can I be a culturally responsive school librarian?” She also shares ways to reflect on practice and lesson ideas.

American Writers Museum Immigrant Heritage Month Resources

A collection of resources and teaching materials that highlight immigrant voices, stories, and experiences in America.

New Americans Toolkit

The ALSC Library Service to Underserved Children &Their Caregivers committee created a toolkit for working with new Americans. The toolkit is divided into 3 parts, Professional & Community Resources, Recommended Read-alouds, and Intentional Programming.

From Immigration to Sexuality and Beyond: “Include” Graphic Novels to “Explore”…

This AASL National Conference archived session shares an overview of graphic novel titles dealing with critical social justice issues in different curriculum areas like Science and History and aligns titles with the AASL Standards.

Libraries Respond: Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers

Libraries Respond is a space to help keep current events in conversation with libraries' ongoing work in and commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. This collection contains resources on Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers.

Learner Engagement Resources

New American Programming Ideas from Programming Librarian

ProgrammingLibrarian.org provides a place for library professionals to share, learn and be inspired to present excellent programming for their communities.

screenshot of https://immigrationhistory.org/lesson-plans/

Immigration History: Lesson Plans

Immigration History, a project of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, created 12 high school lesson plans which cover a 230 year timeline of laws, court decisions, and executive actions on immigration.

Screenshot of https://imyourneighborbooks.org/welcoming-library/

The Welcoming Library from I’m Your Neighbor

A Welcoming Library can be borrowed from locations around the nation. I’m Your Neighbor also regularly updates the book list of books for all ages with themes around refugees, immigration, and new Americans.

Green Card Voices

A nonprofit based in Minneapolis, this organization works to connect immigrants and their communities through multimedia storytelling. Several resources on the website require a fee, but the videos of students sharing their stories are powerful.

AncestryClassroom

Students can explore heritage with free access to Ancestry Classroom. In addition to the database, resources are available for teachers including a database of lesson plans.