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Migration

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Instructor: Carrie Geiger

Students: Grades 3-5

Objectives:

1. Students will gain a deeper understanding of how culture is transmitted from one society to another, with an emphasis on immigration as one means of such transmission.
2. Students will look at reasons why people choose to leave their home countries and how their experiences shape their futures and impact their new home countries.

Background:

This lesson is encompassed by our overall study of the theme of movement, one of the five themes of geography.

Materials:

1. Multiple copies of “Their Stories” (PDF) distributed by Stanley Boynton
2. Multiple copies of Esperanza Rising (2002) by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Procedures:

1. The teacher will review prior discussions on the theme of movement in geography, with an emphasis on immigration.
2. The students will be placed in pairs to read and respond to “Their Stories,” based on the Affect/Perception/Connection response model.
3. Students will share their responses

Assessment:

This will be an introductory lesson. The teacher will conduct informal observations of the students’ engagement and level of responses.

Follow-up lessons will involve literature circles using the book Esperanza Rising, which details the story of a Central American girl who is forced to leave her home country due to political unrest. Her social class standing as a migrant farm worker in the U.S. is in complete contrast to her life as a wealthy plantation owner’s daughter in her home country. I hope to help my students relate this character’s story to the real-life stories of migrant workers in Florida.