Today I introduced new content while reinforcing old skills (I love it when that happens). To begin Topic 2.10: Causes of Migration, I had students turn their interactive notebooks horizontally and title the page, “Reasons People Migrate.”

Next, I had the kids squad up into fours and brain dump for 10-12 minutes all of the possible reasons that people would migrate. I told students to use the entire page in graffiti style instead of a boring bullet pointed list.

As students worked, I encouraged them to not simply write, “economic reasons…,” and to be as specific as they can (“high taxes”). They were also encouraged to jot down the opposite of their initial findings (i.e. “bad weather”….”favorable weather”). Doing this will give them more to work with in the second half of the activity.

If you’ve heard my ramblings before, you know that I am a big fan of the S.P.E.E.D.S. acronym and I encourage its usage with just about everything. So as students worked, I prompted them to remember the acronym and see if they could squeeze out any more that they hadn’t previously considered.

SOCIAL.   POLITICAL.   ENVIRONMENTAL.   ECONOMIC.    DEMOGRAPHIC.    SPATIAL.

The next step is to have students write Push Factor and Pull Factor at the top of their page; one is circled and the other rectangled. At this point, briefly explain what push and pull factors are with definitions and have students classify each of their reasons with either a circle or a rectangle. Encourage students to do this independently. (5-10 minutes)

Next, have students color code the S.P.E.E.D.S. acronym at the top of their page as a legend (they can choose their own colors). As individuals or with their original squad, have students identify the S.P.E.E.D.S. category for each push and pull factor, and appropriately color each. This will be a good time to review with their squad-mates whether they assigned a circle or a rectangle for their reasons. (12-15 minutes)

Students will discover that some reasons may have more than one S.P.E.E.D.S. classification. I promote this “mixing” as long as they are able to justify it themselves.

Optional and fun: Review as a class and have students play “bingo” by check marking every duplicate response that they hear blurted out by their classmates and is acknowledged by the teacher. Whoever has the most original reasons left at the end, wins a prize. (10-12 minutes)

I love me a low tech Tuesday.

Cheers.

-The Human Imprint

Topic 2.10 Causes of Migration