Stories of Migration

About This Lesson

Over two class periods, students engage with multimedia narratives, including interviews, animated videos, and audio recordings, to explore the deeply personal and diverse reasons behind migration. This lesson’s texts explore reuniting with family, seeking better economic opportunities, escaping violence and war, and pursuing education. Building on the migration trends and terminology from the previous lesson, these personal stories add depth and humanity to the statistics, reminding students that behind every number is a unique human story. 

This lesson’s personal narratives and interactive learning experiences are designed to develop deeper understanding and empathy among all students. One or more of the stories may feel affirming for students in your class who have experienced migration firsthand or have a loved one who has. For others, the texts may serve as “windows” into the complexities and human aspects of migration. Ultimately, the lesson seeks to foster a sense of respect and recognition for the dignity of each storyteller, as well as help students recognize the power of stories to transcend the statistics and generalizations often presented in the news and on social media. 

Essential Questions

• Why do people move? 
• How can our migration experiences and those of our ancestors shape our sense of who we are and where we belong?
• How can literature and storytelling broaden our perspective and build empathy for the human experience of migration?

Guiding Questions

• Where do stories get their power?
• How can stories broaden our perspective and build empathy for the human experience of migration? 
• What are the limitations of stories and storytelling to shed light on someone else’s migration experience?

Facing History Learning Outcomes

• Engage with real and imagined stories that help them understand their own experiences and how others experience the world.
• Recognize the power that comes with telling their own story and engaging with the stories of others.

Lesson Plan

Day 1

Activity 1: Warm Up with a Notable Quotable

• Pass out the Notable Quotable Border Reflection handout and read the passage by author James Crawford out loud. 

A border is such a simple idea. Step across a line, whether you can see it or not, and you are somewhere else. The landscape may look exactly the same, one blade of grass to the next, but you are in another place, another country. Perhaps the people speak another language. Their cultures, practices, laws and ideas may be completely different. Perhaps you can be completely different too: who you are and how you live your life may or may not be permissible. On one side of the border may be the promise of wealth, on the other the certainty of poverty. What you read or who you love may be free for you to choose, or may be punishable by prison, even death.

It means that these lines, fences, walls or checkpoints—and the spaces they inhabit—possess immense power. Nothing is different and yet everything is different.  

—James Crawford, author of The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World

• Instruct students to choose one of the sentence starters on their handouts and spend two to three minutes reflecting in their journals. They will not be sharing this response. 
  • This quotation resonates with me because . . .
  • The quotation reminds me of . . .
  • This quotation connects to . . .
  • I think James Crawford wants me to consider . . .
  • I wonder . . .
  • I don’t understand . . .

Activity 2: Engage with Four Personal Narratives About Migration

• Explain that this lesson builds on the migration trends and terminology from the previous lesson with personal stories that add depth and humanity to the statistics that students studied in that lesson. These stories help demonstrate Crawford’s observation that borders and border crossings are anything but simple. They are complex and can have deep, lasting impacts on the individuals and groups who cross them—impacts that can be difficult to understand from graphs and statistics. 
• Move students into groups of three and pass out the Stories of Migration Discussion Guide. Read the instructions out loud to the class. 
• Play the following video/audio texts one at a time. Stop after each one so that students can spend one minute writing a personal response in their journals or on their handouts. Then instruct them to share an idea from their reflections and discuss the questions for that text with their group members. Repeat the process for each text.
  • Video: Students’ Immigration Stories (03:57)
  • Audio: New Home (03:39)
  • Video: A Piece of Home (02:46)
  • Audio: Divided by Immigration Status: Brothers Reflect on Their Bond (02:52)

Activity 3: Reflect on the Personal Narratives on an Exit Ticket

To get a sense of your students’ thinking at the end of this lesson, use the Connect, Extend, Challenge strategy for an exit ticket that you collect. If you don’t have time for an exit ticket, you can do this activity verbally with the whole class. 

• How do one or more of this lesson’s stories connect to what you already know about migration? 
• How do one or more of this lesson’s stories extend what you already know about migration?
• How do one or more of this lesson’s stories challenge what you already know about migration? 

Activity 4: Assign Homework

Explain to students that for homework, they should watch/listen to two more stories and respond to the remaining questions on the Stories of Migration Discussion Guide. (See the “Day 1 Homework” section below for more detailed instructions.)

Homework

Watch/Listen to Two Migration Personal Narratives

Instruct students to watch/listen to and answer questions about two personal narratives, which they can find in the Part 2: Individual Homework Assignment section of the Stories of Migration Discussion Guide. Tell students how they can access the stories on their own, and let them know that they will be using the information on their handouts for the first activity in the next lesson. These are the stories students will use: 

• Audio: What Is a Third Culture Kid?
• Video: Lessons from Lourdes

Day 2 

Activity 1: Warm Up with Musical Shares

• Explain to students that they will warm up with Musical Shares paired discussions about their homework and the previous lesson. They will walk around the room while you play music, and when the music stops, they should stand next to the person closest to them. Encourage them to choose a different partner for each round. You will project or share a question for each round and give pairs two minutes to discuss it. After the time is up, students should thank their partners and circulate again as music plays, repeating the process until they have discussed all three questions. Students can carry their copies of the Stories of Migration Discussion Guide handout to refer to during their conversations.
• Facilitate three rounds of Musical Shares:
  • Round 1: What new, different, or deeper idea about the experience of migration did Lourdes’s story raise for you? 
  • Round 2: What is something you learned from Asya’s story that you want to remember? Can you explain why?
  • Round 3: What connection can you make between one or more of the six stories and another text from this unit? (So far we have read James Crawford’s quotation, the “What Is Migration?” explainer, “All the Colors of Goodbye,” and “Complaint of El Río Grande.”)
• If you noticed patterns of confusion from the previous day’s exit tickets, take a few minutes to discuss them before moving on to the next activity.

Activity 2: Engage in a Big Paper Silent Conversation

(Note: Teaching Note 3 includes important information about this activity and a teacher handout, Big Paper Questions for Engaging with Migration Stories, with the quotations in large print for this activity.)

• Let students know that they will be engaging in a silent conversation about the four questions hanging around the classroom. Explain the Big Paper: Building a Silent Conversation activity if it is new to your students. Then read the Big Paper questions out loud: 
  • Where do stories get their power? How does one or more of the personal narratives help you think about this question? 
  • How can personal stories about migration give us insights or details that are not typically covered in informational texts like a migration explainer or statistical report? How does one or more of the personal narratives help you think about this question?
  • What are the limitations of storytelling in helping us understand and empathize with the experiences of people who have migrated to new places? How does one or more of the personal narratives help you think about this question?
  • Previously, you reflected on a quotation by James Crawford that ends with the sentence: “[T]hese lines, fences, walls or checkpoints—and the spaces they inhabit—possess immense power. Nothing is different and yet everything is different.” 

How can stories and storytelling help us understand the power of borders and the impact that crossing them can have on people, their families, and future generations? How does one or more of the personal narratives help you think about this question?

• Tell students that they can refer to their Stories of Migration Discussion Guide and that they can also reference other ideas from this unit and their own experiences to support their thinking. Encourage students to visit each paper twice: once to respond to the question and a second time to respond to a peer’s idea by drawing a line to it and then adding their own thoughts.
• Move the papers onto tables (or desks pushed together) so it is easier for multiple students to write at the same time. Pass out markers and then invite students to start circulating silently for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on their level of engagement. We encourage you to participate, as well!
• At the end of the writing time, hang the papers at the front of the room and give students a few minutes to look at them before returning to their seats.

Activity 3: Facilitate a Class Discussion

End the lesson by facilitating a class discussion about the six migration narratives—and other texts in this text set—that draws from the following questions. Encourage students to refer to the Big Papers as they develop their ideas.

• How do one or more of these stories help you think about what James Crawford calls the “immense power” of borders in a new, different, or deeper way? 
• How can these stories help you understand what Richard Blanco means when he says that stories and poems can be “bridges of empathy”? 
• Think about all the people in the world migrating across borders by land, sea, and air today. How can we challenge ourselves to try to understand and empathize with their experiences even when we don’t know their stories?