Understanding Why We Left Home

Lindsay Novellino

“Maps are essential. Planning a journey without a map is like building a house without drawings.” – Mark Jenkins

Introduction/Rationale

I am an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at William A. Oberle, Jr. Elementary School, located in Bear, Delaware, within the Christina School District. Oberle is a Title 1 school, which is defined as any school receiving federal supplemental funds to assist with high student populations of poverty. The funding is used to meet the academic needs of these students, identified as low-income. Oberle Elementary School has a population of about 600 students as of September 30, 2019, with 42% of the students identified as low-income, and 1% of the student population identified as homeless. According to their Christina School District registration information, 34% of Oberle’s population was identified as English Learners (EL), and nearly 52% were identified as Hispanic or Latino students. Registration information collected is not always accurate, and may not identify all Hispanic or Latino students within Oberle Elementary School.

The EL students I work with range in English acquisition levels from emergent to intermediate fluency in Kindergarten through fourth grade, as defined by the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) Model placement test, or the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State (ACCESS) test given the previous year. I meet with my students in small groups of 5-7 students, or I assist them within their classrooms. Typically, I see my students 3-5 days a week, with lessons that focus on the four domains of English language acquisition: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Our lessons are short in length, and are generally about 30 minutes. Our building has five ESL teachers who follow a similar pull-out and push-in schedule with all of the EL students at Oberle.

Many of the students at Oberle come from low socioeconomic households. My EL students not only face challenges at school due to their English language proficiency, but at home as well. A substantial portion of my students are from Mexico, and other Spanish speaking countries. They are able to socially interact with their peers, but sometimes find it difficult to fit in with the cultural changes and academic language. The students enjoy speaking about their native countries, and locating them on a map, but they don’t have a clear understanding of why their families moved to the United States. Many students often have a negative view of living in America saying, “I want to go back to Mexico,” or “school was much easier where I used to live.”

My goal for this unit is to build a bridge between my students and their families who brought them to the United States of America. Many students have animosity towards their parents, who separated them from their grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and the only place they have ever known as home. Others hear their older siblings talk about their former home, and wish to know what it was like to live there. I want my students to ask questions, and get answers to their questions. I want them to figure out why their families’ left “home,” and how moving to America has benefited them.

Content Objectives

I would like my curriculum unit to include the four domains of English language acquisition (reading, writing, speaking, listening), as well as developing an understanding of maps, and how they can help us retrieve information we are searching for. To introduce the unit, I will use various picture books and reading passages to discuss the meaning of immigration, reasons people may choose to leave their homes, and allow my students to share what they may know of their own stories of immigration to the United States of America. We will also do a review of maps, their purpose, and how to use or read a map appropriately. I would like my fourth-grade students to create questions to ask their families, in an interview format, that can help develop their understanding of why their families left home.

WIDA Standards

“The WIDA Consortium is a cooperative of states working together to develop and implement standards and assessments that are aligned with best practices for teaching and assessing English language learners.”1 States participating in the WIDA Consortium use a standardized assessment to measure the four domains of English language acquisition, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In my experience, most students are able to participate socially within the classroom, but have difficulty with their academic language.

Migration

Migration is a term that many use, but do not have a clear understanding of the definition. Most of the students within my classroom have migrated to the United States for a variety of reasons. “Migration arises from forces that both push and pull—the push of discontent and adversity, and the pull of new possibilities and rewards. In most instances, the

decision to migrate seems to arise from a sense of danger, discontent, and boredom.”2 Migration has occurred throughout history, and all over the world. In Europe, a significant amount of the migration occurred after World War II when families were displaced, and were searching for refuge in a new location. Most of the families in the ESL program have migrated due to discontent in their former country, and not due to war.

A majority of my students are from various countries throughout South America, Central America, Mexico and Puerto Rico. When speaking to students and families, I have found that they have left their country of origin due to the economy failing. They are in pursuit of better employment, opportunities for their children, and an overall better quality of life in the United States. They are not considered refugees, but are migrant or immigrant families.

Refugee vs Migrant vs Immigrant

When working with ESL students, you must first understand the difference between the terms migrant, refugee, and immigrant. These terms are often used interchangeably, but have different meanings. “A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her home because of war, violence or persecution, often without warning. They are unable to return home unless and until conditions in their native lands are safe for them again.”3 My students are often of migrant, or immigrant status. Their families moved here with the intention of staying, and starting a better life. They often move to the United States for economic reasons, typically related to their employment that has been seasonal. There are multiple push and pull factors that may cause a family to migrate to another country.

A majority of refugees come to the United States from Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries to flee war. Although not familiar to my students, it is an experience to discuss, in order to provide background knowledge. My students respond to stories that I can read aloud to them. A book used in my classroom is My Beautiful Birds, which follows a boy as his family leaves the war in Syria and heads to a refugee camp. My students find this book fascinating, and are empathetic to children who have to leave their homes due to war. Although it is not their own story, it is one they understand, and compare to their own story.

My students come from families of seasonal workers, who migrate from Mexico, countries in Central America, and Puerto Rico. Their families come to the United States for better employment, which creates more opportunities for their children. It is difficult for my students to understand why their families left their home, and appreciate the sacrifices they made in order to provide a better quality of life for them. My students are young, and I use a book titled, Dreamers, which tells the story of a woman and her child who leave Mexico to come to the United States. The woman and her child learn to read and write in a library, and continue to dream of the life they are searching for. The way the woman, and her child, learned to read and write is a great discussion for my students. They are able to compare their own stories of learning how to read, write, and speak in English, and tell how they felt when they first came to the United States.

Push vs Pull Factors

Push and Pull Factors are the reasons families choose to migrate to another location or country, and often unexplained to children in the families that migrate. These factors can be due to various reasons including economic, social, political, education, environmental, healthcare, and transportation discontentment. “Push factors are conditions that can drive people to leave their homes, they are forceful, and relate to the country from which a

person migrates.”4 Some examples of push factors may include famine, lack of job opportunities, war, natural disasters, isolation, and lack of healthcare. “Pull factors are exactly the opposite of push factors; they are factors that attract people to a certain location.”5 Some examples of pull factors are multiple job opportunities, education, better living conditions, a feeling of freedom or security, and better healthcare.

Types of Maps

In order to map their family journey, students must first know the different types of maps, and their purpose. Generally, maps can be divided into two categories, general reference maps and thematic maps. General reference maps are used most often, and help people get from one location to another. In order for students to have an understanding of the type of map they will use for this unit, they must have prior knowledge of general reference maps. “This type of map shows general geographic information about an area. It includes the locations of cities, boundaries, roads, mountains, rivers, and coastlines.”6

The second category of maps, thematic maps, are used less frequently, and provide more in depth information about a specific location. “It shows information about people, animals or concepts. For example, one thematic map might show where people speak a certain language. Another might show how much people earn in different parts of the country.”7 This is the type of map students will be using for this unit. Students will use various data sources to create maps that show the push or pull factors of why their families chose to come to the United States. Within these maps, they will compare the data of their current town, to that of where their families are from.

An example of a thematic map is shown below. Some families come to the United States to provide better educational opportunities for their children. In the map below, it shows the educational level of residents in the three counties of Delaware. I highlighted New Castle County, as it is the county in which my students reside. This is a map students will use to compare the education level of their country of origin versus the education level of where they currently live.

It is also important for students to understand the different ways that maps can be represented. For example, what are the differences between a world map and a globe? Students should know that these geographic representations can look different based on the type of information they are portraying.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are geospatial data management tools that allow geographers to take different sets of geospatial data and layer them on top of one another to create unique digital maps that provide new insights into what may (or may not) be happening in a particular location. GIS also provides the capability to conduct additional data analysis.

Types of Imagery

Imagery is a key geographic data source and is commonly referred to as a photograph or, usually taken by an aircraft or satellite. In addition to traditional photographs, geographers use remote sensing technologies to capture geospatial data that is not readily visible to the human eye. These images provide additional sets of data that can enhance geographic analysis.

Within this unit, students will compare the aerial view of their current town or neighborhood, with where their parents migrated from to the United States. Students, with support from the teachers, will learn how to use ArcGIS Online which “provides an

analytic platform that enables you to combine imagery with other kinds of geographic information within analytic models.”8

Below is an aerial view of our school, William A. Oberle, Jr. Elementary School. As an educator of English Learners, it is important to model, and provide many examples of the project or unit you are teaching. Using a map of the school is a great way to introduce the use of maps, and different types of imagery.

Within this specific map, students can identify different features that they recognize; the playground, bus lanes, street, and townhouses across from the school, etc.

ArcGIS Online

ArcGIS Online may seem intimidating at first glance, but will be the most useful resource in the final part of this unit. As the teacher, it is important to become familiar with the different tools, and data sets that are within ArcGIS Online. Before using ArcGIS, you will need to acquire an account. There are different account options, but it will be most useful to create an account through your school. Check with your Social Studies chair to get an account set up, and check the ArcGIS website.

The following are lessons that can be done to help ease navigation of ArcGIS Online. These lessons are intended for the teacher to complete, and to use their knowledge to help guide students.

Show me my home, a lesson found in the instructional guide, will allow you to “describe your location on Earth from three perspectives: your absolute location, your location within a regional boundary, and your location within a global boundary.”9 This activity is designed to be an introduction to ArcGIS Online, and should take about 30 minutes.

The first photo, shown below, is an example of an absolute location perspective. Students can input their current address, and their former address to get an aerial view of both locations. This will allow them to compare and contrast the areas in which they have lived. They can view homes around their own, as well as any roads and land usage.

The next lesson that will be beneficial to educators is a focus on crime data. A push factor for immigration tends to be a high level of crime, and families wanting to keep themselves safe. This activity will allow you to produce a heat map to show high-crime

areas in Washington D.C., and specific maps that the police chief has asked for. The maps you are asked to produce in this activity are “a map showing total crime concentration; a map showing auto theft; a map showing burglary; two individual maps of auto theft and burglary for Ward 8.”10

A pull factor of coming to the United States can often be the matured infrastructure, and access to various large cities. An activity titled, Urban Planning11, will lead you through the steps to identify the highways located in three large cities throughout the world.

These lessons, along with others in the Instructional Guide for the ArcGIS Book, will be useful for teachers to aid in the navigation of the ArcGIS Online system. They are focused on specific areas of the United States, and the world, but can be changed to show the specific location your students migrated from, or currently live.

English Learner Needs

When teaching English Learners (EL), you must know how to create a learning environment that will be comfortable for them. EL students must feel safe in their classrooms. They need a space where they can speak without judgement, and where a teacher understands their background. Many EL students come from countries where it may be disrespectful to make eye contact with an adult, or they miss school for holidays associated with their religion.

“Teachers can best adapt instruction to students that they know well. Learning about students is time well spent. Basic information includes the student’s name, pronunciation and spelling of the name, native country, address, guardians’ or parents’ telephone numbers, emergency contacts, and health history. How will the student arrive and depart from school every day? Is the student an immigrant, a refugee, or a migrant? Or was the student born in the United States? What languages does the student speak, and how much schooling has the student had? If school records exist, teachers can ask for translation assistance to determine the accumulated amount of instruction that the student has experienced. This information will help in determining a learning plan and can clarify misconceptions12.”

It is imperative that teachers know their students both academically and personally, and build positive relationships that will help foster a safe learning environment for EL students.

Teaching Strategies

My students are English Language Learners in fourth grade. Before beginning the unit, I plan to build positive relationships with my students to create a safe environment for them. My students are reluctant to share about their families, and at times, show resentment towards their relatives for leaving their native country. Students will work as a group, with a partner, and independently throughout the unit.

Visual Aids

Within the unit, students will use multiple visual representations of maps. These visuals will allow students to view different types of maps and discuss their purpose.

Graphic Organizer - Web

As a group, students will share what they want to know about their native country. Using a web will allow us to organize the information so students can use their questions later in the unit.

Sentence Frames

EL students may have difficulty formulating interview questions independently. To alleviate some of the frustration of this task, I will use sentence frames to give students a model of how to form their interview questions. For example, I will show them a sentence frame that will say “Why did our family…” or “Where is our family…”

Think, Pair, Share

Students will independently create a list of questions for their interviews. After creating their list, students will share their ideas with a partner. Working with a partner will allow the students to discuss their questions with a peer who may have a similar experience. This will create a positive relationship between the students, and will give them a chance to share some of their feelings about their move to the United States.

Modeling

Before students interview their families, I will model how to interview someone. I will model appropriate speaking voice focusing on volume and tone. I will model body language, and active listening skills.

Classroom Activities

Immigration

Before students begin to create their interviews, they must first understand immigration, and its history. Students will read a passage from ReadWorks titled “Immigration.”13 Within this passage, students will read about immigration throughout history, what effects immigration had on the United States, and how immigration has changed due to various factors. After reading the passage, students and their teacher will discuss, and explain any misconceptions about immigration.

Another resource is the online Migration Data Portal14. This data portal shows the number of people who have migrated to different areas around the world. It is a great resource to help your students know that they are not alone, and migration occurs throughout the world. This resource should be explored, and viewed prior to the lesson by the teacher.

Identifying Push vs Pull Factors

Students will listen to a read aloud entitled Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote, written by Duncan Tonatiuh. In this story, Pancho Rabbit sets off to find his father, who traveled North two years prior, to find work. This story begins to highlight the push and pull factors of immigration. Students will work together to create a list of possible push and pull factors, after listening to the story. As an example of push/pull factors, students can view a story map titled, The Uprooted.15 This story map provides a large amount of information, and includes maps that show great visual representations of immigration.

Make sure, as the teacher, you view the story map prior to the lesson. Depending on a child’s background, this specific story map may be difficult for them to view.

After creating their list, students will read a passage from ReadWorks titled “Coming to the U.S.A.”16 Within this passage, students will begin to relate to other immigrants, and start to form some questions in their mind about their own family history. After reading the passage, the teacher will discuss the end of the unit, and students will begin to formulate questions, and begin to look at immigration maps.

Interviews

As English Learner students, it is imperative that students continue to work within the four domains of language learning, reading, writing, speaking, and listening. As students create, and complete their interviews, they will be using all four language domains.

We will first discuss the purpose of an interview, and view some student interview recordings. Then, students will begin to create their interview questions. All questions will be place-based, and will help them to define the push/pull factors that led to their families immigrating to the United States.

Once students have created, and refined their questions, they will have a chance to practice their interviews with their peers. If available, students can also practice their interviews by interviewing staff members who are not from the United States. After their practice, students will be sent home with their interview questions. They will interview their families, and bring all of their responses and data back to school.

As a class, students can graph their push/pull factors, pair-share their interview responses, and compare their data to others. This will help the students know that they are not alone, and their families may have gone through similar immigration journeys.

Due to their immigration status, or other factors, families may not be willing to participate in the interview process. Immigration, and push/pull factors, can be very personal and private. If families choose to not participate, students can interview staff members, or members of their community, to complete the process.

Students can also use Survey123 to collect and analyze their data. This is a tool that I would only use with students who do not need the practice with writing in English. Survey123 will allow parents to respond online, so students would need to be encouraged

to read the questions to their parents and listen to their responses. This will make sure they are working on their reading, speaking, and listening goals.

Maps, Maps, Maps

At the end of the unit, students will use their interview data to view specific maps of both their current town/state, and the town/country where their family immigrated from. Students may also benefit from viewing a historical timeline, through the use of maps, of their current home town, and their town/country of origin. This will give them a greater understanding of how things change with time, and the rate in which they change between both locations.

Before they do this, they will need to understand maps, different types of maps, and scales. Students will read a passage on ReadWorks titled “Different Maps and Scales.”17 Within this passage, students will learn about different types of maps, and the scales that are used with them. Students will then discuss these maps, and which ones may be useful to them, after their interviews.

As a class, we will also view maps of Delaware, including the Bear and Newark areas, as these are where the students live. We will begin with topographic and physical maps of the state of Delaware, and move into satellite imagery, showing aerial views of their specific towns, and even their neighborhoods.

Once students are familiar with the different types of maps, and the push/pull factors that caused their families to immigrate, they can start to compare maps of their current town and their “hometown.”

Some maps that may be useful can be found at ArcGIS Online. At login, it is best to change the basemap to World Imagery, or World Imagery with Labels. With this change, I am able to see an aerial view using satellite imagery. In the search bar, I can search for a specific town, country, state, or even specific address. This is the first map I would show students. First, I would share a view of the state of Delaware, and then show their family town/country of origin. Students will be able to compare land coverage, infrastructure, vegetation, etc. to help identify some of the push/pull factors of immigration, specific to their family.

Another map to view in ArcGIS Online is one that depicts the educational achievement levels throughout the United States, or specifically Delaware. To access

these maps, I login to ArcGIS Online, choose gallery, and search for educational achievement. When I view the map, I can break down each state into counties, and click on the circle in that county. This information gives me the percentage of people who have no degree, a high school diploma, or a college degree. Education is often a push/pull factor of immigration, and wanting a “better life.”

Resources

Teacher Resources

Abedi, Jamal, ed. English Language Proficiency Assessment in the Nation: Current Status and Future Practice. Davis, CA: University of California, Davis, School of Education, 2007.

This book describes various assessments used with English Learners. It also tells how the WIDA Standards were developed, in conjunction with the ACCESS assessment.

Brown, Clint, and Christian Harder. The ArcGIS Imagery Book: New View, New Vision. Redlands, CA: Esri Press, 2016.

This book will give teachers a greater understanding of imagery, and how to use GIS.

Esri. “The Uprooted.” ArcGIS StoryMaps, 2016. https://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2017/the-uprooted/index.html.

This is a story map that follows refugees from Syria and other countries through the use of photos, video, maps, and visual representations of data. It is a great resource for the classroom, but should be viewed prior to sharing with students to ensure it is appropriate for your specific students’ stories.

GMDAC. “Global Migration Data Portal.” Migration data portal, December 2017. https://migrationdataportal.org/.

This website is an interactive map that shows migration trends from 1990 to 2019. It is a great resource for students who are unaware that there is a long history of migration, and it occurs all over the world.

Harder, Christian, and Clint Brown, eds. ArcGIS Book: 10 Big Ideas about Applying the Science of Where. 2nd ed. Redlands, CA: ESRI, Incorporated, 2017.

As a reference for teachers, this book will give you information about the ArcGIS system. It includes exercises to help you get familiar with the online system, as well as explanations of different types of imagery.

Keranen, Kathryn, and Lyn Malone. Instructional Guide for the ArcGIS Book. 2nd ed. Redlands, CA: Esri Press, 2018.

An instructional guide for the ArcGIS Book. It includes multiple lessons that will help you to navigate through the different tools and features found in ArcGIS Online.

Krishnakumar, P, and T Indumathi. “Pull and Push Factors of Migration.” Global Management Review8, no. 4, 2014.

Teachers should use this article as a resource to learn more about push and pull factors. This article explains the meaning of push and pull factors, as well as gives examples.

Loeb, and Uwe P. Gielen. Migration: Immigration and Emigration in International Perspective. Westport,, CT: Praeger, 2003.

Throughout this book, you find the history of migration. The authors also give a clear understanding of what migration is, and the differences between immigration and emigration.

Rizzo, Suzanne Del. My Beautiful Birds. Toronto, ON: Pajama Press, 2020.

This book is a classroom resource, used to give more explanation of refugees who leave due to war.

Rutledge, Kim, Hilary Costa, Erin Sprout, Santani Teng, Melissa McDaniel, Diane Boudreau, Tara Ramroop, Jeff Hunt, and Hilary Hall. “Map.” National Geographic Society, October 9, 2012. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/map/ .

National Geographic created lessons to explain the different types of maps, and how to read them. This lesson could be used to either introduce, or review maps in the ESL classroom.

Short, Deborah, Helene Becker, Nancy Cloud, Andrea B. Hellman, Linda New Levine, and Jim Cummins. The 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners: Grades K-12. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Press, 2018.

This book is an instructional resource for teachers. It was created by TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of other languages) International Association.

Tonatiuh, Duncan, and Maria T. Middleton. Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: a Migrants Tale. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2013.

As a read aloud in the classroom, this story will allow students to connect with a character who wants their family to be together. Pancho’s dad left to find work, and hasn’t returned yet. Pancho leaves home to try and find him.

Unknown, Unknown. “Migrants, Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Immigrants: What's the Difference?” International Rescue Committee (IRC), December 11, 2018. https://www.rescue.org/article/migrants-asylum-seekers-refugees-and-immigrants-whats-difference.

This article is a quick read, and gives easy to understand definitions of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants.

Student Resources

“Coming to the U.S.A.” ReadWorks, 2014. https://www.readworks.org/article/Coming-to-the-USA/435d5eff-a500-463a-a5fe-aa08f5302bbf#!articleTab:content/.

Although this is a 2nd grade reading passage, it will allow the students to connect immigration to their family story. It is a great passage to use to begin interviews.

“Different Maps and Scales.” ReadWorks, 2017. https://www.readworks.org/article/Different-Maps-and-Scales/dd2197af-cb39-4087-a50a-3c51485041fd#!articleTab:content/.

This is a 4th grade reading passage that gives an overview of maps. It allows the students to “travel” from one place to another, using a map.

“How to Read Physical Maps.” ReadWorks, 2017. https://www.readworks.org/article/How-to-Read-Physical-Maps/f230462b-bbe6-42cc-a1dc-fae96cbe177c#!articleTab:content/.

A 4th grade reading passage that gives an overview of physical maps.

“Immigration.” ReadWorks. Accessed May 17, 2020. https://www.readworks.org/article/Immigration/7e973877-3a60-47b3-afc4-8b4a7a2f5289#!articleTab:content/.

This 4th grade reading passage reviews the history of immigration, in a way that students will be able to comprehend.

“Refugees and Immigrants.” ReadWorks, 2020. https://www.readworks.org/article/Refugees-and-Immigrants/2ea8a851-665a-4208-9cf8-b5cbb11314e5#!articleTab:content/.

A 2nd grade reading passage with a focus on refugees and why they come to the United States.

Appendix: Implementing District Standards

Within my curriculum unit, I will address the following standards from the WIDA Consortium to include my students’ English language acquisition goals:

This standard is addressed within my unit through every lesson. Students will be sharing their family history with the entire class, as well as in small groups. Students will also share their map observations, and describe various map features that are taught throughout the unit.

Students will be reading multiple articles to gain more information about migration, maps, and the history of immigration. They will use this new information to create and develop interview questions that they will write, read, and ask in their home environment.

This standard is addressed throughout the unit in the area of maps. Students will learn the different types of maps, what they are used for, and how to manipulate and navigate maps.

I will also be using the following standards from the State of Delaware Standards for Social Studies:

This standard is used in a majority of the unit. Students will be creating maps, with the assistance of their teacher, to not only show the location of their homes, but to also analyze the different geographic information that is shown on the maps.

Students will be using this standards when comparing their current home to their country of origin. This standard will be helpful in answering the question of why their families left home.

Endnotes