Catherine Brett and Hestia Mayes

Term III Social Studies Lesson

Grade 1
What is it like to move to a new place?
WHAT? This lesson will encourage students to reflect upon and analyze the experience of moving to a
new place. Ideally, this lesson would be part of a larger unit on immigration and migration. As such, a
large focus of the lesson will be on the experience of moving to the United States from another country;
however, students will also consider the experience of moving more broadly, whether this be to a new
state, town, or school. Within this lesson, students can volunteer to share their own personal thoughts on
moving, listen to the experiences of their peers and their teacher, consider the story of Francisco in La
Marposa, and then identify one positive and one challenging aspect of moving to a new place. They
should grasp the concept that moving to a new place comes with both benefits and challenges. Students
will also explore history as a narrative by considering multiple stories of moving to a new place.
HOW? To activate prior knowledge, students will be invited to share their own, their familys, or their
friends experiences moving to a new place and will also hear their teachers story of moving to
Philadelphia. Although this part of the lesson centers around small group discussion, participation at this
point will be completely voluntary--students who do not wish to share their own experiences are welcome
to simply listen to the experiences of their classmates and their teacher. Then, we will explore the
experience of moving to a new place through another personal narrative, the childrens book La
Marposa. While students listen to the read aloud, they will be asked to think about the challenges and
benefits of moving to a new place. Following the read aloud, students individually will write or draw
about one positive and one challenging aspect of moving. Their ideas may stem from our initial
discussion, from Franciscos story in La Marposa, or from personal experiences.
WHY? The students do not study any formal social studies curriculum in class. However, many of the
students have personal or familial experiences immigrating to the country, and those who do not certainly
know people in their school or community who have immigrated and/or have moved within the country
before. Therefore, because the topic of moving is so relevant and applicable to the students, it offers an
easy access point into studying the broader historical and current processes of immigration and migration.
As an introductory lesson to this unit of study, students will reflect on their own personal stories and the
narrative of a fictional character, Fransisco in La Marposa, in order to generate interest and empathy
regarding the topic of immigration and migration. Furthermore, they will analyze the stories they have
heard in order to identify one positive and one challenging aspect of moving to a new place. This activity
pushes students to engage in application, evaluation, and analysis--higher-order cognitive processes on
Blooms taxonomy. This lesson also falls under the NCSS strand People, Places and Environments.

Essential Question: What is it like to move to a new place?

Goals/Objectives: Students will explore the essential question through reflection on personal experience
and the childrens book La Marposa. Students will identify one positive and one challenging aspect of
moving to a new place.
Standards:
NCSS - People, Places, and Environments
Materials and Preparation:

Pictures from being and after moving to Philadelphia

Map of PA/USA and globe
La Marposa
Example positives and challenges of moving picture based on my experience
Positives and challenges of moving worksheets
Pencils
Crayons

Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues:

1.) Classroom arrangement - The lesson will take place in the school library. The group will sit around
a square table, and I will sit at the head of the table beside a white board.
2.) Material distribution - Materials such as the map, my pictures of where I lived before and now, and
the model worksheet will be shown to the students; I will hold them up first and then pass them around so
each student has a chance to look closely. When we move on to the final activity, I will hand each student
a worksheet. Each student will work on writing/drawing a picture with their pencil. Once most students
have the bulk of the activity completed, I will place a communal bin of crayons in the middle of the table;
there will be plenty for students to easily share. This will ensure that students do not dwell on the coloring
aspect, but rather complete the important part of the activity before starting to color.
3.) Management concerns - Students may have trouble sharing crayons that are placed in the center of
the table, but if this happens, I will just remind them to ask their neighbor to hand them the crayons and to
make sure everyone has the crayons they need, etc. Students also might become a little restless during the
read aloud, and if so, I will try ask to questions to keep them engaged. Additionally, students might
interrupt the read aloud with off-task comments. In this case, I will remind them to raise their hand if
they want to share something, and if their comment doesnt seem very relevant to our lesson or to the
story, Ill briefly acknowledge it but wont focus too much on the comment.

Plan:
1.) Hook (5 minutes)
Show the students pictures of where I used to live and where I live now and show these locations
on a map. Explain a positive and a challenging aspect of my own move (e.g. - Im so happy that I
came here and met all of you, but I really miss my family sometimes).
Ask the students if anyone has ever moved to a new place, or if their family or friends have ever
moved to a new place. Ask for volunteers to share the experience.
2.) Body
Read Aloud (20 minutes)
Introduce La Marposa and provide some background information about the book.
Explain that Francisco moved to California from Mexico so that his father could earn
money working on the farms. Explain that the family lives in tents with other families of
migrant workers, and that they move frequently with the harvest. Explain that the story
begins on Francisco's first day of school in the United States.
Ask students to consider the following questions will listening to the story: What is it
like to move to a new place? What is one good thing and one hard thing about moving to
a new place?
Read La Marposa aloud. Ask questions throughout to ensure that students understand
the story. Ask questions to get students thinking about positives and challenges of
moving that Francisco experienced.
Follow-up Activity (15 minutes)
Show students an example positives and challenges of moving worksheet with drawings
based on my move to Philadelphia.
Students will make create their own positives and challenges of moving worksheet. On
one half of a piece of paper they will draw and label a positive aspect of moving to a new
place, and on the other half they will draw and label a challenging aspect. Their ideas
can be based on their own experiences, the experiences of friends or family, the stories
shared in our introductory discussion, or on the read aloud.
3.) Closure
Student sharing
Students will briefly share their pictures and explain what they identified as positive and
challenging aspects of moving to a new place.
Final comments
I will summarize some of the main ideas that we have touched on: that moving can be
scary, confusing, overwhelming, but also can be exciting, necessary, fun.
These comments will partly depend on what students identified during the read aloud and
the activity. For example, if lots of students focused on the idea of learning a new
language as one challenging aspect, I will be sure to touch on that in my discussion.
I will also make the point here that moving isnt necessarily half good, half bad, but
rather that it is complex and we can often find at least one positive and one negative
aspect.

Assessment of goals/objectives:
One indication of student learning will be comments/responses during the read aloud and discussion. If
students are able to identify some positive or negative aspects of Franciscos experience, and the
experience of moving in general, and articulate why these aspects might be good or bad, that indicates
that they are thinking empathetically and critically about what it is like to move. On the worksheet, I will
be looking for students to identify and explain a sensible positive aspect of moving and a sensible
challenging aspect of moving. (Note: determining a sensible answer will be partly based on the
students explanation. For example, one student could identify language as a challenging aspect because it
is hard to not understand anyone, but another student could identify language as a positive aspect because
it is fun and valuable to learn a new language. I would consider both of these answers to be valid because
they have logical explanations).
Anticipating Student Responses and My Possible Responses:
1.) Management issues
Off task comments during read aloud I will try to redirect comments to focus on the content of
the lesson. I will politely acknowledge comments but wont focus on them too much.
Off task behavior during activity I will try to redirect students attention back to the task by
asking them questions about their drawing/engaging them in conversation. I will also provide
time warnings so students can manage their time.
2.) Content of the lesson
Comments indicating confusion/incomplete understanding Ask scaffolding questions (e.g. - If
students cant name a positive aspect of moving, ask What made Fracisco feel happy at his new
school?). Model by identifying my own positive and challenging experiences of moving to
Philadelphia.
Personal and potentially touchy comments about students experiences I will try to legitimize
students experiences and empathize with them (e.g. - [Name], it must have been really hard for
you when ________). I will try to model the kind of response I want the other students to give
when students share difficult personal information.
Accommodations:
1.) Accommodations for students who find the material too challenging
If students seem to be struggling with identifying positive and negative experiences, I will help by
modeling. I can model my own experiences again, carefully explaining why some parts of
moving to Philly were good and some parts were hard. I can also model how to think
empathetically and ask students scaffolding questions, such as Imagine you just moved here
today. Whats something that would be hard? Would you feel scared? Why?

2.) Accommodations for students who need greater challenge and/or finish early
If students finish early during the activity, I will ask them to write more about their picture or add
more detail to the picture.
INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK:
I think this sounds like an interesting lesson. Is there any way that you could shorten the read aloud
portion or have them react as you read. So...could you do a stop and jot? Turn and talks and plan your
questions in advance? My only concern is students really engaging with this material if the majority of the
time they are listening to a read aloud. I would encourage you to plan the parts of the story where you
will stop and have the children either talk or respond in writing or drawing.