Unit Of Inquiry Idea Bank

By Maggie Hos-McGrane

Migration
About Author
Maggie has over 35 years of experience as an educator, You can get in touch with Maggie via:
including 30 years at international schools in Europe maggiehosmcgrane@gmail.com
and Asia where she taught PYP, MYP, and DP.
Tech Transformation
Throughout this international career, Maggie has led
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiehosmcgrane/
curriculum development in the MYP and PYP and in
addition has many years of experience of leading @MaggieHMcGrane
educational technology in schools.

Currently based in the UK, Maggie is an IB consultant,

school visitor, and workshop leader, facilitating both
online and face-to-face workshops. She has presented
at international conferences including ISTE, Learning2,
ECIS, AASSA, and EARCOS in Asia, Europe, Africa, and
North and South America. Maggie is passionate about
supporting educators to transform the learning and
teaching at their schools. She would love to hear from
you about your understanding of her ebook and how
you intend to apply it in your classrooms.
Foreword
As a global issue, migration can be linked with the IB
mission statement and its focus on international
mindedness. Studying migration exposes students to
different cultures and in return helps in forming a global
community of internationally minded people. Migration is
a key issue in the 21st century, however it can be a
challenging unit to plan and teach since students and
adults may have a range of conflicting views. This unit
falls under the transdisciplinary theme of Where we are in
We will follow the following process of creating a strong
unit of inquiry on migration.
1 Identifying subjects and scanning the relevant
curriculum documents.
2 Identifying related concepts relevant to the unit.
3 Using 2 - 3 related concepts to then develop a list
of central ideas for the unit.
4 Unpacking the central idea through the lens of key

place and time with a focus on personal histories and

concepts. Next, using these key concepts we will
geographies, homes and journeys and the discoveries,
develop the lines of inquiry and teacher questions.
explorations and migrations of humankind.

This unit provides a great opportunity to research family
history, connect with relatives and friends from around the
world, and investigate similarities and differences in these
experiences. Highlighting these stories within the classroom
can be a great way of celebrating diversity and building a
classroom community.
5 At the end of this unit idea bank are considerations
and resources to discuss in your collaborative
planning meetings, which will help design a strong
unit of inquiry that is contextualized for your students.
1 Scanning curriculum documents: PYP scope and sequence
The two strands identified in the social studies scope and sequence document that most support an inquiry into migration are social
organization and culture, the study of the ways in which individuals, groups and societies interact with each other, and continuity and
change through time, where students study the relationships between people and events through time.

2 Related concepts
Related concepts are the “building blocks” of a unit of inquiry. All subjects have concepts that are narrowly focused, thereby adding
depth to the curriculum. These related concepts can be found in the PYP scope and sequence documents, and for schools that are
required to address national or state standards, you can find related concepts in those curriculum documents.

Related concepts that can be used to build central ideas for this unit include the following:

History Migration Family Identity Diversity

Population Citizenship Conflict Prejudice Rights

Religion Traditions Exploration Settlement Location

Movement Choices Safety Needs

3 List of central ideas
Central idea examples built using the related concepts
Human migration is a response to challenges, risks
and opportunities.
Migration leads to changes in people, land,
and culture.
Human migration affects communities, cultures and
individuals.
The movement of people affects their lives and the
environment.
Journeys create change and can lead to new
opportunities.
Family histories provide an insight into cultural and
personal identity.
4 Key concepts and related teacher questions
Use the key concepts to build the lines of inquiry
Having identified a central idea, teachers turn their
attention to the key concepts that can be used to structure
or frame student inquiries. Broad, open-ended questions,
linked to the key concepts, will help determine the lines of
inquiry. I recommend focusing on 2 or 3 key concepts while
designing a unit, depending on the age of the students.
The key concepts focus students’ thinking, allowing them to
go deeper with their inquiries. They also connect across
disciplines, making each unit of inquiry truly transdisciplinary.
While each key concept has its own generic question,
teachers can also ask these with a particular disciplinary
focus that matches the units of inquiry. Narrowing down the
key concepts will drive the unit and will help teachers write
strong lines of inquiry.
Examples of teacher questions for this unit of inquiry can be found below:

What are the different types of migrations?

Form
What choices and decisions are involved in making a journey?

How do people prepare for migration?

Function
How do people adapt to living in a new place?

Why do people want to move from one place to another?

Why did people decide to settle in a new place?

Causation
What factors influence human location and migration?

What have been common causes for people to migrate throughout history?

What societal factors lead to migration?

How do people’s lives change as a result of migration?

How has migration impacted the place left behind, and the place where migrants settle?

Change
How do humans adapt to new cultures and behaviors?

How do migrations change a person’s cultural identity?

What are the effects of migration on communities, culture and individuals?

 What connections exist between the places people moved from and the places they moved to?

Connection What is the connection between the values and beliefs of people based on where they were
and where they are now?

Why do people have different points of view about migration?

Perspective How do people’s experiences affect how they feel about migration?

What are the different points of view about migrants and refugees?

What can individuals and governments do to support refugees?

Responsibility
What are the rights and responsibilities of refugees?

5 Resources and considerations

The IB, in its PYP Collaborative Planning Process for learning

and teaching, emphasizes making flexible use of resources.

It is important to make thoughtful use of resources, both in

and beyond the learning community, to enhance and extend

learning. For this unit following are the considerations and

resources included for your reference:

Time Technologies

People Learning spaces

Places Physical materials


Ensure that you plan for
extended blocks of time to
deepen student inquiry and
collaboration.
Time
Build in time for development of approaches to learning (ATL). Create opportunities to share,
Skills that would work well with a unit on journeys and migration reflect and celebrate learning.
include research skills; in particular information literacy, Plan for students led action.
gathering information from a variety of primary and secondary
sources, synthesizing and interpreting information from
different sources and being able to assess the accuracy, validity
and possible bias of historical sources; and thinking skills such
as considering new perspectives and applying knowledge and
skills to local and global contexts.

People and Places

Invite experts to speak and connect students to learning in Visit places in the community such as museums to connect
authentic ways. Some of these experts may be the students’ student inquiries to local contexts.
family members who have experienced migration. This can
be done both face to face as well as using tools such as
Toddle, Google Hangout or Zoom.
 Technologies

There are a number of online resources that will support students’ inquiries of migrations.

1. Videos

There are many videos that can be used to help students understand what it is like to be a migrant. Some examples are:

Child Migrant Stories: Voices from Past and Present

The stories featured throughout this film are taken from interviews with people who migrated to East London

under the age of 18 from across the world.

Children on the Move

In this video, children from save the children programmes around the world tell their story of migration, the reasons

they left home and the challenges and the risks they faced during travel and when they reached a new country.

Passing Tides

This is the story of a young girl’s escape from Vietnam with her father.

2. Multimedia

Students who interview family members may want to tell their stories using multimedia. There are a variety of tools

students can use, for example iMovie, VoiceThread, Animoto, Book Creator.

3. Online Timelines

Tools such as TimeToast, Sutori and Visme can be used by students to create their own online timelines.
 Technologies

4. Simulations

Simulations can help students to understand choices that have to be made both before and during a migration. BBC News has

put together a simulation, based on extensive research and real stories of Syrians who have made the journey to escape the

civil war in their country in recent years. This conflict has already driven millions to flee their homes to seek refuge in

neighbouring countries. It explains why some refugees pay traffickers to take them to Europe, risking death, capture and

deportation. Choose your own escape route from Syria

5. Museums

There are a number of museums around the world dedicated to migration. Several of these have websites with interesting

photos that could be used as provocations.

The Migration Museum - The Migration Museum is shining a light on the many ways that the movement of people

to and from Britain has shaped who they are – as individuals, as communities, and as a nation. The website contains

100 images of migration.

The Immigration Museum - This museum in Australia is dedicated to the immigration history of Victoria, including

migration stories with photos and other historical documents.

The Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration - This museum is dedicated to the 12 million people who moved to

the United States through Ellis Island. It contains a timeline, a database that can be searched for passenger records and

almost 2,000 audio files of oral history.

 Learning Spaces and Physical Resources
Displaying maps and timelines
around the classroom will help
students connect with migration
on a local and global scale.
One particularly effective display Newspaper stories about present
I’ve seen is to have students’ photos day migrations and the refugee
or self-portraits around a world map crisis may help students connect
with strings connecting the students historical migrations with what is
to the countries they have come happening in the world today.
from. An alternative is to have
students put passport sized photos
onto a large world map showing
their country of origin.
Children’s literature can also be a powerful tool for exploring issues around migrations. Below are a selection of books
that can be used with different age groups.
Grandfather’s Journey
Number The Stars
Upper Primary
By Allen Say
Grandfather travels in the USA as a young man,
but then returns to Japan to raise his family and
feels torn between the two cultures. This book
covers the story of three generations and is
great for children who have a sense of
belonging to more than one culture or country.
Lower Primary
The Matchbox Diary
Early Years
by Paul Fleischman
A man shares his journey to America with his
great-granddaughter through small objects
he collected and stored in matchboxes
before he could read and write.
Upper Primary
by Lois Lowry
This is a historical fiction set during World War
II and tells the story of how the Danish people
smuggled thousands of Jews to Sweden after
their country was invaded by the Germans. The
story focuses on friendship, love and courage.
The Name Jar
Yangsook Choi
After moving from Korea, Unhei is teased
because the students cannot pronounce her
name. This is a story of Unhei acknowledging
and accepting her identity in a new setting.
Reflection

The more reflective you are the more effective you are.

“ by Hall and Simmeral

Reflection is a great way of understanding the effectiveness of the planning process, what worked and

what can be done differently.

Units are made stronger if teachers reflect throughout the planning and implementation of a unit. You can use

the reflection template available in Toddle’s unit planner.

Share
Bring teaching teams Collaborative Assessments

together to make
Planning and Reports

magic happen
Toddle can make a 10x difference at your school
- plan collaboratively, assess authentically, foster
student agency, and engage families - all from Remote Evidence
one intuitive interface! Learning Collection

Let's have a chat

dk dk dk Portfolios Family
and Projects Communication