People Moving HomeActivities & Teaching Strategies
Active learning works because students connect deeply with human experiences when they explore real-life scenarios. By mapping family moves, acting out decisions, and sorting emotions, they see geography as stories of people, not just facts. This builds both geographical understanding and empathy.
Learning Objectives
- 1Explain at least three push factors and three pull factors that cause people to migrate.
- 2Compare and contrast the emotional experiences of individuals moving locally versus internationally.
- 3Analyze a simple map to identify patterns of internal migration within Ireland.
- 4Classify different types of human movement based on distance and destination.
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Mapping Activity: Family Move Timelines
Students draw simple timelines or maps marking places their family has lived, noting reasons like 'new job' or 'near school' and one feeling per move. Pairs compare maps, then share one example with the class. Display maps on a wall 'migration gallery' for ongoing reference.
Prepare & details
Why might a family move to a new house in the same town?
Facilitation Tip: In Mapping Activity, give each student two sticky notes: one for a push factor, one for a pull factor, to place on their timeline to visually separate causes.
Setup: Standard classroom seating; students turn to a neighbor
Materials: Discussion prompt (projected or printed), Optional: recording sheet for pairs
Role Play: Moving Scenarios
Prepare cards with scenarios, such as 'family moves for dad's job in Dublin' or 'escape war in home country'. Small groups act out the scene, discuss reasons and feelings, then report back. Debrief as a class on common themes.
Prepare & details
Why might a family move to a new town or country?
Facilitation Tip: During Role Play, assign roles in pairs so students must negotiate decisions together, making the consequences of each move more concrete.
Setup: Open space or rearranged desks for scenario staging
Materials: Character cards with backstory and goals, Scenario briefing sheet
Emotion Sort: Moving Feelings
Provide cards with emotions (happy, scared, sad) and moving situations. In pairs, students match and explain choices, like 'sad when leaving friends'. Groups present matches and vote on most common pairings.
Prepare & details
How do people feel when they move to a new place?
Facilitation Tip: For Emotion Sort, provide blank cards so students can add their own emotions beyond the prepared set, normalizing individual experiences.
Setup: Standard classroom seating; students turn to a neighbor
Materials: Discussion prompt (projected or printed), Optional: recording sheet for pairs
Class Survey: Local Moves
Students survey classmates anonymously on 'Has your family moved? Why? How did you feel?'. Tally results on a chart, discuss patterns. Extend by plotting moves on an Ireland outline map.
Prepare & details
Why might a family move to a new house in the same town?
Facilitation Tip: In Class Survey, ask students to interview a family member about a local move and bring one reason to share, making the activity personally relevant.
Setup: Standard classroom seating; students turn to a neighbor
Materials: Discussion prompt (projected or printed), Optional: recording sheet for pairs
Teaching This Topic
Teachers approach this topic by grounding abstract concepts in personal stories and concrete choices. Research shows role-play and mapping build spatial reasoning, while emotion sorting validates student experiences, reducing resistance to difficult topics. Avoid making assumptions about students' own moves or those of their families, as this can exclude or upset some learners.
What to Expect
Successful learning looks like students describing multiple reasons for moves beyond housing, identifying push and pull factors in scenarios, and recognizing varied emotions in moves. They should use geographical terms accurately and reflect thoughtfully on personal and community impacts.
These activities are a starting point. A full mission is the experience.
- Complete facilitation script with teacher dialogue
- Printable student materials, ready for class
- Differentiation strategies for every learner
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Common MisconceptionDuring Role Play: Moving Scenarios, watch for students assuming all moves are for larger homes or better schools. Redirect by asking, 'What else might cause a family to leave a place they love?' and prompt pairs to consider job loss or illness.
What to Teach Instead
Use the scenarios provided in the role-play to guide students toward multiple realistic reasons, like a parent’s job transfer or needing to live closer to elderly relatives.
Common MisconceptionDuring Emotion Sort: Moving Feelings, watch for students assuming all moves create excitement. Redirect by asking, 'What might someone feel if they had to leave friends behind?' and have students find cards that reflect sadness or worry.
What to Teach Instead
Have students pair emotions with scenarios from earlier activities to show how feelings depend on context, normalizing varied experiences.
Common MisconceptionDuring Mapping Activity: Family Move Timelines, watch for students thinking long-distance moves are the only significant relocations. Redirect by asking, 'How far is too far for a move to still feel local?' and have students mark local moves on their maps with a different color.
Assessment Ideas
After Mapping Activity: Family Move Timelines, ask students to add one push factor and one pull factor to their own family timeline and label one emotion they associate with that move.
During Role Play: Moving Scenarios, listen for students identifying at least one push and one pull factor in their role-play scripts and one emotion their character feels during the scene.
After Emotion Sort: Moving Feelings, display a chart with common emotions and ask students to place a sticky note with a real-life example from their own experience or imagination under the correct emotion.
Extensions & Scaffolding
- Challenge students to research an international move from Ireland in the last decade and present the push and pull factors, comparing them to local moves.
- Scaffolding: Provide sentence starters for students struggling to articulate emotions, such as 'I think someone might feel ____ because ____.'
- Deeper exploration: Invite a guest speaker who recently moved locally or internationally to discuss their experience, followed by student questions framed around geographical and emotional impacts.
Key Vocabulary
| Migration | The movement of people from one place to another with the intention of settling, either temporarily or permanently. |
| Immigration | The action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country. |
| Emigration | The act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another; the country one leaves. |
| Push Factors | Reasons that compel people to leave their homes, such as lack of jobs, conflict, or natural disasters. |
| Pull Factors | Reasons that attract people to a new place, such as job opportunities, better living conditions, or family reunification. |
Suggested Methodologies
Planning templates for Exploring Our World: Junior Cycle Geography
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Where Do People Live?
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New Neighbours, New Friends
Students will discuss how new people moving into a community can bring new ideas and make it more diverse.
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