Geography · 9th Grade

Active learning ideas

The Informal Economy and Slums

Active learning works for this topic because it transforms abstract global issues into tangible, human-scale problems. When students examine real street maps or role-play city planners, they move beyond sympathy to analyze root causes and consequences. These activities prevent the topic from feeling like a distant news story and instead make spatial inequality concrete where they live.

• Common Core State Standards
• C3: D2.Geo.7.9-12
• C3: D2.Eco.1.9-12

• 20–45 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Think-Pair-Share
• 20 min · Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: Why Do People Live There?

Present a short video or photo sequence of an informal settlement alongside data on rental costs in the nearest formal city neighborhoods. Pairs discuss why residents choose -- or are pushed into -- informal settlements despite insecurity of tenure. Pairs share out, and the class maps the push and pull factors driving residential location decisions.

Explain why millions of people live in settlements without legal title to their land.

Facilitation Tip

During Think-Pair-Share, pause after the pair share to cold-call two students to synthesize their partner’s ideas, ensuring accountability to the discussion.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Imagine you are a city planner. What are the three most important steps you would take to improve living conditions in a large squatter settlement, and why?' Facilitate a class discussion where students justify their choices.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Activity 02

• Structured Academic Controversy
• 45 min · Small Groups

Structured Academic Controversy: Eviction vs. In-Place Upgrading

Assign groups one of two positions: that government should clear informal settlements and relocate residents, or that government should formalize and upgrade existing settlements. Groups build evidence-based arguments using case studies from Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, and Nairobi, then switch sides before the class seeks synthesis on which conditions favor each approach.

Analyze how the informal economy provides a safety net in developing nations.

Facilitation Tip

For the Structured Academic Controversy, assign roles clearly and require students to present the strongest argument for the opposing side before defending their own position.

What to look for

Provide students with a short case study of a specific informal settlement. Ask them to identify two reasons for its existence and two challenges its residents face, writing their answers on a half-sheet of paper.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Activity 03

• Gallery Walk
• 25 min · Small Groups

Gallery Walk: Mapping the Informal Economy

Post stations showing different informal economic activities: street food markets, home-based garment work, informal transport networks, unregistered construction labor, and cash domestic work. Students use a graphic organizer to identify who the workers are, what risks they face, and what benefits the informal sector provides that formal employment does not.

Design government interventions to integrate informal settlements into the city fabric.

Facilitation Tip

In the Gallery Walk, place a large map at each station so students can physically mark informal economy nodes with sticky notes as they rotate.

What to look for

On an index card, have students write one sentence explaining how the informal economy acts as a 'safety net' and one sentence describing a potential conflict between informal settlements and city governments.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Activity 04

• Jigsaw
• 40 min · Small Groups

Jigsaw: City Case Studies in Informality

Expert groups each analyze one city's approach: Medellin's cable car integration and social urbanism, Singapore's public housing transformation, Mumbai's Dharavi upgrading debates, and Nairobi's Kibera redevelopment. Experts teach their cases to home groups, which then identify which factors -- land tenure law, funding sources, political will -- predict more successful outcomes.

Explain why millions of people live in settlements without legal title to their land.

Facilitation Tip

For the Jigsaw, give each expert group a city fact sheet and a specific lens (e.g., housing, jobs, infrastructure) to focus their analysis.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Imagine you are a city planner. What are the three most important steps you would take to improve living conditions in a large squatter settlement, and why?' Facilitate a class discussion where students justify their choices.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Relationship Skills
• Self-Management

A few notes on teaching this unit

Experienced teachers approach this topic by grounding abstract concepts in students’ prior knowledge of urban challenges they’ve seen in media or local contexts. Avoid presenting informal settlements as problems to be solved by outsiders; instead, highlight resident-led solutions to avoid deficit framing. Research in geography education suggests students grasp spatial inequality better when they trace real data—like the percentage of city workers in the informal sector—onto maps they can see and touch.

Successful learning looks like students citing specific evidence from case studies or maps to explain why informal settlements exist. They should articulate trade-offs between eviction and upgrading with economic and social reasoning. Observing students justify decisions during discussions shows they have analyzed spatial inequality, not just described it.

---

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Think-Pair-Share, watch for students attributing informal settlement formation to laziness or poor choices.

  Use the pair share to redirect students to analyze housing costs and migration data provided in their case studies. Ask, 'How do the formal housing prices compare to rural incomes in the case study? What does that tell us about the choices available to migrants?'.

• During the Gallery Walk: Mapping the Informal Economy, watch for students dismissing the informal sector as marginal or unimportant.

  Direct students to the data at each station showing the informal sector’s share of city employment and tax revenue. Ask, 'Who relies on these services or workers? How does the formal economy depend on the informal sector?'.

• During the Jigsaw: City Case Studies in Informality, watch for students assuming land titling alone solves slum conditions.

  Have expert groups compare data on titling programs across cities. Ask, 'Which upgrades accompanied titling in each case? What happened to water access or school enrollment? What does that tell us about what upgrading requires?'.

---

Methods used in this brief

• Think-Pair-Share
• Structured Academic Controversy
• Gallery Walk
• Jigsaw