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How Did We Get Here?
Stories of Migration |
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 One of the great talking points of modern society is the question of migration. |
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Subjects: Cross curricular: History, Languages, Social Studies and Citizenship
Age Group: 11-15
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 1 school year
Introduction: One of the great talking points of modern society is the question of migration. Some people regard it as a healthy social phenomenon, which allows for enrichment through change, while for others it provides the pretext for conflict with undertones of racism, and other extreme attitudes. Pupils come into contact with this theme at home, on the radio and television and among their friends. Regrettably, coverage of this theme is often based on misunderstanding, misinformation, sometimes deliberate, and a lack of the facts. It is not always easy for teachers to dispel these myths and it is hoped that this project will provide a useful supplement to certain subject areas such as the teaching of history, social studies and citizenship. The project involves inviting a network of classes from as many schools as is practical to study together the migration of people who have left their birth place and have travelled to other parts of their own country or abroad for a multitude of different reasons to gain a better understand the reasons for emigration/ immigration and their impact on society.
ICT Tools: Digital camera, chat facilities, email, Internet, webcam
Pedagogical objectives: To enhance research techniques and communication skills.
To give practice in recording data and producing summaries.
To encourage curiosity in historical events and social phenomena.
To instil the virtue of taking a balanced view by seeing both sides of an argument and to give a better understanding of and tolerance towards the circumstances of immigrant communities
Process:
1. Starting activities
The starting activity can begin at two levels:
a) pupils are given personal assignments to find out as much as they can about the origins of their own family
b) teachers begin tracing in class historical events which led to the migration of people. | |
 TIP:
Suggested Approaches: Have they always lived in the same place or did a grandparent come from another town or part of the country or from abroad? Can they expand their family research by consulting parish records or contacting the central agency that records births, marriages, deaths? Teachers may include their own personal origins. | |
2. Consolidation
TIP:
The data resume could be put online as a Wiki or a Google Document which all the schools can contribute to online. The final resume can then be uploaded on a project blog or TwinSpace. | |
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Whilst the pupils are engaged in their family research, the project teacher will cover examples of the movement of people over the centuries, starting with the most ancient that we know, such as the Celts, the Romans, the native Americans, the Turks, etc. Among other choices would be the emigration of the Irish, the Italians and the Portuguese and the more recent phenomenon of people retiring in another member state of the EU.
The pupils can explore if there are any consistent patterns which emerge from the research while the teacher, with their knowledge of their pupils' backgrounds, may decide, at the outset, to concentrate on one or two cases.
At the end of each month a résumé of data is exchanged with partner schools building up over 12 months into a compendium of migration patterns. | |
3. Conclusion
| The final stage of the project is spent compiling the results either as a booklet or an online publication, with a section per class taking part which summarises with charts and other graphics the origins of the class. Teachers can include their own data. The final action would be to compile the conclusions, submitted by each of the participating schools. The booklet and/or online material would be made available to all schools in the network and sent to relevant websites so as to be available to other schools. | |
TIP:
You could publish the results on line as a magazine, using the online tool Magazine Factory. Each class could contribute a page. The results can then be discussed between the pupils on the project blog. For those schools with high speed Internet and webcam, classes could have a discussion on the results in real time. | |
4. Outcomes
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| TIP: Share the link to your project conclusions with other classes in your school. Post an article about it on your school’s website. Inform your town’s newspaper of your work. | | |
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Follow up options: Focus on one particular wave of migration, or one particular reason for migration, or on one particular result of migration. You could focus on specific elements of the subject such as the impact on languages when large communities of people migrate, examples of migration through colonisation and by force such as the slave trade. You could also focus on one particular account of migration, perhaps reflecting a dominant ethnic group in the school community or because of the school's link with a particular country (perhaps in the developing world).
Downloads: Useful links For general background to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue www.ec.europa.eu/culture/portal/events/current/dialogue2008
For examples of projects set up by various member states of the EU:
www.interculturaldialogue2008.eu
For background of EU youth projects:
www.salto-youth.net/interculturaldialogue
For notes on migration from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development):
www.oecd.org/migration
For notes on migration from UNESCO
www.unesco.org/migration
For notes on rural exodus from the BBC
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/exodus
Evaluation: Teachers set certain objectives for the project according to the circumstances of the school and the relevant class of pupils. These objectives and whether they have been attained will provide the framework for the evaluation. Consideration will be given to questions such as whether the project has lasted the course and has continued in an active way until the end of the time agreed with partners.
How well has the project supported the needs of the curriculum, e.g., in history and geography? Have pupils' attitudes to the subject, e.g., towards immigrant communities changed since the beginning of the project? Have attitudes to each other also changed since pupils have investigated their own backgrounds and shared their findings with their classmates? Has the project been able to make maximum and/or imaginative use of ICT?
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Last changed : |
07/04/2008 |
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