Lesson 1. Introduction: Migrants and Migration

Learning Objectives

Analyze primary source documents and images from the first wave of the Great Migration (ca. 1917).

Teacher Materials

• Projected Photo (select from Great Migration Images)
• Prompts for Discussing Photo
• Migration Vocabulary notes
• Concept Web example

Student Materials

• 2-3 copies of each of the twelve Letters from the South (print from the DOCUMENTS page)
• Document Analysis Sheet A

Activities

1. Making observations from a photographic image
   • Display projected photo on overhead
   • What observations and inferences can you make about the photograph? What questions do you have? (see additional prompts for discussing the photo).
   • Note: This is a rare photograph of migrants during an episode in American history historians call The Great Migration.
2. Define basic terms
   • See Migration Vocabulary notes)
   • Emphasize discussion of push factors, pull factors, & enablers
3. Concept web
   • Begin a Concept Web on overhead transparency or the chalkboard, labeling the central bubble "African-American Life in the South after Reconstruction."
   • Discuss: What do we already know?
   • Students copy the concept web into their notebooks
   • Identify concepts that could be labeled push factors.
4. Interpreting primary sources
   • Randomly distribute copies of the twelve different Letters from the South [no more than three students should receive any single letter].
   • Class time to read and analyze assigned letters.
     • Students may work individually, or in pairs.
     • Underline push factors, circle pull factors, and bracket enablers
     • Complete Document Analysis Sheet A.

Homework

Students finish Primary Document Reading activity