PEOPLE ON THE MOVE - Department of Geography

Materials &
Handouts:
• Why People Move
• Teacher Background
• Push Factors
• Pull Factors
Suggestions for Teaching the Lesson
Opening the Lesson
1. Explain to students that people move for specific reasons and they will be able
to discover some of those reasons. Have students brainstorm some of the reasons
that people have for moving from one place to another. Write the responses on
the chalkboard or overhead.
2. Ask students to indicate whether or not their families have moved during their
lifetime. What were the reasons? Some students may need prompts. The
worksheet Why People Move may help focus discussion. Add these reasons to the
list on the chalkboard/overhead. Plot the locations of student moves on a map of
your community, Texas, the United States, or world.
3. Explain to students that reasons for moving can be categorized into push
factors and pull factors. Push factors represent perceived problems or
dissatisfaction with the place in which people are living. Pull factors represent
perceived benefits of the place to which people are drawn. Have student
categorize reasons in the list they have generated as either push or pull.
4. Have students summarize (generalize about) the reasons for movement of
people from place to place. Statements such as, "People move from areas of
unemployment to areas where jobs are available." is a good example of a
summary statement.
Developing the Lesson
5. Using maps and graphs available in many US history texts or world atlases,
help students to understand that historically the US has been the recipient of large
numbers of people from other parts of the world, that many countries have
contributed to this flow of people, and that the movement has varied in size from
time to time. Distinguish between immigration and emigration.
6. Help students hypothesize about push and pull factors that might have been
operating for specific groups at specific time periods, e.g., the Potato Famine,
Ireland, 1840s, Industrial Revolution and Enclosure, United Kingdom, mid-
1700s, revolutions and military conscription in the German states, 1840s and
1870s, pogrom in Russia, 1890s, Mexican Revolution, 1910s-1920s, conflict in
Central America, 1980s, etc. Ask student why their families emigrated to the
United States. Have them interview their grandparents and relatives. Map their
routes.
7. Hand out the documents Push Factors and Pull Factors. Explain that these are