Grade 2 Spring History - Immigration Stories: Why Families Move, How They Journey, and How They Make Home
Lesson 4 40 min hist.g2.s.lesson_04

Pushes and Pulls - Applying the Framework

Skills targeted
Objectives
  • Students apply push-pull to TWO additional family stories.
  • Students recognize that BOTH push and pull operate together in most stories.
Vocabulary
pushpullbothtogetherreasonstory

Lesson plan

Warm-up

5 min

Recite class welcome promise draft. Review yesterday's push and pull words.

Teacher moves
  • Affirm word recall
  • Preview: today TWO new family stories

Direct instruction

12 min

Today we apply push-pull to two more stories. A Different Pond by Bao Phi - a Vietnamese refugee family in Minneapolis. This Is the Rope by Jacqueline Woodson - a Black family's Great Migration from South Carolina to Brooklyn. Both involve push AND pull. Let's listen carefully.

Key examples
  • A refugee family has a strong push of safety AND a pull of welcome.
    model PUSH: the Vietnam War made it unsafe (refugee). PULL: a safe new place with refugee resettlement support.
    prompt In A Different Pond, why did the family leave Vietnam? Why did they choose Minnesota?
  • The Great Migration was its own kind of family-moving story.
    model PUSH: unequal treatment, limited work for Black families in South. PULL: jobs, family already there in Brooklyn.
    prompt In This Is the Rope, why did the family leave South Carolina? Why Brooklyn?
Checks for understanding
  • Name one push and one pull from EACH story.
Sourcework
Source type
Bao Phi A Different Pond (Caldecott Honor); Jacqueline Woodson This Is the Rope (Coretta Scott King recognition)
Routine
PUSH-PULL identification in two distinct family-migration stories from two distinct traditions
Media
M-2-S-ECO-04-A Illustration
Image 11x17 showing both book covers side-by-side: A Different Pond (Bao Phi/Thi Bui) on left with father-son fishing il

Image 11x17 showing both book covers side-by-side: A Different Pond (Bao Phi/Thi Bui) on left with father-son fishing illustration; This Is the Rope (Woodson/Lopez) on right with multi-generation Black family illustration with a rope. Header band: 'TWO STORIES. TWO PATHS. BOTH MATTER.' Captions name authors and traditions.

Guided practice

12 min
Tasks
  • Complete a 2-row T-chart: STORY 1 (Bao Phi) - one push, one pull. STORY 2 (Woodson) - one push, one pull.
    scaffold Sentence frames on T-chart
  • Pair share: 'Both stories had push of ___ but different pulls.'
Media
M-2-S-ECO-04-B Diagram Physical / non-image

Worksheet 11x17 with 2 rows (STORY 1 / STORY 2), each row has 2 columns (PUSH / PULL), and 1 reflection box at bottom (BOTH factor identified). Each cell has 2 sentence-frame lines. Header band: 'PUSH-PULL TWO-STORY COMPARISON.' Style: clean, scaffolded, child-friendly.

Formative assessment

3 min
Exit ticket
  • Identify one BOTH factor - a factor that was both push and pull.
scoring One correct BOTH identified = mastery

Closure

2 min
Moves
  • Word Wall additions
  • Preview: tomorrow we name the FOUR PATHS

Homework

5 min
Tasks
  • Tell a family member about A Different Pond OR This Is the Rope. Share one push and one pull.

Exercises in this lesson

hist.g2.s.eco.push_pull_factors.ex_02
For ONE of these stories - Dreamers, A Different Pond, or This Is the Rope - identify one PUSH and one PULL factor. Use evidence from the book.
 story analysis · diff 3

Differentiation

Scaffolds
  • Pre-filled T-chart with one example
  • Picture-card prompts
Extensions
  • Add a third story's push-pull from another book
English Learners
  • Bilingual T-chart
  • Vietnamese / Spanish word for push and pull on card
Ieps 504s
  • Adult-supported T-chart
  • Verbal completion

Teacher notes

PROTOCOL: A Different Pond carefully introduces refugee experience and night fishing as economic necessity. Pause to honor the father's multiple jobs. This Is the Rope introduces the Great Migration - foundational US history that the unit honors as its own family-migration tradition. Children whose families came via Great Migration may share or not - never required. Counselor on call for any child with current family-separation experience triggered by Bao Phi's themes.