Lesson Title: Push and Pull Factors for Migration within the United States: Orphan Trains

Grade Level Content Expectations:

4-G4.0.1 Use a case study or story about migration within or to the US to identify push and pull
factors that influenced migration.
Overall Themes:
- Push and Pull (As related to the unit as a whole)
- Treatment of people despite race, age, sex, religion, or nationality, and how this treatment can
cause the loss of identity

Big Ideas  Overall Unit: Groups of people

(Overall Unit, which my mentor teacher, Jennifer
Himebaugh, will be presenting about other groups and
I will be presenting on Orphan Trains, which is the
Focused Lesson.)
Essential Questions
Purpose – Why something happened.
Process – How something happened.
Lesson Objectives:
Content:
Students will be able to…
migrated within America, sometimes
without their consent, to new areas for
different reasons. (Push and Pull)
 Focused Lesson: “The migration
caused by the orphan trains changed
the lives of those children on the
orphan trains and their views of
themselves
 How were the “Orphan Trains”
similar/different to migration of other
groups (Underground Railroad,
westward movement, etc.)
 Why were Orphan Trains formed?
 How did these orphan’s lives and
views of themselves change?
Skills:
Students will be able to…

 Describe why homeless children were
removed from New York.
 Identify who Charles Brace is and explain
his significance.
 Understand how “Orphan Trains”
changed children’s view of their cultures.
 Write a letter as a homeless child going
through several towns waiting to be
adopted.
 Compare and Contrast “The Journey
Home” and the “Train to Somewhere”.
(Conditions, locations, characters, etc.)
 Discuss push and pull factors of the
Orphan Trains.

Building Pedagogical Content:

Source Content from Text
Train to Somewhere  Mother left Marianne to look for work in the
By: Eve Bunting West. (Chicken Factory worker in New York)
  Train traveled through different cities and
(Read the week before states.
NCSS source)  St. Christopher’s is where they lived.
 Some children were chosen for looks, some
APA Format: for strength, others were not chosen at all.
Bunting, E., & Himler, R. (2012). Train to
Somewhere. New York: Clarion Books.

“Orphan Trains” Podcast – Things You Problems:

Missed in History Class
(https://www.missedinhistory.com/
podcasts/orphan-trains.htm)
APA Format:
Podcast – Things You Missed in History Class.
(2014, May 19). Orphan Trains [Audio blog post].
Retrieved from
https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/orphan-
trains.htm#
 Homeless Children went to petty theft,
begging, prostitution, shoe-shine/paperboys
 10-30,000 of homeless children in New York
City of a population of 500,000
 Lack of Foster Care systems, no Social
workers, no adoption laws
Result:
Charles Lauren Brace
 Horrified of situation, hordes of children
were threats to social order > hardened
criminal adults. Find some way to fix
problem
 Children’s Aid Society
 Newsboys lounging house.
 Children vastly outnumbered jobs
 Send children to “nice Christian homes”
(farms)\in west
- Outplacement
 Other companies followed suit.
 Children given new clothes – look their best
- Strip children of their culture and make
them “ideal”
 Several stops made along the way. Presenting
Children.

The Journey Home Chapter 2:

By: Isabella Holland  Children’s Aid Society Conditions – “Low
Brick hall that looked dirty and run-down.”
- Not much time in school
(Select Chapters; Chapter 2 and 4)  Selling matches
 “staleness”, “foul smell”
APA Format: Chapter 4:
Holland, I. (1990). Two. In The Journey Home (pp.  Travelling for longer than a month
16-20). Scholastic.  “Cattle fairs” – platforms where meetings took
place.
Holland, I. (1990). Four. In The Journey Home (pp.
43-44). Scholastic.

Rationale:
Push and Pull Factors
 Inability to keep children due to lack of work.
 Low-paying jobs in the city. (Factories, etc.)
  Overflow of orphaned/abandoned children.
 New “opportunities” in the West. (Farmers, Pastors, no-child families.)
 More space.
Based on the Books
 Describes conditions and reasons for leaving. (Poor conditions, run-down buildings, etc)
 Describes train ride. (Multiple stops, presented to crowds, etc.)
 Emotions (Feelings of rejection, not knowing, etc.)
Culturally
 Going to unknown areas and being into adopted into a family they don’t know.
 May not practice the same religion, child would have to conform.
 Typically, only white children are sent.

Summary of Rationale: Students will be able to recognize the push-and-pull factors for
children on the orphan trains. Students will be able to describe the effects of being forced
to leave on the train on orphans’ cultural and social circles, while comparing their
experiences to other groups in history (Underground Railroad, Westward Settlements,
etc.).

Meaningful Value-Based Integrative Challenging Active

-Allows children to -Understanding how -Writing down how -Think about -Small group
think of lives and different they would feel situations and discussion
feelings of people experiences affect (Language Arts) difficulties that they -Large group
their age. how people may are not completely discussion
-Imagining how behave. familiar with.
they would feel in
their shoes.

Knowing my Students and their Learning Environments:

 Grade Level: 4th grade

 Gender: Males (12), females (11)
 Race: White (22), African-Americans (1)
 Languages spoken: All speak English, one speaks another language (Albanian) at home.

One student (Jenna) has trouble focusing on something for too long. Another (Steve) gets
angry easily. Elton needs thing read to him, because he speaks another language at home.

What Linguistic, Social, and Academic Challenges, Supports, and Resources will I need to
Incorporate into my lesson?


  Social Challenges:
o I would like to incorporate moving and active learning, by having students get up
and move into groups to discuss ideas, so that my students that do have trouble
focusing are able to follow along without being distracted.
 Movement
 Linguistic Challenges:
o I would like to show images to help develop points and give the children a better
understanding, especially my bilingual student.
 Images to help represent concepts.
o Small group discussions, in case my bilingual student needs scaffolding.
 Small groups to encourage discussions and understanding.
 Academic Challenges:
o Academically, not all of my students perform at the same level, so I must be able
to give different activities at varying level to see if everyone is understanding and
participating.
 Varying activities for varying students.
Lesson:

Components Teacher Activity Student Activity

Opening Within first five minutes:
-Ask a few recall questions about the
“Train to Somewhere” and how they
felt about the ending.
 What do you remember from
the text?
 How did that make you feel?
 Where did her mother work?
 How do we know this?
 Would you like that?
Within the first five minutes:
-Participate in discussion.
-Recall information from the text
with includes setting, characters, and
details.
-Think of why this is important and
push and pull factors.
-Why is this important?
-Why are they sent away?
What are the conditions?

Six minutes in: Six minutes in:

-Handout copies of select quotes
from chapters from “The Journey
Home” and ask students to
highlight/underline adjectives that
relate to conditions in the orphanage
and train in small groups. Have
images scrolling on the screen from
the two books.
-Receive pages and begin reading
and working in small groups.
-Highlight/underline information.
Recall:
-What is an adjective?
-What is a noun?
 -Go over adjective worksheet so
students can use them
Development Fifteen minutes in:
(detailed Ask how the adjectives in “The
activities Journey Home” are similar or
including different to “The Train to
questions, Somewhere”. Ask what conditions
transitions, led them to leave. (Large group
scaffolding, discussion)
and
assessment)  Were these conditions safe to
live in?
 Do you think this is why they
moved west?
 Do you think conditions have
improved?
 Why else would they have
moved?

Twenty minutes in:
-After discussing, write about being
on the orphan trains, thinking about
conditions and how you feel.
Question:
Based on “The Journey Home” and
“The Train to Somewhere”, write a
letter as if you were on the orphan
trains. Why are you leaving? Where
are you going and why? How are
you feeling? Excited? Worried?
Happy? Sad? At least one
paragraph (5 sentences)
Closure Forty to end:
How are these experiences similar to
(wrap up)
For All Learners: Discussing in
small and large groups. Some
pictures on the screen.
(Should help with behavior and they
can ask questions to peers or
individually with teachers.
Fifteen minutes in:
Discuss and participate.
Think critically about the two books
and compare and contrast them.
-What did “The Journey Home”
describe more?
-Did this description make it easier
to visualize?
-Are the settings and characters
similar? (New York City, Unknown
place in the West, two orphan girls.)
-What kind of jobs are described in
both?
Twenty minutes in:
Write for fifteen minutes.
Think critically about conditions and
write an "experience" that could
have happened during this time.
Consider the whole journey of the
orphan trains, not just the beginning
and end.
Share out with the class. (Only
some, not all.)
Forty to end:
Discuss and have good time.
 other groups with push and pull
Thinking critically.
factors?

(This depends greatly on how far my

teacher has gotten with them.)
For All Learners: talking can show
learning. Students who may not
always focus can concentrate more
easily.
Materials -Printed out sheets/lined paper -Pencils
Needed -“The Journey Home” -Smiles!

Assessment:
Formative Assessments: Informal small group discussion, formal whole group discussion, and
adjective assignment. “The Journey Home” Adjective Activity asks students to underline
adjectives in a sentence from the story, “The Journey Home”. This is to help build up ideas of
adjectives that they can use during their summative assessment.
Summative Assessment: Writing a letter to a friend as an orphan on an orphan train. Describe the
conditions, why you’re leaving, length of travel, where you are going, and how you’re feeling.

Stage 4 Post-Teaching Reflection

Student Learning

Explain how students met the content goals and objectives?

Students met content goals and objectives mainly during our discussions. We started off
by asking about the two books I read to them. Active participation throughout the entire less
showed me that they were understanding and ready to move forward. We had a brief discussion
about Charles Brace, who helped start the Children’s Aid Society. This discussion was quite
brief as he was only mentioned briefly in the text. I debated telling them more about him because
he is quite controversial due to his religious beliefs in connection to the orphan trains. Moving
from Charles Brace, we discussed how orphan trains may have changed the lives of the orphans
on the trains. Topics included their sense of identity, culture and overall quality of life. As they
were forced out of New York or from their families, they lost parts of themselves. A majority of
my students greatly sympathized with them, which really helped when the students were asked to
participate in a roleplay in which they wrote letters from the ‘perspective’ of an orphan on a train
during this time period.

Explain how the students met the skill goals and objectives?
 As a class, students met skill goals and objectives by comparing our two readings, “The
Journey Home” and “Train to Somewhere”. Students discussed key details, such as main
characters (young females with younger female companions that are eventually adopted), types
of jobs that homeless/orphaned characters occupied, settings, life on the train, and the characters’
feelings throughout the book. In my evaluation, Mrs. Himebaugh stated that she liked that “pre-
reading the trade book (the week before) was helpful to build prior knowledge.” I agree with her,
but also appreciated the time it saved me, while giving students an opportunity to digest the
materials they were given the week before. After our discussion, we clarified some push and pull
factors that they thought about. Once satisfied with this, I had them begin their assessment.
Students completed this assessment by using main ideas and key details from our readings and
pretended to be an orphan on the orphan trains, by writing a letter. In their letters, they are to
explain why they are leaving New York and where they are going (push and pull factors), which
was our main content objective.

What values did students learn as a result from your unit?

My students learned that different experiences can greatly affect how people behave.
Even though some of the children in the books were rude, my children understood that they were
going through a very emotionally-straining situation. The students expressed empathy,
attempting to understand what the orphans could have been feeling while on the train. Rather
than wondering why the characters may have an attitude, they knew that it was simply their
environment that was negatively impacted. My students also realized that even though orphan
trains do not exist in America anymore, there are still orphans and, unfortunately, some of them
do not live in great situations. This sympathy could encourage my students to want to learn about
a person’s situation before judging them based on their first impression.

Self-Reflection of Teacher Learning

What did you expect to happen in this lesson?

I wanted this lesson to be filled with academic and empathetic discussion about a topic
that can be potentially hard to talk about. I wanted most of my students to actively participate
and recognize the parallels between “The Journey Home” and “Train to Somewhere” while
bringing in their own emotions. I expected my students to be interested in this particular topic as,
though they may not have perfect lives, they have never had to experience anything like this,
though the children in the books were not much older than them. I think that it is important to
expose my children to diverse topics that may be slightly challenging for them, as it helps them
develop their empathy.

What went as predicted?

The students were empathetic towards the main characters during discussions, however,
when it came to the written portion of the lesson, some decided to make the assignment a joke,
rather than relay their empathy. We had very nice discussions about the stories and during that
time, most of the children participated, but my teacher noticed that a lot of the same kids kept
volunteering and I kept choosing them, rather than the quieter students. Mrs. Himebaugh stated,
“(s)everal of the same students raised hands, so maybe think about more ways to involve quieter
students to participate and share,” in her evaluation form, which I agree with. I think that I was
focusing too much on if the students were empathetic, and I did not think about if the quieter
students had input that may have been more valuable to the lesson. This discussion has
ultimately helped me grow as a teacher as it make me more conscious of my students. I will
make sure to be careful when picking students to participate when I am a teacher.

What surprised you?

It surprised me how much the students could recall from the book that we had read from the
week before. I asked about some details that were only mentioned a few times, but were
important to character development and they were able to answer it. One example of this was
when I asked about a feather that Marianne from “Train to Somewhere” kept in her pocket. This
was important because it was a chicken feather; her mother worked at a chicken factory and
before she abandoned Marianne and moved west, they said their good-byes. A feather got stuck
in her mother’s hair as she promised her daughter that she would come back, even though she
never did. My children recalled the feather because a lot of them felt emotionally distraught at
the idea of the mother never coming back, despite Marianne carrying the feather for years.

What were the strengths of the lesson?

The overall discussion aspect was very strong in my lesson. I was very impressed by the ideas
that my students expressed as a class. They seemed very interested in the topic and that helped
support each other’s learning. Another strength was the letters that they wrote, when they were
playing the role of orphans on the trains. This worksheet got very different responses from the
students, which tells me a lot. Some may have felt uncomfortable as well, which is part of
learning, but continued through with the lesson. I think the overall lesson opened their eyes to
life from the past and they could really connect, because it dealt with children close to their own
age.

What weakness exists in your lesson and what would you do to address these weaknesses?

In my lesson plan, a weakness was how I presented my adjective worksheet. In theory, I wanted
to introduce it in order to give students an opportunity to have an a more clear idea of adjectives
they could use in their assessment. This did not go as planned, because a lot of kids had trouble
identifying what an adjective was. It was a good way to clarify that, but did not help the overall
lesson. In order to fix this, I think I would change the vocabulary that I used. I also forget to
reread the direction several times to the students, which Mrs. Himebaugh commented on my
evaluation sheet. Sometimes I forget that my students are only 8 to 10 years-old and that I need
to provide additional support, such as reading directions. This would just take practice on my
part, but overall would improve the lesson tremendously.

What else did you learn about the topic, your students, the curriculum or teaching?

This lesson was completely new to me. I had never discussed this topic in all my years of being a
student. It was rather interesting and sometimes made me feel uncomfortable, because I did not
know how I was going to present it to young children. I didn’t realize that some topics could get
that deep for fourth graders. I do think it is important to have lessons like this though. I think it is
a good lesson to learn because it does help build empathy, while getting students prepared for
harder lessons later in their learning careers. They need to know that not everything worked
perfectly and need to realize what does and does not work.

Mentor Teacher/Field Instructor Feedback Form for Social Studies Teaching

Name(s) of Senior: Christina Haggerty

Mentor Teacher: Jennifer Himebaugh

Category Comments

Delivery Moves Speech was clear, used microphone for more

 Clarity of speech
 Flow of lesson, with appropriate
wait time
 Use of proximity to support
students attention
Social Studies Content Moves
projected sound
Flow of lesson was smooth, and wait time
appropriate
Proximity was best during when students were
writing, more independent time.

 Uses big ideas and essential
questions to frame the activity
 Disciplinary core ideas presented
are accurate and relevant to
students
Pedagogical moves
 Gives clear directions (verbally,
visually)
 Manages transitions effectively
 Invites student involvement and
active learning
 Engages diverse learners by
connecting to their backgrounds
and/or building on their prior
knowledge
Big ideas and content directly related to our social
studies unit on migration in the U.S. with the study
of orphan trains.
Use of document camera helped to show written
examples and explain the assignment. One
suggestion would be to have a student repeat back
the directions before starting the task to make sure it
is completely clear to all.
Transitions were effectively done.
Several of the same students raised hands, so maybe
think about more ways to involve quieter students to
participate and share.

Some students shared their written work at the end

of the lesson. Suggestion is to preview the student’s
 work prior to sharing to whole class unless you
know the students well and know what to expect
from them.

Pre reading the trade book last week helped to build

prior knowledge.

Professional moves

 Professional attire All items in this category were appropriate. Positive

 Confidence in body language and verbal comments were made to students for
speech participating.
 Positively attentive to student
behavior
 Comes prepared

Other Comments Well done for a first lesson. The writing task was
challenging. Possibly showing a teacher example of
how it might look prior to the independent work
would help scaffold this, or doing the beginning of
the writing as a guided activity and having students
finish on their own.

Example of Student Work (Picture of Letter is Below):

Student Words:
“To: Mom or, who ever gets this letter.
I have to leafe, because I do not have any family or a very good home. I live on the streets, I
should go to a better home, a place were I’ll be accepted and find a better home then the street’s.
I hope we’ll meet again. Anyway I herd that some kids get caught or taken to an orphanage. I
don’t want to leafe you! But you’re gone… I deserve a home. Maybe I’ll find a better home and
better family. I’m boarding the train right now to find a good home and find hope. I haven’t been
adopted yet. I’m still waiting to meet my real mom and dad.
Signed, XXXX
P.S. Goodbye!”
My Comments:
This shows how my student understood how children going through this situation were
probably very upset and unsure of what was happening. They needed support and often held on
to hope that their parents would return. Some key details she missed out on was where she was
going. Most children were shipped to the West.
Student Words:
“Dear Evlyn,
I’ve been traveling for a while on this train. No one has adopted me yet I wish someone would
adopt me. I never wanted to go on the train because I did not want to leave you. But the bright
side is that I don’t have to sleep on rought ground, rarely a bench. Can you believe I get to sleep
on soft seats? Mrs. Kim said we were going torws the West. I hope I won’t have to be a severnt.
In MY whole life. I also hope my mom is waiting for me.
Signed Lusy (Fake name)”
My Comments:
Again, I see the pattern of sadness and not wanting to leave. She mentions where she is going,
but doesn’t explain what she is hoping to find. This was one of the first students who were done
with the assignment.