Reading a Migration Source
GROW Humanities · Autumn 1 · Week 2 · 40 minutes
Today at a Glance
◆ Supported
Use the labels on the table. Stick or say the right label for three parts of the source.
▲ Standard
Label all five parts. Annotate two things the source shows and one thing it cannot tell you.
★ Stretch
Label and annotate the source, then judge how far it answers the question on its own, with a reason.
Teacher Print Tools — Week 2
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Arrival Task – What we already know about sources
Last week we put events on a timeline. This week we read a source about one of them.
Every source was made by someone, at some time, for some reason. Those three facts change what it can tell us.
Arrival decision: Use the source card on the table, or choose a second card from the pack. Both are full answers. Nobody will ask which one you picked.
Before we start, look at the source card on your table. It is a reproduction of a 1950s recruitment poster inviting workers from the Caribbean to apply for jobs on London's buses. The caption tells you who made it and when. Everyone in this room can work with this card from start to end.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Starter: Why is looking not the same as reading?
Here are two answers about the same poster.
Answer A: “It is an old poster about buses.”
Answer B: “It is a poster made by a transport company in the 1950s, to persuade workers in the Caribbean to come and drive buses in London.”
Answer B tells you more than Answer A. Answer A describes the picture. Answer B says who made it, when, who it was for and why. That is reading a source, not just looking at it.
The need for this lesson is the label. A source has parts: the maker, the date, the audience, the purpose and the content. Each part is a label. By the end you will be able to label all five and say what they tell you.
Try it in your head: think of a poster on a wall in this school. Who put it there? Who is it for? What does it want you to do? You have just labelled three parts of a source.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
I Do: The five parts of a source
The diagram above shows the poster in the middle with five labels around it: content, maker, date, audience and purpose. The lines show which part of the source each label points to.
Notice what the diagram does not claim. It does not say the poster tells the whole story of migration. A poster is one voice, made for one reason. That is why the annotation, not just the label, matters.
Watch me do it: I read the caption. It says a transport company made it in 1956. That gives me the maker label and the date label. I read the big words: drivers wanted. That is content. The poster was shown in the Caribbean, so the audience is workers there. I label what I can read first. Then I work out the rest.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
We Do: Label three parts together
Part 1: the caption says a transport company made it. Which label is that?
Part 2: the big words say drivers are wanted. Which label is that?
Part 3: the poster was put up in the Caribbean. Which label is that?
Label first: write the right label next to each of the three parts on your copy of the source. Use the five labels from the diagram. Everyone labels at the same time. Then we hold the copies up and check together.
Evidence check
Part 3 is the one people disagree on. Some will label it audience. Some will label it purpose. Both are reading the source. When we check, we ask which part of the source you used. We do not check the word alone. A label with a pointed finger is reading.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
I Do: Shows, suggests, cannot tell
The diagram above has three boxes: shows, then suggests, then cannot tell. A finding you can point to on the source goes in the first box. A finding you can argue from the source goes in the middle. Anything not on the source goes in the last box.
Here is an annotation that puts a finding in the wrong box: "The poster shows that everyone who came got a good job." Nothing on the poster shows that. It belongs in the last box.
Fixing it together: move it. "The poster cannot tell us what jobs people got after they arrived." Now the annotation says only what the source can carry. The words cannot tell are the honest words for a source.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
We Do: Annotate one finding together
◆ Supported
Point to the part of the poster that shows drivers were wanted. Then choose the box card that fits.
▲ Standard
Say one finding for each of the three boxes, pointing to the source for the first two.
★ Stretch
Add a finding to the cannot-tell box, then say what other source would fill it.
We annotate one finding on the board first. Nobody writes yet. Everyone puts one finding on a whiteboard with its box name. Then we show them all at once. Then we agree the box.
The finding for this is about the audience. What does the poster show about who it was for? Write the finding and the box, not a describing word.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Independent Work — Your record: reading a migration source
Make one record. You may use the poster card, or a second source card from the pack, or both. All three are complete answers.
◆ Supported
Label three parts of the source using the supplied labels. An adult may scribe your exact words, and the words stay yours. Point to the part first, then the label.
▲ Standard
Label all five parts. Then write three findings: one the source shows, one it suggests, one it cannot tell. Point to the source for the first two. Use a separate row for each finding.
★ Stretch
Label and annotate the source, then answer: how far can this one source tell us why people came to Britain in the 1950s? Give a reason that names a limit.
Check yourself: does every label point to a part of the source?
Check yourself: does every finding name its box?
Check yourself: can you point to the source for everything in the shows box?
⏸ Pens down — quick partner check!
Half way through: stop, swap with a partner, and check one thing on the list above together. Then carry on.
WAGOLL — what a good one looks like
Here is a finished row: Shows. A transport company in Britain wanted drivers in 1956. I can point to the caption and the big words. One finding, one box, one pointed finger. And someone who has never seen the poster can check it.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Lundy Loop — Your Voice in This Lesson
🚪 SPACE
Space is room to take part;
SPACE stays available.
📣 VOICE
VOICE is received.
👥 AUDIENCE
AUDIENCE names back exactly.
⭐ INFLUENCE
INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Exit Ticket — Audience receives; influence changes something
Read one finding to a partner or to an adult. The listener says back the box they heard, in their own words.
Did the listener hear shows where you meant suggests? Then change that one word. That change is your influence. It belongs to you, not to them.
Next week you will use sources like this one to explain a cause and a consequence of migration. Keep your annotated source. It will help you then.
✅ Complete
Hand in your record and tick the learner confirmation on your sheet. That is the lesson done.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.