Virginia SOL USII.3.d
The Standard
explaining the events, factors, and motivations that caused individuals and groups to migrate to the United States towards the end of the 19th century
Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify pressures that drove people from their homelands and opportunities that attracted them to the United States. They explain how jobs, land, persecution, conflict, and poverty shaped migration decisions.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can read a short account and identify the person’s origin, push factors, pull factors, and reasons for leaving. They can explain that one person or group may have had several motives.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may assume everyone came only for jobs or that all migration was voluntary. They may confuse push factors in the homeland with pull factors in the United States.
How to Assess It
- Give this exit prompt: “A Jewish family faces pogroms in Russia and hears about factory jobs in New York. Name one push factor, one pull factor, and explain their decision.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs migration story cards to sort under labeled signs for persecution, poverty, conflict, jobs, land, and freedom.
Ask students to write: “Which would influence migration more, danger at home or opportunity abroad? Use two historical examples.”
Run a push or pull relay where teams place factor cards in the correct column and justify each choice.
Use a local historical census page to map residents’ birthplaces and discuss what evidence could explain their move.
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Related Standards
- USII.5.c
describing the reasons for and impact of the Great Migration
- WG.13.b
analyzing the causes, impacts, and responses related to migration.
- USI.8.c
identifying geographic, economic, and religious motivations that influenced the movement of settlers
- CE.6.e
examining the process and importance of immigration policies at different points in U.S. history; and
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