KS3 RE, Philosophy and Ethics: Migration Lesson 3 - Case Study

Lesson: What does a refugee experience?

This lesson is Lesson 3 in the new ‘Migration’, ethics-based unit, devised as part of a brand new, relevant and engaging scheme of work for KS3 students.

Educating young people about migration is increasingly important in today’s climate, where global conflicts, climate change, economic inequality and political instability continue to displace people worldwide. This lesson, and the wider unit of which it is a part, helps young people understand the complex reasons behind migration, challenge stereotypes and misinformation, and develop empathy towards migrants and refugees.

This lesson explores the story of Enaia, a refugee, and his gruelling journey to Italy. It aims to promote empathy, aligning a human experience to the normally statistically-driven rhetoric in the media. This lesson contains a powerful story, meant to be read and explored with the students. There is a teacher support sheet to support with this, as it is part of a wider project aiming to bring powerful stories into the RE classroom to embed deeper learning.

Although part of a unit, this lesson can also be taught as a stand-alone lesson as long as your students have some prior understanding of moral decision-making. The corresponding lesson sheets would also support a home-learned curriculum as the PowerPoints and resources themselves include scaffolding, where required, and opportunities for the teacher to apply adaptive teaching techniques.

The interleaved schemed of work are specifically designed to promote the two skills desired for success in RE/Ethics and at GCSE:

• AO1 (Knowledge and Understanding)
• AO2 (Analysis and Evaluation)

The resources are specifically created to ensure students are aware of the skill they are demonstrating and how to improve further through modelling.

Lesson includes:

• Starter activity/retireval activity, editable to suit your scheme of learning
• Homework Slide
• Lesson overview (lesson objective and the lesson journey)
• Key words (literacy focus)
• Core knowledge
• Analysis / debate task (AO2 - analysis) and finalised judgement (AO2 - evaluation)
• Plenary

Lesson Sheets:
If you would rather work in exercise books, the lesson sheets are designed so that you can print off relevant pages - it is a resource pack. The lesson sheets help by providing time-saving activities, whilst still being able to cover the breadth and depth of a challenging, engaging RE curriculum.
In addition, students who may be limited by literacy issues and slower writing paces, for example, are not disadvantaged or capped in their progress. Therefore, some classes could use a mixed approach - part lesson sheets, part exercise book - and all students will be able to progress through the same volume of content.