The Arrival: A Provocation

Yesterday morning, the Grade 2 students arrived at school and were immediately thrown into a role-play provocation. 

We set the scene by looking at this image (from 'The Arrival' By Shaun Tan) and imagined that we were characters who had just disembarked in a new country.

The Arrival

\We gave the students passports, lined them up and then filed into the 'arrival hall', where the Grade 8 drama students were waiting for us.

The arrival hall was chaotic, the 8th grade guards were speaking a language which the students did not understand so they could understand how it would feel if you didn't speak the host country's language. The students had many forms and medical checks to complete and photos to take. Here are some photos of the provocation:

Can you understand what these forms mean? How did you know how to complete them?

During the provocation these were some of the comments made by the Grade 2 students: 

• I can’t understand their language, but I understand their actions.
• I feel angry because I can’t understand what they’re saying to me and I don’t know where to go or what to do. 
• She wants me to come here again and be tested, but I’ve already done this! 
• We’re lining up but I don’t know why. 
• I’m trying to see where I’m supposed to go, but I don’t understand what their language is. 
• I got this form from over here, but I don’t know if I filled it out right. 
• She told me to sit down quick and then sent me away. 
• There are too many people here. 

After our provocation we reflected in class on what we saw, heard, touched, experienced and thought.

To dig deeper we used a technique called Chalk Talk and CSI (Colour, Symbol and Image), identifying what our strongest emotion, thought and memory was.

I also asked students to identify what they are now wondering about Migration, now that they have experienced a migration process different to theirs. These were their answers:

Students continued the reflection process by blogging their responses to these questions:

• I want you to keep thinking and reflecting, how would you answer these questions? 
• What did you learn about migration today? 
• What do you still want to find out?