Wright Middle School 2/20

This week at Wright Middle School we continued working with Shaun Tan’s The Arrival and the students had a wonderful time! For this lesson, we focused on perspectives, and how individuals experience life in different, unique ways. For our activity, students were asked to step into the shoes of the father in The Arrival, and their task was to describe the immigrant experience from the perspective of the father by designing and writing a letter to the daughter in the story. In their letters, lots of students wrote about the many challenges that the father had to come as he attempted to navigate this new, strange city. Many students wrote about the benefits of having a creature companion to help navigate the city, and others shed light on the difficulties presented by language barriers and cultural customs. A common sentiment that many students touched on was homesickness, and how the father felt lonely and missed his daughter dearly. Throughout the activity, students were asked to draw connections between their own experiences and the experiences of the father and the daughter in the story.

Next week, we will continue to work with Shaun Tan’s The Arrival as we continue our origami activities that the students thoroughly enjoyed.