My life as a journey

Key points of activity development

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  Pedagogical tip: If the class works often in groups, follow the ways you already use. Otherwise, divide into groups in a playful way. Find more on "Creative ways to split into groups!" and feel free to adapt them.

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  Ideas & Materials: See ideas of virtual museums, videos or texts on "Watch, listen, read, explore! Materials on passages / transitions". See how artists of contemporary art "tell" stories of transition and identities on "Passages & identities in modern and contemporary art". See stories on transitions created by pupils in the framework of BACKPACKID.

  We divide students into groups. We watch a video and / or read a text (literary or any document) on transitions (preferable each country chooses visual, audio or print materials related to its own historical or present reference).
• We discuss in plenary what the concept “transition” means to the students and other possible transitions that can occur in a person’s life.
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  Pedagogical tip: Encourage group work, cooperative and collaborative learning. Find some tips on "How we work in groups?"

  Each group is given a different story to discuss with the help of a worksheet (pp. 164). Each group discusses the story, reflects on it and answers the questions in the worksheet.
• Each student works individually and tries to work out if there has been a transition in his or her own life, based on the relevant worksheet (Anthology pp.165). She/he then reads his/her own transition story to the other team members. They compare their own stories with the protagonist’s transition story (similarities-differences) and announce their conclusions in plenary.
• Each student draws on a cardboard an image illustrating his/her personal transition, accompanying the drawing with phrases that express him/her.
• Each student creates his or her individual Identity Card, by writing whatever they consider relevant to himself or herself. At the end of this assignment the students are divided into groups of four and read their text. They record similarities and differences on an additional sheet and present them in plenary. The teacher collects the sheets and attaches them to the board.
• The teacher asks the students to stand up and form a circle urging all those who have one of the similarities or differences recorded (e.g. those who dream of traveling a lot) to leave the circle, move to a corner of the room and pin on their chests a post-it of the same color. The teacher continues in the same way citing many similarities and differences. So the pupils move around several times creating different groups and adding to their chests a different post-it each time. The pupils discuss about their findings and conclusions (eg multiple identities, elements that differentiate us from some but unite us with others).
• Finally, a relevant (to migration/transition) song is heard. Comments are made on verses drawing the pupils’ interest and through free discussion, thoughts and feelings are expressed. The teacher writes on the board the phrase: “Our life is a journey. I will encounter obstacles when traveling. I will ...” The pupils are required to continue completing the phrase, thus creating a collective poem.