Activity 3 Topic 2
Title
If I were you…if you were me.
Duration
1 hour
Expected learning outcomes
By the end of this activity, students will be able to:
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Understand other points of view
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Recognise people’s different backgrounds
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Develop critical thinking, reflecting on the phenomenon of migration
Methodology
Storytelling, critical thinking, active listening
Required resources
I am a migrant: https://www.iamamigrant.org/
Description
This activity will help participants get started with storytelling and gain some confidence in sharing their personal experiences, through a role-play approach. Reflecting on barriers and sharing stories can make these obstacles visible and help dealing with them.
Step 1.
Students can play in groups, with one (or more) of them pretending to be one of the people in the database (https://www.iamamigrant.org/) and they have to imagine the struggles that migrants have to face when they arrive to a new country. Have students reflect on the difficulties related to migration.
Step 2.
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Ask your students to select an element from the migrant’s story that has represented / still represents an obstacle in their life.
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In a circle: each participant explains why he/she chose this element and how
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it influences his/her life.
Step 3.
Now each participant will tell a story connected to the topic chosen, starting by:
“Once upon a time, there was a…”
Follow the structure in activity 2 Co-creating stories.
Hints for teachers:
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If some participants have linguistic difficulties or find it difficult to present in front of the whole group, they can work in pairs.
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Students can start their story from episodes of real life and invent the rest of it, thus creating a safe environment to tell the story and boosting creativity by producing new characters.
Relevant topics for
discussion
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What do you think are the obstacles/problems that foreign students face at school?
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How can classmates and teachers help the new students?
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Is learning a new language easy?
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Is studying/working in a new language complicated?
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How would you feel not knowing the language