Activity 2

1. Using the websites below, or others that the students have independently located, students work in small groups to:

   • nominate a person for investigation
   • identify the reason/s why their person left their homeland
   • explore the social, cultural, economic and/or political contribution/s he or she has made to Australia and/or aboard
   • consider the possible motivating factors for his or her contribution/s.

   Possible starting points for student research include:

   • Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Immigration stories
   • Museum Victoria, Immigration Museum’s Discovery Centre, Personal stories
   • Randwick City Council, Migrant Story project
   • Migration Heritage Centre (NSW), Belongings: Post World War II Migration Memories and Journeys
   • Department of Immigration, Success Stories of Australian Migration
   • Australian Biography
   • Dictionary of Australian Biography (1949)
   • Australian Story
   • Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

2. Using either New homes or Fiona Chiu: Chinese family tree as a model, the groups either:

   • design a storyboard containing photographs, scene descriptions and voiceover text  that could be used in order to make a documentary; or

   • make an exhibition that contains a collection of objects and photographs typical of those that would be found in a museum. Each object and photograph needs a description.

   Remind students to link their storyboards and exhibitions back to the themes of:

   • personal identity and experiences in relation to leaving the homeland
   • social, cultural, economic and/or political contribution/s to Australia and aboard
   • possible motivating factors for the contribution/s.

3. Ask the small groups to present their storyboards and exhibitions to the rest of the class. Encourage students to provide peer feedback using a Feedback sandwich. The Feedback sandwich provides explicit feedback about the groups’:

   • areas of strength
   • opportunities for improvement
   • possible strategies for future improvement.

4. Ask students to use a Venn diagram to compare the storyboards and exhibitions. What do the biographies have in common? How are the biographies unique? Depending on time constraints, student can either use a two-ring Venn diagram or a three-ring Venn diagram to make the comparisons.

   Introduction | Activity One | Activity Two | Activity Three