Activity 2
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
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.
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.
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