Silence & Openness

The teacher asks one of the proposed open-ended questions, and students think quietly about it for a minute or two. Then every student pairs up with a partner and discusses the question for two to five minutes. Finally, the whole class engages in a discussion where students raise their hands and share all the thoughts and ideas they have gathered.

You can also use worksheets so students can write down the questions and their thoughts.

Questions:

Can secrets and silence be good or bad?
Is openness evidence of safety and freedom?
Are there stories that should not be told?

Download the Think-Pair-Share worksheet template here.

After the discussion and opinion sharing you are invited to evaluate this learning experience. You might consider using the evaluation strategy 3-2-1. You ask your students to write 3 things they learned, 2 things they found interesting, and 1 thing they do not understand, have questions about, or would like to know more. You can download 3-2-1 evaluation template here.

The home assignment is aiming to introduce students not only to topics on identity and migration but also to research methods and curatorial practices in view of their future professional development. This is why it is suggested to work on a small school exhibition.

To build your school exhibition the work starts at home. Learners are invited to research the topic which can be approached in two ways

1. Based on personal experience: learners are invited to detect photos or objects related to the discussed concept (Home, away, resilience, belonging… and produce a poster which integrates the photos (or photographed objects) and their short comments or stories related to this object. 

   You can download a poster templete here. 

2. Migration based: learners are invited to interview family members who have migratory experiences and present their story accompanied by an illustration (drawing about the story, photo of this person or photo of an object this person connects with his/her migratory experience).

Invite the learners to place their works on a panel. Once placed, they can present their findings to their schoolmates.

To evaluate the long course:

You can be creative and cut out of paper three types of forms for each student (find in other resources); a heart, a sun, and a drop.

Invite your student to place the form next to the exhibition work that makes them happy (sun), sad (drop) or they sympathize with or feel close to (heart).

Download the Icons template here.

Another evaluation option you might consider is to offer an evaluation template using the following questions/ ready for you in the resources:

• What did you like most during this project?
• What is the most important thing you learned?
• Would you like to have more lectures/ activities similar to this one/ conducted in this way?
• Rate the level of satisfaction with the following activities
  (NA; No Answer, 1 is bad, 5 most positive. Circle your evaluation)

• Before vs. Now (learners are invited to write one or more things that they discovered which changed their opinion on a topic)

          I used to think:

          Now I think:

Download the Evaluation template here.

• Share your experience

We would be delighted to receive information from you. If you wish to share what has been done in your class, we would be happy to receive a short presentation accompanied by photos or works from your students. These can be presented on our social media or our webpage if you wish. This way, you can inspire and connect with other teachers with the same passion for teaching. 

Social media:

• @Identity on the Line
• @identityontheline

Mail to send to info@i-on.museum