A story in four pictures

Objectives

• To visualize and share a personal story
• To make participants aware of their initial impressions in their new country and encourage discussion among participants
• To help them reflect on their initial impressions and feelings
• To prompt participants to become conscious of any potential biases.

Participants will share experiences and impressions of their new country of residency. They will reflect on these ideas together to create consciousness of their past and present lifes in their new country of residence.

Material

• Copies of the template
• Pencils
• Erasers
• Fineliners

Optionally: copies with pictograms they can use if sketching is too challenging. Pictograms can be found on this website: https://arasaac.org/pictograms/search If you choose to do this, you will need more preparation time.

Preparation

The preparation will take upto 60 minutes.

Instructions

First lesson:

You provide participants with a template that has four blanc sections. You give them the task to create a visual story about their first day in their new country of residence. They will create four different drawings, along with optional text.

If you think it’s necessary, you can begin with an introductory lesson on comics. You can bring and show a few examples, e.g. a Spiderman comic,  a Donald Duck, Snoopy, etc. or show examples from this website: http://grassrootscomics.net/

In case participants struggle to find ideas or start drawing, you can initiate a warming-up activity. You could guide them through drawing a figure in steps: first, draw a head; then, add a belly, followed by the other body parts. You can repeat this exercise by guiding them through drawing a house in steps. These exercises can serve as icebreakers.

Be mindful of potential sensitivities within the group. Participants will revisit their first day in a new country, which might evoke emotions and bring up significant memories. It’s essential to create a safe atmosphere where participants feel supported to share something personal.

Second lesson:

Once participants finish their drawings, they have the choice to share them or not with others. Those who wish to share their four-picture story place their work on a large table. All participants then view each other’s stories. Finally, you can ask if anyone has questions or something to share.

Optionally, you can ask a few questions to deepen the activity. Are your impressions still relevant? Did you have any prejudices about the new country? What have you learned about the new society since that first day? What would you like to convey or show to someone currently in the same situation as you were in the past (arriving in the country)?

Variant

You can organise an exhibition of all the drawings (if participants do not object to this).

If it’s too personal for the moment to go back to the first day of arrival in their new country, you can also leave the subject open. Just ask the participants to draw something they want to share in four pictures. If this is too open you can focus on a specific possibly less sensitive subject: „Tell us about a day in your life when we are 5 years further in time, tell us about what you love to do, tell us about the people that are important to you….” Another possibility is to focus on the theme you are working on at that moment, in the class.

You can also connect each drawing with a specific question: the first one tells about the context of the story, the second one tells about a challenge, the third one tells how someone has dealt with the challenge, and the last one shows how they look back on these first days.