Storytelling x LINC Curriculum - Week 3

Objectives:

• To remember and understand the circumstances under which participants embarked on their journey to Canada.
• To create space to articulate the details of leaving, which tend to be glossed over in the settlement journey.

 Session Flow:

• Oral Storytelling Circle (full class, in small groups, or in partners)
  • Example Prompt: What is a simple pleasure you enjoy?
• My Journey to Canada Writing Prompts (Individual)
• My Journey to Canada Shareback (full class, in small groups, or in partners)

Activity Templates:

• See My Journey to Canada Writing Prompts below

Facilitator Notes

• Teachers should review all of the prompts with students before allowing time for individual writing. Students may find it helpful to partner up and discuss their answers to the prompts verbally before writing their responses. This form of sharing can be helpful in eliciting deeper responses as students build on each other’s ideas.
• Remembering their last days in their country can be an emotion-filled exercise for students. This time period might include red-light stories that they are not yet ready to share. It is important to let students know that they should only share what they feel equipped to share, and that they can skip any of the prompts they don’t want to answer. Regardless of what they choose, any emotions that surface during these writing exercises should be normalized and validated. Teachers are encouraged to connect one-on-one with these students, as well as create space for the class to talk about emotions together if this is a shared experience among students.
• These questions are equal part reflection exercises for individual students as they are story-writing prompts. They are ordered in a way that is designed to make up a coherent story when answered in sequence. Some students may choose to write their responses as a continuous narrative, with each response building on the other. Meanwhile, others may prefer to answer each question as its own. Ultimately, a coherent synthesis (either by the teacher after-the-fact, or by the student) is required if the story is to be shared with an audience outside the workshop.
• If there is time and interest among students, teachers can create an opportunity for students to provide each other with feedback during the group share. The teacher should begin by asking the student who has shared, “Would you be open to some feedback?” and proceed only if the student says yes. Feedback from the teacher or other students can include highlighting parts of the story that they found particularly compelling, clarifying parts of the story that were unclear, or asking with curiosity about pieces you want to learn more about. It is up to the student who shared to decide which feedback they want to take or leave and which questions they want to answer and to what extent.