Students will read Shaun Tan’s book. The Arrival, discuss the themes. The discussion will begin with a forum style conversation about the book.
Students will learn about Guttenburg’s invention of movable type and make their own nonsenseical moveable type letters for a collagraph printing process.
What are some similarities and differences between the image from The Arrival and the photograph of the Great Hall in Ellis Island?
What has Tan changed to make us feel like outsiders?
Let’s look at how Max Ernst used asmeic writing (surreal, nonsensical writing) in his book, Maximillana. How does looking at a document like this or The Arrival make you feel?
How can you still decipher meaning if you cannot read the words?
Students will discuss Gutenberg’s invention of movable type and how this allowed literacy to be more accessible to common people.
Students will view examples of Asemic Writing and discuss how these images are similar and different than the images in The Arrival.
Using a worksheet, students will create their own alphabet.
Using collagraph techniques, students will create their own asemic movable type and print our several pages of nonsense text.
Here's a few examples of how this project turned out:
“I never saw such a big building [Ellis Island] – the size of it. I think the size of it got to me. According to the houses I left in my town, this was like a whole city in one, in one building. It was an enormous thing to see, I tell you. I almost felt smaller than I am to see that beautiful [building], it looked beautiful. My basket, my little basket, that’s all I had with me. There was hardly any things. My mother gave me the sorrah [kind of sandwich], and I had one change of clothes. That’s what I brought from Europe.”
Celia Adler
Russia
Arrived in 1914 – age 12
Objective:
Students will read and listen to excerpts of oral histories of immigrant’s experiences coming to Ellis Island. They will look at images of steamer ships and Ellis Island and make collaged illustrations of these accounts.
Students will learn about Contemporary African American Artist, Faith Ringgold's story quilts and make their own quilt using acrylic paints, muslin, and recycled fabric scraps.
Students will look at images by Rene Magritte. They will create an animation that is based on one of these images using the stopmotion animation technique and Adobe Premiere Elements.
