When I teach Shaun Tan's comic, The Arrival, I project each panel one by one.  I stop at the end of each page and ask the class questions and check to see if they are making the right inferences about the story.  The questions are used as a springboard for discussion and to check for understanding.  I've been using this book in my classroom in my classroom for three years now and have pretty much refined the questions I ask for each sequence. I also ask that students tell me what clues they see in the images that support their answers.  This is not only good practice when looking at works of art, but also keeps the class on topic and avoids wide speculations that take away from the focus of the class.  

 

Over the weekend, I began formally writing out the questions I have been asking.  Today I offer up to you a PDF of the discussion questions for Chapter One.  Over the coming weeks, I hope to post more discussion questions for each Chapter.  You may also want to check out a video I posted a few years ago with images from Chapter One.

The Arrival Discussion Questions - Chapter 1