2.1. Gone with the wind

Procedure:

• Maps (of the country or countries of origin, Europe, and world maps) are displayed in the classroom. As an alternative, the countries‘ names can be written on paper strips and affixed to the walls. The four cardinal points can be added for additional orientation. In the middle of the room is a sign with the name of the current domicile and school location.
• The instructor asks the students to position themselves with the help of the maps, first by the country of their birth, then by the birth country of their father and mother, and then by the country of birth of the farthest removed grandparent(s).
• Following this collective introduction to migration, the students continue to work individually on their migration story, whereby they draw on an A4 poster their network of relationships, comprised of important reference persons, relatives, siblings with the corresponding languages, locations, countries. They use the presentation of the “personal identity molecule” as a template (see exercise 1.6), whereby the circle in the middle represents the current location and the outer circles signify the countries. The closer circles are used for the countries where the students have parents, siblings and grandparents whom they visit. The names of these persons are listed in the appropriate circles. The type size of the letters can also indicate the degree of these persons‘ importance. The more distant circles are used for the countries where students have unknown relatives whom they have never seen or do not know well. More advanced students can either outline or copy a world map instead of the circle form of display and document their network of relationships on it.
• Presentation and discussion of some of the representations with the class as a whole. A collective reflection about the origins, migration backgrounds, etc. can be conducted with the whole class, based on selected questions from exercise 2.7a.
• Possible further work can include interviews with the parents about their migration history (see 2.3) and letters to a distant relative according to the motto “searching for traces of our own family”.