Immigration Experience

• Have learners conduct research on their family history and immigration experience (optional: research an historical figure instead - see this article for Canadian examples)
• Explore example projects in Scratch
• Learners will need computers with either the Scratch offline editor installed, or with access to the internet

Introduction
Q: What is migration? What are different kinds of migration?

Define migration, emigration, and immigration (see terminology for definitions).

Today’s Project: We are creating an animation in Scratch to tell our family’s immigration story.

*Keep in mind, that some immigration stories might be traumatic or difficult stories to tell, especially for newcomers who have fled unsafe living conditions. If this might be the case, give learners the option to tell their own story, or to research the story of someone else (e.g. historical figure).

Code Along

1. Open up a new Scratch project at scratch.mit.edu and click on “create” (top, left corner).
2. Point out the main elements: Stage, Sprites, and Scripts. Demonstrate how to drag and connect blocks.
3. Give learners a few minutes to click on blocks and explore.
4. Go through 1-2 challenges with the group, where learners are tasked with trying to make something happen in Scratch. For example, “Try to make Scratch move” or “Try to make Scratch say something when the space key is pressed” (See the Code-Along Challenges doc (http://bit.ly/scratch-challenge-solutions-doc) for more examples and solutions)

Instructions
Give learners 2-3 minutes to explore example “Immigration Experience” projects in Scratch. (Go to scratch.mit.edu > Search for “Immigration experiences”)

Open one of the examples and click “See Inside.” Work together to break down the project. For our animations, we will need:

1. A sprite or main character
2. Multiple backgrounds for our story
3. An event to start the story (e.g. when the green flag is clicked)
4. “Switch Backdrop” scripts to change the background images
5. “Say” scripts to tell our story

Co-create success criteria with the class, based off of the example projects. Consider:

• How many backgrounds or scene changes should we have?
• How many “say” blocks or sentences are in the example projects? How long should our stories be?
• What would make the difference between an ‘okay’ project and an outstanding one?

Work Session
Provide time for learners to create their immigration stories.

If time, have learners present their projects and share their immigration stories with the class.

Use the co-created success criteria to create a rubric for assessment.

Consider creating a Scratch Teacher Account and class for learners to submit their projects.

Request an account here: https://scratch.mit.edu/educators/#teacher-accounts.

Learn more about teacher accounts here: http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/resources/scratch-teacher-accounts

Challenge learners to also record their voice and narrate their story.

Talk about reasons why someone might move to another country, including refugees fleeing a crisis in their home country.

Discuss how we might make newcomers feel more welcome in Canada, and work in groups to brainstorm and share solutions.

Migration, Immigration, Heritage and identity, Changing family and community traditions, Natural resources and sustainability, Development of communities in Canada, Responses to global issues, Immigration policies

Example Scratch projects for “Immigration Experiences”:
https://scratch.mit.edu/search/projects?q=immigration%20experience

Examples of Canadian immigrants article:
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canadian-immigrants-who-changed-canada

Scratch ED Teacher Accounts:
http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/resources/scratch-teacher-accounts

Australia photo by Catarina Sousa from Pexels.com
https://www.pexels.com/photo/australia-traveling-travelling-travel-68704/

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