At the Museum
Walk students through the exhibition.
Allow fifteen minutes or more for walking through the exhibition with students
so they can get a feel for its scope and for the kind of information they
can include in their stories.
Give students time to collect information.
Distribute copies of the What Was It Like? activity sheet. Explain that
the sheet is a research tool and that the more data the students jot down
on their sheets, the more information they'll be able to draw on later when
writing their stories. Then give the students at least thirty minutes to
return to the exhibition and fill in as much of their sheets as possible.
Afterward, you may want to have the students gather to share the details
they noted and to ask questions.
Have each student choose an identity.
The identities students choose will be the main characters in their stories.
Students may either invent their identities (for example, a fifteen-year-old
migrant farm worker) or they may adopt the identity of a real person portrayed
or discussed in the exhibit. Distribute copies of the Who Am I? activity
sheet and give the students a few minutes to fill in the first four questions
on the handout.
Give students time to collect additional information.
Have the students return to the exhibit to fill in as much of their new
handouts as they can. Explain that the additional information they gather
may come in handy when they sit down to write their stories. Tell them especially
to be on the lookout for any information that could help them develop their
characters. For example, if the exhibit reveals that few children of farm
laborers attend school, a student who has chosen the identity of a farm
laborer can assume that his or her character has little formal education.
