More at Burton High School

We (me along with Katina Papson from World Savvy) did a second session with Eric Chow's students at Burton High in San Francisco recently (I wrote about the first session here), this time with the goal of getting some of their own imagery going that could go into their comics. Katina and I sneaked in before lunch and looked over some of the students' essays about their immigration experiences (these students are all recent immigrants and English learners) and sketched out some ideas. Then, during lunch, we talked with the students - first one half of the class, then the other half.



Look, I waved my arms around so much you can't see them!

That's Katina in the background, the fabulous person from World Savvy who contacted me about the "Immigration and Identity" project in the first place. She develops a ton of curriculum and runs workshops and is generally all over it.



I did a lot of this sort of gesture - which I think means, "What does your story look like to you?" I encouraged them to exaggerate, to re-interpret, draw things as they appeared in their own feelings. If the airplane that took you to another country looked like a monster, draw it that way. If the new school made you feel the size of an ant, draw it that way. If you had mixed feelings leaving one family to go live with another, maybe split your face in two and show both.

The great thing was, a lot of the students immediately started drawing really specific images that only they could come up with. One had an airplane going from Thailand to the U.S., with little dollar signs all over America. In another, the airplanes and cars had teeth. Another showed the airplane, with little magnified views of what he did on the flight (sleeping and eating). I loved how quickly the images took shape. I can't wait to see how these come out.