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The Arrival - Shaun Tan

The Arrival - What is the Story About?

 

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is a mature picture book and it is completely without any written words. Instead of using written texts, the book relies on its intricate and captivating illustration to tell the story of an immigrant man who arrives in a new land. Shaun Tan is an Australian illustrator who has worked on pictures books such as The Rabbit (Youtube Video: The Rabbit Part 1 & The Rabbit Part 2) and The Lost Thing (Youtube Video: The Lost Thing Part 1 & The Lost Thing Part 2) as an illustrator. Shaun Tan creates a surreal world in The Arrival, in which his dreamlike sepia-coloured drawings evoke strange feelings of wistfulness. Tan draws a parallel between the fantastical and the real through his complex and enchanting drawings and succeeds at drawing the readers’ attention to the horror, injustices, and cruelty of the real world in a subtle yet so powerful a way. The backside of the front and the end cover pages show 60 panels of portraits. The portraits are of immigrants (taken at a port of entry, I would imagine) and they are all looking into the audiences’ eyes with piercing and solemn expressions on their faces.

 

The story follows a man who lands in an unfamiliar land. It is implied that the man is leaving his homeland because some kind of a threat, some kind of oppression is present there. He “arrives” at a new land. He does not speak the language (this aspect might also be emphasized by the fact that the picture book is completely wordless), he does not know anyone, but he perseveres for he has to support his wife and daughter that he has left back home. As time goes on, he meets other immigrants, acquires a strange but friendly monster as a pet, makes friends with people who have similarly escaped horrors or wars in their lands, and gets a job, and slowly gets accustomed to how things are done in the new land. The story ends with his wife and daughter joining him in the new land and the very last illustration is of his daughter showing a way to a newly arrived lady with a trunk and a map in her hands. (Tan, 2006)

The Arrival - Why this Book for Junior Readers?

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  1. It is a wordless picture book – It is hard or almost impossible to introduce a book and adapt the language level to each student as a differentiation strategy. This book can be introduced to a mixed-ability class because there are no new words, difficult vocabulary to go over before students get to read the book.

  2. It is a story about immigrants – Students who come from immigrant families would see themselves or their family members in the protagonist and his family. Students who do not come from immigrant families will get a glimpse into the history of their classmates and their families.

  3. No "one" reading – The drawings are intricate and multifaceted. There are so many layers one could infer from each drawing and therefore, there will be many different “readings” of the story. This aspect will help stimulate students’ imagination.

The Arrival - What can be done in a Classroom with this Book?

 

Idea #1: Give it Words

 

  • Students will have an introductory lesson on making inferences using supporting evidence from the texts. Following this introductory lesson, students will choose a set of 3 to 4 pages from the book. In a pair, they will create “words” for the pages. 

  • When groups complete their segments, each group will be given another group’s work and give constructive feedback. (It is probably necessary to give another brief lesson on how to examine other people’s work and how to give critical yet constructive criticism/feedback beforehand if the students are not familiar with providing peer review.) Each group will have a chance to edit their work after receiving feedback. 

  • At the end, all of the pages will be connected and they will read the whole story from beginning to end with the illustration in the background but now with their own “words” added to the story. For example, each group could upload their section through Flipgrid so that the final reveal can be watched via Flipgrid video.

 

Idea #2: Visual Thinking Strategies

In a class, a teacher may choose one of the two-page pictures and put the picture at the front using a projector or a SmartBoard in order for the students to analyze the one picture in depth by applying Visual Thinking Strategies [A teacher will ask the students prompting questions such as “What’s going on in the picture?” & “What do you notice in this picture?”]. It might be important to give students 4 to 5 minutes of silent time at the beginning before they start sharing ideas in a class so that they have time to “think” and “analyze” independently.

The Arrival - Curriculum Connections

 

There are a few specific expectations from The Ontario Ministry of Education Language Curriculum 1-8 (2006) the study of this book will meet:

  • Grade 7 Reading strand 1.1 and 1.4 state that students will be introduced to variety of literary texts from different cultures and students will learn to make inferences and to interpret texts using what is in the texts to support their inferences/interpretations (p. 127). --> Idea #1 & Idea #2

  • Grade 8 Reading strand 1.6 states that students will learn to be able to extend their interpretations of the texts and connect their understandings from the texts to their own experiences, thoughts, and the world around them (p. 142). --> Idea #1 & Idea #2

  • Grade 7 Oral Communication strand 1.2 and 1.3 state that students will learn to identify and adapt respectful and effective listening strategies so that they can listen to their classmates without interrupting them and show interest and empathy while listening to others (p. 124). --> Idea #1 & Idea #2

  • Grade 8 Oral Communication strand 1.2 states that students will continue to identify and adapt respectful and effective listening strategies so that they could follow their classmates’ arguments critically and ask clarifying questions to solidify their comprehensions (p. 138). --> Idea #1

 

The study of The Arrival will also meet one of the specific expectations from The Ontario Ministry of Education Arts Curriculum 1-8 (2009).

  • Grade 7 & Grade 8 Visual Arts strand D2. 1 states that students will learn to “interpret a variety of art works and identify the feelings, issues, themes, and social concerns that they convey” (pp. 144, 156). --> Idea #1 & Idea #2

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