Student Ambassador Sharing for the One City One Book Hong Kong: The Arrival in Secondary School Classrooms

Sharing by Yan Tsoi Lam, Student Ambassador for One City One Book Programme and Year 4 Student of Bachelor of Education (Honours) (English Language)

I am delighted to be working as a Student Ambassador for Hong Kong’s first ever One City One Book Programme (1C1B) (www.onecityonebook.hk) organised by the Centre for Popular Culture in the Humanities (CPCH). 1C1B is a community reading initiative that aims to get as many people as possible in the city to be reading the same book during a period of time. The chosen book for 2019 is Shaun Tan’s delightful wordless graphic novel, The Arrival. As part of our Student Ambassador duties, we have been doing reading workshops and storytelling sessions in many schools, in order to share The Arrival with primary and secondary school students.

On 17 April 2019, I accompanied Ms Jessica Lee, Lecturer I of the Department of English Language Education to TWHGs Fung Wong Fung Ting Secondary School for a post-reading workshop of The Arrival. We prepared three activities for the students - a QR code treasure hunt, speech bubble designing and comic strips writing - to consolidate students’ understanding of the book. We were glad to read lots of while-reading comment about the graphic novel from the students on Padlet. Not only did they post comments about the book, but also read others’ posts and gave feedback to their friends. During the workshop, the students were highly engaged by the tasks we had prepared. They particularly enjoyed the QR code treasure hunt by scanning hidden QR codes around the classroom and answering questions about the setting, characters and plot of the graphic novel. Then the class was divided into two groups, each completing a different task. Some students worked on creating their own speech bubbles for this wordless graphic novel. Others designed comic strips about the Hong Kong version of this story. By the end of the workshop, each group of students produced interesting speech bubbles or their own new story. They did a short sharing in front of their classmates. Some even did a role play to illustrate their speech bubbles. The workshop ended with lots of laughter and a big round of applause.

I feel honoured having this opportunity to share the joy of reading graphic novels with many secondary school students. As a pre-service teacher, I felt nervous at the beginning since it was my first time conducting workshops in secondary schools. Furthermore, the topic itself, teaching graphic novels, is quite challenging as teachers seldom use this genre in the classroom. However, I feel satisfied when looking back. The workshop was well-designed with lots of engaging and educational tasks. I had the opportunity to practice what I have learnt from my pedagogical courses while preparing for the workshop too. 

Students’ interaction on Padlet about the graphic novel, The Arrival

Students answering the questions during the treasure hunt activity

Students designing comic strips about the Hong Kong version of the story