Stories of Departure

About This Lesson

This lesson draws students’ attention to the initial stages of a migration experience, before the actual departure. While many migration stories begin with the journey, the border crossing, or life in a new place, it is important for students to recognize that people who migrate bring with them complex identities, familial bonds, community connections, rich histories, and cultural traditions from their countries of origin. The decision to leave often involves complicated emotions and considerations, particularly for young people who may not have a choice in the matter.

Over two class periods, students will consider some of the reasons people might feel compelled to leave, whether by choice or out of necessity. On the first day, they will discuss the opening sections of “All the Colors of Goodbye,” a short story by Nafiza Azad, analyzing specific details to explore the narrator’s emotional landscape and relationships. The second day shifts the emphasis to the relationship between empathy and storytelling. Through a perspective-taking activity, students will gain insights into the complexity of the characters’ decisions and actions related to leaving home for a new country. This lesson aims to deepen students’ understanding of the emotions involved in leaving a place and invites them to consider how storytelling can help foster empathy for these experiences.

Essential Questions

• Why do people move?
• How can our migration experiences and those of our ancestors shape our sense of who we are and where we belong?
• How can literature and storytelling broaden our perspective and build empathy for the human experience of migration?

Guiding Questions

• How can “All the Colors of Goodbye” help us understand what it can feel like to say goodbye?
• How can the story be a “bridge of empathy” that helps us understand something about ourselves or how someone else may experience the world?

Facing History Learning Outcomes

• Examine the many factors that can shape an individual’s identity.
• Engage with real and imagined stories that help them understand their own experiences and how others experience the world.
• Practice perspective-taking in order to develop empathy and recognize the limits of any one person’s point of view.

Lesson Plan

Day 1 

Activity 1: Warm Up with an Annotation Group Share

Seat students in groups of four and have them spend a few minutes quietly reviewing their annotations of pages 1-5 from the first part of ”All the Colors of Goodbye” by Nafiza Azad, which they read for homework. 

Instruct students to choose two annotations to share with their group. Invite them to notice places where they had similar reactions to the text and places where they marked different things. Students can also use this time to discuss and clarify the places they annotated with question marks, perhaps because they felt confused, they didn’t understand a word, or the author assumed they knew something that they didn’t know.

Facilitate a short discussion to clarify any comprehension questions. 

Activity 2: Create a Specific Details List to Explore Characterization

Still working in groups of four, explain to students that they will be doing a close reading of the first part of the story in order to see what they can learn about the narrator’s character and relationship to home. Explain that half of the groups will focus on the narrator’s personal items, such as things found in her bedroom. The other half will focus on items found in nature and the atmosphere (like plants and rain). 

Assign groups to personal items or natural items. Then project the following steps for groups to follow:

1. Review the part of the story that you read for homework and record a list of items that your group is tracking.
2. Discuss the following questions with your group, recording notes so you can share them with classmates:
   • Why do you think Azad chooses to describe these items in detail? What makes you say that?
   • On page 1-5, the narrator’s cousin asks, “Do you know how big your goodbye is? . . . It is the size of forever.” How do the details you listed help you understand the size of the narrator’s goodbye? How do you know?
3. Have two students from each group move to join a group that tracked a different item. Now each table group should have two students who have notes on natural items and two students with notes on personal items. Instruct the pairs to share their lists and a summary of their discussion. 
4. Then project the following questions for the small groups and then the whole class to discuss together:
   • Taken together, what do the items suggest about how the narrator feels about her father’s decision for the family to emigrate from Fiji? Provide examples to support your ideas.
   • Taken together, what do the items suggest about the narrator’s relationship to her family and home? What makes you say that?
   • Taken together, what do the items suggest about the size of her goodbye? How do you know?

Activity 3: Draw Personal Connections to the Story

Project the following prompt for a journal reflection:

Nafiza Azad chose to divide “All the Colors of Goodbye” into short vignettes, or what we might call memory moments. Choose one memory moment that resonates with you, or that you related to, and explore why in a journal reflection.  

You might choose a memory moment because it connects with . . .

• An aspect of who you are
• Your relationship with your caregivers, siblings, or extended family
• Something that happened to you
• Your relationship to a place
• Something else important to you

Activity 4: Assign Homework

Instruct students to finish reading and annotating “All the Colors of Goodbye” (see the “Day 1 Homework” section below). You may have taught specific annotation strategies that you want your students to use, or they can use the ones suggested in the assignment.

Day 1 Homework

Instruct students to finish reading ”All the Colors of Goodbye” by Nafiza Azad.

As they read, students should jot down the following annotations in the margin of the reading:

• ♡ Place a heart by moments in the story that resonate with you, perhaps because of how that part is written or because it makes you think in a new way.
• ? Place a question mark in places where you feel confused, perhaps because you don’t understand a word or the author assumes you know something that you don’t know.
• 🙂 Place an emoji (smiling, frowning, angry, sad, etc.) by moments where you have an emotional response to the story.
• Underline places where you see yourself and/or your experiences in what the narrator is describing, perhaps because of a relationship, a setting, or something that happens in the story.

Day 2 

Activity 1: Warm Up with a Video About Empathy and Storytelling

Explain to students that they will watch a short video in which poet Richard Blanco reflects on the relationship between empathy and storytelling. They should not take notes during the video so that they can fully engage with the content. Tell students that after they watch the video, they will explore ONE of the following questions in a journal response, which they will share with a partner. 

• What is an idea in the video that you found interesting?
• What is an idea in the video that you hadn’t considered before? 
• What is an idea in the video that reminded you of something else—perhaps a personal experience or something that you’ve read, watched, or heard?

Show the video Richard Blanco: Finding Belonging in Others (04:45) and have students complete their journal reflections and pair-shares.

Facilitate a class discussion of the following questions:

• How do you think literature, art, music, and other forms of creative expression can serve as “bridges of empathy” that help us understand ourselves and how others may experience the world? 
• Based on the video and your own knowledge, how would you define empathy? 

In this video, Richard Blanco describes poems as “bridges of empathy,” an idea he explores in “Complaint of El Río Grande,” which ends with the plea for us to “be one in one another.” 

Activity 2: Practice Perspective-Taking

Explain to students that building a “bridge of empathy” asks us to try to understand and share the feelings of another person. It requires active listening, openness, and a willingness to see the world from another person’s perspective, even if it differs significantly from our own. Perspective-taking is just one way to build empathy. When we take the time to consider how others may be feeling when they make a decision or take an action, it can help us understand the various complexities of an issue, decision, or course of action that someone might take. Practicing perspective-taking and making an effort to cultivate empathy for others can lead to more effective communication and stronger relationships.

Let students know that they will do an activity called Circle of Viewpoints in order to deepen their understanding of, and perhaps build empathy for, the different perspectives in “All the Colors of Goodbye.” They should record their notes for the routine in their journals. 

Move students into groups of six. Write or project the following event and list of characters on the board. Have students count off by six at their tables, and assign each number to a different character. For example, the ones are the narrator, the twos are the father, etc. Alternatively, you could instruct the groups of six to assign characters themselves so that each student in the group has a different one.  

• Event: The family immigrating from Fiji
• Characters: The narrator, father, mother, brother, eldest cousin, and youngest cousin
• Project the following Circle of Viewpoints prompts one at a time. Instruct students to write a response from their character’s perspective. This is an individual task, and students will share their ideas with their groups. Encourage them to incorporate specific details from the story. 

1. I am thinking of the narrator’s family leaving Fiji from the point of view of . . . [record the character’s name or position in the family or community]
2. I feel . . . [describe the topic from your character’s viewpoint] . . . because . . . [explain your reasoning, drawing examples from the text]
   • How does your character feel about the family emigrating?
   • Why might they feel this way? 
3. A question I have from this viewpoint is . . . [ask a question from the character’s viewpoint]
   • What might this character be curious or puzzled about? 
4. Step outside of your character and respond to the following prompt for yourself: Describe a time when you felt similar to how your character may be feeling. It doesn’t have to relate to a similar kind of event. Focus on a time when you may have felt a similar emotion (joy, sadness, guilt, fear, anxiety, jealousy, curiosity, etc.).

Have students share their perspectives in their small groups. Encourage them to notice any commonalities or threads, such as similarities or differences in perspective and feelings and what might cause them.

Activity 3: Facilitate a Class Discussion

Remind students that earlier, they considered how stories and poetry can serve as “bridges of empathy” that help us see the world through the experiences of another person. 

Facilitate a class discussion that explores the following questions: 

• As you reflected on your character’s perspective, were there any moments where you felt yourself empathizing with their experience? Can you say more?
• How can “All the Colors of Goodbye” be a “bridge of empathy” for readers who may have immigrated to a new country in their lifetime and for readers who don’t share that experience? What are its limitations?
• Why do you think Nafiza Azad wrote “All the Colors of Goodbye”? What does she want you to think about as a result of reading her story?