Great Lesson Plan Idea

From the blog of writer Molly May, a delightful idea that could inspire lesson plans in visual art, storytelling, immigration, and beyond:

We each have a place story. Imagine a world map and dot all of the places you’ve lived. Now, connect the dots chronologically, and then lift the shape from the page. That’s your place illustration. The one here is mine. A friend wrote to me, “What about the fact that it looks like a sprinter in motion?” We are each a beautiful accumulation of the landscapes we’ve inhabited. For some, it might be one lone strong dot. For others, some scratches across the page. For many in today’s globalized world, a maze of back and forth. Last night, someone told me that women in China who migrated out of rural areas to work in city factories are out of work and going back home. Movement.
What does your place illustration look like? Can you give its shape a name? Does it look like a star, a rabbit, a saucepan? Assuming a geographer’s hat, I love to zoom out and imagine our patterns as humans, where our feet take us, and whether that is changing in the modern world.