Introduction in English

12 lessons to enhance selfconfidence

6-99 years

Express with clarity - Be(come) Yourself

put into words by a participant

"I arrived, a flower in bud, and I blossomed open"

The class series Express with Clarity aims to strengthen each participant's capacity for expression and personal development, especially in relation to their environment. Participants become more aware of their abilities and who they want to be and what steps they can take to develop themselves and play a role in their society.

In a playful way they learn from and with each other. A class series in which social skills play a leading role.

For what kind of education
is Be(come) Yourself suitable?

Please read the text to this slide.

The series of 12 lessons plus a presentation can be used in special education, primary and secondary schools and can also be used as a course for adults, adolescents and children. Playfully you learn from and with each other. A light drama course in which social skills play the main role.

What does this class series offer
 the participants?

Please read the text to this slide.

It offers:

1.  Their ability to express themselves is enhanced: they learn to clearly and precisely express their thoughts, feelings, behaviors and experiences both verbally and non-verbally;
2.  Self-awareness is enhanced: greater awareness of what they want and how to achieve it;
3.     They experience that they can be who they are;
4.     They learn to work individually, cooperate and take responsibility for themselves, their team and the group;
5.     They experience how satisfying the creative process can be;
6.     They more consciously choose a form of presentation that suits them.

What does the lesson series provide the teacher - facilitator - instructor?

Please read the text to this slide.

Traits and skills that are enhanced by applying this way of working are:

• Flexibility;
• Openness;
• Empathy;
• Calmness;
• Providing structure without undermining the sense of freedom;
• Becoming aware of your judgments and your own fears, the obstacles that arise from them and how to deal with them.

- the series of 12 lessons plus a presentation -

1. Fruit

2. Hurt

3. Pleasant place
4. Family

5. Friendship
6. Animals
7. Growth
8. Energy

9. Dreams
10. Opportunity
11. Boundaries
12. Being seen

Each lesson has a theme and is carefully constructed. The themes are chosen so that participants show a little more of themselves in each successive lesson. 

In the first lesson, participants work around the theme of fruit, and later themes include family, friendship and being seen; the further you get in the lessons, the more introspection.

Eventually, the series of lessons work toward the theme of boundaries.

Many participants struggle with this.

Where is my boundary? What do I want to show to the other participants? They ask themselves these questions in each lesson as they continually choose what to present. 

Finally, participants work toward a presentation in which they really show themselves and have consciously chosen what to show. Graduation is important for participants' development.

Fun and Security

Rules of conduct specific to working with one's own experience:

• Participants do not interrupt each other during the narration and do not ask their questions until the narrator has spoken.
• Each participant may ask questions about what he wants to       know more about or what is not yet clear to him.
• Comments are never allowed: no judgments.
• That which is shared in the group or one-on-one stays in the group and is not brought out.

Fun in the lead role

Fun promotes motivation and stimulates learning.
Fun creates relaxation. Relaxation is an important factor in people's experience of well-being; it counterbalances the negative emotions (experiences) people have had in their lives. Having fun together gives confidence, safety and energy. It opens all participants to explore, discover, learn and live together.

All the different working forms in the methodology Be(come) Yourself are chosen with attention to fun for the participants and the facilitators. This is confirmed by users of Be(come) Yourself in evaluations of workshops and teaching experiences. The participants' own experience is the starting point. From there, exchange, exploration, study and practice are experienced as relevant, safe and enjoyable.

Judy Willis' (2007) article The Neuroscience of Joyful Education highlights how pleasure and the learning process affect each other.
A number of studies cited by Willis show that experiencing joy enhances the learning effect:
Participants learn better when the experience in the teaching situation is enjoyable and has relevance to participants' lives, interests, and experiences (Chugani, 1998; Pawlak, Magarinos, Melchor, McEwan, & Strickland, 2003).
Participants remember what they have learned better if it is associated with a strong positive emotion (Dulay & Burt, 1977; Krashen, 1982).
In participants who experience minimal stress and who are engaged and motivated, information flows freely past the affective filter in the amygdala. These participants achieve higher cognitive levels, make meaningful connections, and experience frequent aha moments. This type of learning occurs not in quiet learning environments with a teacher lecturing, but in learning environments where there is an atmosphere of energetic exploration and discovery together (Kohn, 2004).

Safety

From her/his role as a role model, the teacher herself/himself contributes significantly to safety in the group. To ensure safety in the group during the steps, the teacher walks around and is available to make adjustments as needed.
Thus, the teacher is focused on avoiding stress, boredom, confusion, low motivation and anxiety in participants. The teacher also develops alertness to social processes and sees interactions between participants before they are given space in negative form.

The interaction of the teacher and participants during the process is based on equality but the main direction lies with the teacher. As the group grows in the process, the teacher shares more and more of the direction.

What does the instructor take into account?

• Niveau van intimiteit: wees ervan bewust hoe persoonlijk Level of intimacy: be aware of how personal some topics may be to participants. It is different to talk about an experience with fruit than an experience with boundaries. Consideration of the sequence of topics is important in supporting participants' sense of safety. The instructor bears responsibility for ensuring that the topics are appropriate to the level and abilities of the participants.
  
• Structure in the classroom should be tailored to the participants. For example, use pictograms if that is clarifying for the participants (a bit like the reminder in the movie theater: "Cell phones on silent"). For example, create clear places in the classroom where materials can be found.
  
• At the beginning of the collaboration, the teacher takes time to make agreements with the participants about how everyone wants to interact. When working together one-on-one, these rules also apply. By hanging these rules visibly in the classroom, a teacher does not have to spend words on them every time.
  

• Preparation
• START: 1 Energetic exercise or Game and 2. Physical activity appropriate to the topic;
• YOUR BEING: Part I own experience: list, choose, tell, write;
• KNOWLEDGE-DEEPENED: poetry, music, dialogues or scenes;
• DO: reading and editing in pairs;
• YOUR BEING: part II own experience: in net writing and image;
• PRESENTATION: reading the story aloud using images, story to music, story as a stage;

The structure of the 12 lessons

Express with Clarity - Be(come) Yourself

This is a booklet, not a triptych. If you want to work through the 12 triptych themes, that is also possible, but it will not be as self-esteem focused.

Each lesson lasts about 120 minutes and can be divided into two or three parts. The four activities - counting, making and choosing a list, counting in pairs and writing the text "on draft" (total ±30 minutes) - are done without interruption..

After the participants have written their text, the teacher can adapt the other activities to the current weekly schedule. The variation applied by the teacher will depend on the form of presentation he/she considers suitable for his/her participants.

Preparation

You will find a list of items to prepare for each lesson on the beginning page.

Checklist for the teacher when recounting own experiences can be found with each lesson in the series.

Checklist

The instructor's experience serves as an example for the participants.
You use your own experience to present the topic and influence what others tell and how they tell it.

• A trilogy gives space to work on self-esteem, appropriate expression and at the same time you work on all the content of the modules;
• Creating a triptych gives the opportunity to deepen students' knowledge;
• Participants learn to express themselves even more clearly and practice this in practice.

Why make a trilogy?

You will find examples of this on the Grunberg Academy channel and guidance on how to go about it.

Thanks for your attention