Personal experience - Explore & Be(come) Yourself

• Citizenship
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Explore & Be(come) Yourself

personal experience

This exercise will take 45 minutes

What are we going to do?

• You are going to listen to an experience from the facilitators' life. You can ask questions about the experience afterwards.
    
• You will be asked a question by the facilitator; the invite.   

• You are going to share your own experience in pairs.  

• You will write down your own story and create an image around it.

This exercise will take 45 minutes

The facilitator generally chooses the trilogy format. The center is used for the personal experience in writing and the image created correspondingly. You can decide whether the participants should write their story in LessonUp or on their trilogy format paper. The trilogy format paper can be prepared by the participants themselves with instructions or by the facilitator.

Listening and asking questions have an prominent roll in in this format.

The writing can be done directly or first as a draft. If it is done directly the participants need the trilogy format and will write in the space below the box. In the Box the image will be created.

If the participants first write a draft version they need a paper the size of the space that is available on the final trilogy paper.

This lesson will take you trough step-by-step.

The instruction for writing is that you write your experience as you have shared it, not abbreviated. Taking into account the questions that were posed to you and if you find it too long, select a part.

Different ways of working the draft can be chosen. Participants may need dictionaries and as a facilitator you can always be available for questions, forms for revising texts :

1. In the direct form the participant writes a draft, looks it over and corrects and then writes it in the final version.
2. You can also ask two participants to work in a team and exchange their texts. Each one then reads the text of their teammate and underlines where they have a doubt (formulated as a question). Later on they return the text to the writers and together go over the questions. The writer can decide to make a change to the text so it can be understood better. The facilitator is always available in case of questions.
3. Classroom format: One participant offers their text to be reviewed on the digital/blackboard. The facilitator creates groups and each group will ask a question about the text on a doubt that they have. They write the question on a piece of paper handed out for that purpose. The questions can refer to grammar, spelling or construction of sentences or the text (paragraphs). Then one of the group members comes to the text on the board and underlines the word or part where the question refers to. Then the whole class reads the text and attention is given to the questions by the groups. The facilitator is also allowed one question. This creates the opportunity to focus the whole class to a certain textual issue that for the level of the class should be known. In the end the facilitator thanks the participant that has allowed the class to work on her/ his text. Now we know this text is more or less well written and understandable. The rules or issues that have been touched upon have been written up on the board as well. With these guidelines all the other participants will check their own texts to improve them. Not all the imperfections will be addressed in one go but that is okay because it is a developmental process and the participants will grow to become attentive on their own writing and expression.

Groundrules for sharing

• When someone speaks the others listen without interrupting.
   
• Questions are asked based on curiosity and something that still is unclear. Never ask questions that are based on knowledge. It is all about the experience. 
   
• No responses just questions. No comments.

 

It is handy to keep the rules visible for all the participants.

Before starting the sharing it is good to establish these ground rules. You can invite participants to suggest a rule of their own as well.

If you feel that using pictograms is useful for your participants please do so.

Keeping the established rules visible makes it easier to point them out without using words and interrupting the flow of the class.

My story

5/10 minutes

Personal experience facilitator (everyone)

Share Part 1: The facilitator prepares an experience from their own life on having been part or having been excluded from a group.

For example: "One night I went to a social event to support people that recently escaped a war zone. A friend asked me to join. Besides her I did not know anybody. There was a lot of talking going on and I became a bit isolated and felt like leaving. In the end I managed to find out whom was in charge of a practical activity. I spoke to her to get the information and left. The next day I went to my work in a psychiatric community program and during the morning group with my clients shared my experience. They asked many questions and offered suggestions on how I could organize some help. One of them came to me and offered half of all the dolls she had been collecting during her life. I had no idea how many there were but when she showed me a picture of a wall covered with dolls still in their boxes that she wanted children to have I felt such a big support to continue with the work even though I had not felt a connection to the organization.”

Share part 2- The facilitator invites the participants to ask questions about the related experience on curiosities they have or something that stills remains unclear.

The invite - Next, the facilitator asks who wants to share an experience about the following: being in a group, or about feeling not so much part of a group, or even being excluded from a group.

One or two participants can share their experience. The rest of the participants listen till the storyteller has finished and  then are invited to ask questions on the shared experience.

Share in pairs

6/8 minutes

Please think of times in your life that you felt part of a group or maybe not such a big part of a group or even excluded from a group.

The facilitator gives each participant a small piece of paper.

Write each experience down on a small list with one word, 1. – 2. - 3. This is for yourself and stays private.

Choose the experience that you can and want to share with the group. Circle this choice.

The participants are divided up in pairs (various ways possible*) by giving them a number 1 or number 2. Then they are instructed to start telling their chosen experience, number 1 starts. Number 2 listens and waits till the end to ask questions about things that are unclear or of interest. Next, switch the roles.

* Just number them 1,2 - 1,2 - 1,2 etc. or first organize everyone in the group by age, shoe color, shoe size, height, birth month etc. and then 1,2 - 1,2 - 1,2 - 1,2 ... make teams.

Write your story

15/20 minutes

Write your story (individual)

The writing can be done directly or first as a draft. Different ways of working the draft can be chosen*. You can decide whether participants will write the story in LessonUp, in a document on their computer, or on their triptych.

In the direct form the participant writes a draft, looks it over, corrects it, and lastly writes it in the final version.

The instruction for writing is that you write your experience as you have shared it, not abbreviated. Taking into account the questions and if you find it too long, select a part.

* Ways to edit the texts:

1. In the direct form, the participant writes a draft, checks and corrects it and then writes the final version.
   
2. You can also ask two participants to work in a team and exchange their texts. Each then reads their teammate's text and underlines where they have doubts (formulated as a question). Later, they give the text back to the writer and go through the questions together. The writer may decide to make a change in the text so that it is better understood. The facilitator is always available for questions.
   
3. Classroom format: One participant offers their text on the digital/blackboard for review. The facilitator creates groups and each group asks a question about the text about a doubt they have. They write the question on a piece of paper handed out for that purpose. The questions can be about grammar, spelling or structure of sentences or the text (paragraphs). Then one of the group members comes to the text on the board and underlines the word or section to which the question relates. Then the whole class reads the text and attention is paid to the group's questions. The facilitator may also ask one question. This creates an opportunity to focus the whole class on a particular text topic that should be familiar to the grade level. At the end, the facilitator thanks the participant who made the class work on her/his text. Now we know that this text is more or less well written and understandable. The rules or topics covered are also written on the board. With these guidelines, all other participants will check their own texts to improve them. Not all imperfections will be addressed at once, but that is not a bad thing because it is a development process and participants will become attentive to their own writing and expression.
   

Create an image that resonates with your story

5/10 minutes

Creating an image

Search or create an image that resonates with your story and/or put it on your paper.

The facilitator uses different assignments that stimulate the development of the participants accordingly.

Assignment for this class:

Look in your surroundings and take a picture (of a detail) that fits your story. Use that as a background (possibly edited) and draw an element over that background that you did not use in your story, but that belongs to it.

Explore & Be(come) Yourself

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