Personal experience - Explore & Become yourself

• Prepare your experience
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Explore & Be(come) Yourself

personal experience

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. Of course it is possible to play around with the format as long as all components are visually connected and the personal experience has a central place.

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.

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 :

• In the direct form the participant writes a draft, looks it over and corrects and then writes it in the final version.
  
• 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 teacher is always available in case of questions.
  
• Classroom format: One participant offers their text to be reviewed on the digital/blackboard. The teacher creates groups and each group will ask a question about the text on a doubt that they have. 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 teacher 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 teacher 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 here that are based on knowledge. It is all about the experience. 
   
• No comments.

 

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

Safety

Before starting the sharing it is good to establish these ground rules.

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 prevents interrupting the flow of the class.

How to prepare your experience?

First you look for events from your own live that can introduce a subject to the participants. Making a list of these experiences creates an overview and allows for choice.

It is important to take into account the following aspects: depth, size, safety, connection with the theme (goal of the lesson) and target group. Who are the participants?

Share your personal experience carefully chosen and prepared

Center of the trilogy

What to tell & how to connect? 

The facilitator sets the example with a personal experience. This may seem uncomfortable at first, but as you gain more experience, you become more familiar. 

Choosing your form to express your experience not only makes you a model for your participants, but also allows you to grow in wording your experience and your responses yourself. The same thing happens with the participants. 

There is never a unequivocal way of telling a story and answering a question. To bring your participants to the point of realizing this truth is an important goal. It will empower you as it will empower your participants.   

What to keep in mind when you choose an experience to share?

• Choose your experience by thinking of the theme and how to connect it to a real life experience of your own. 
• Write the possible associations that come to mind down with one word. 
• Choose one that is situated not to long ago. If it is longer ago tell it in a form that takes it more to the present. 
• Do take care to share an experience that is too overwhelming or big. 
• Select one that is more common ground and include details to bring it more to life. 
• A reflection of a dialogue can be useful as well to include. 
• It is important that you share the parts of your experience without cutting it short and choosing your details in such a way that you cater to your audience. 
• You tell your story from start to finish.
• Do not share too long, stop at a point where intrest is high and allow for questions. 

Your listeners may ask questions to get more information, for clarification or out of curiosity. The questions should relate to the shared experience. It is important to remind everyone of this the moment you give the floor for questions.

Next, devise a question to invite your participants. Begin the question by telling about a time when ... and what happened. Or think about a time you had an experience with ... and how that went. Or for example, a time when you had an experience with ... and how that went. What happened? What was said?

An example

The facilitator, wanting to work with the topic of boundaries, tells about a time he/she was abused. This experience is soon too big. The participants are automatically - a characteristic of associating - put on the track of remembering an experience that is too overwhelming. The sense of safety in the group and of each participant in the group is then compromised.

Moreover, participants without much experience cannot connect. Therefore, from the list of memories, choose an experience with which participants can best connect. Often that is a less fraught experience that you can share with some details that give air and perhaps even a humorous touch to what you share.

For example, if you want to talk about a big theme like discrimination, you can bring it closer by choosing an experience that has to do with exclusion. You can then tell about a time when you were left out or when you left someone else out. In the trilogy format you can later link this to discrimination.

How to tell your experience?

• Make sure you focus only on eliciting the participants' stories when sharing your own experience. 
• It is not the intention that you transfer knowledge at such a moment, because it is purely about something you have experienced and about which you talk openly. 
• You also want participants to share their experiences open-mindedly and not to feel judged. 
• It is about equality between the narrators and not about checking their level of knowledge.
  

Wait till the narrator finishes the story and then invite questions

What to keep in mind when you tell: 

• Tell only about an experience that actually happened;
• Be as complete as possible. For example, tell who and with whom you were, what exactly happened, how it happened, how you felt and how others reacted;
• Ask yourself questions such as: What happened? What was I doing? What was I thinking? What did I feel? How did I react? How did others react? What was said;
• Tell precisely and clearly;
  
• Provide variation in sentence length and word usage;
  
• Keep an eye on the beginning-middle-end structure;
  
• Deliberately choose which adjectives you can use to give additional color (information) to the participants;
  
• If dialogues occur in the experience, you can include them in your narration;
  
• Include details in your narrative that will make your experience more imaginative;
  
• Include one or more sensory observations in the description of your experience;
• Do not set the experience back longer than three months to a year. You can make an exception for a topic such as family, where the experiences may be clearly set in the past; 
• Start telling directly, without too much introduction;
• Keep an eye on how long you spend narrating;
  
• Avoid summarizing the story and do not give a conclusion;
  
• Practice telling your own experience and asking the connection question with a colleague or friend, for example.

Share my story

Sharing your personal experience 

(everyone)- 5/10 minutes

Part 1

The facilitator has prepared an experience from their own life and shares it with the participants taking into account the following:

• Start telling directly, without too much introduction;
  
• Tell precisely and clearly;
  
• Keep an eye on how long you spend narrating;
• Avoid summarizing the story and do not give a conclusion;
• When sharing your own experience, be sure to focus only on disengaging the participants' stories. It is not your intention to impart knowledge at such a time, because it is purely about something you have experienced and about which you talk open-mindedly. You also want the participants to be open-minded about their experiences and not feel judged. It is about equality between the narrators and not about checking their level of knowledge;
• Sometimes - especially if this form of work is still unfamiliar - no one wants to tell. This is not a problem and can be solved by proceeding directly to list. But it is preferable that participants eventually start to feel invited and overcome their diffidence. Participants' confidence grows with the safety thus experienced;
• When the storytelling session stops for a while, it is usually not because of the topic. New stories come naturally. After one or two stories in the circle, proceed with the next step.

Share part 2- 

• Give room to questions about the experience, no questions about knowledge.
•  The facilitator invites the participants to ask questions about the related experience on curiosities they have or something that remains unclear.
  

The invite - Pose the invitation to recall experiences in the form of a question. For instance: Please think about a time when you have experienced ....

Examples: 

an encounter with an animal and what went on... Or

traveling somewhere and what happened... Or

Having a fight and what happened...

 

If you want the sharing to happen in the group first you can invite one or two participants to 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.

Listening and asking questions

Sharing enhances listening and allows for questions to be asked

Participants experience what it is like when others listen attentively to them, what it is like to be asked questions and what they can do with them. This process occurs naturally. Each time a storyteller gets better at telling and listeners get sharper at listening. 

The invite - List - Choose

The invite - List - Choose - 5/8 minutes

The invite - Pose the invitation to recall experiences in the form of a question. For instance: Please think about a time when you have experienced ....

Examples: 

an encounter with an animal and what went on... Or

traveling somewhere and what happened... Or

Having a fight and what happened... Or

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.

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.

Share in pairs

Share in pairs - 6/8 minutes

Instruction

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.

Participants experience what it is like when others listen attentively to them, what it is like to be asked questions and what they can do with them. This process occurs naturally. Each time a storyteller gets better at telling and listeners get sharper at listening. 

Listening to someone with attention is something the participants can practice with the methods from Let Your See. They experience pleasure when their own experiences are given the attention they deserve and, in turn, can give others this pleasure as well. By listening with attention, participants practice their focus and concentration at the same time.

Write your story

Write your story (individual) - 15/20 minutes

The writing can be done directly or first as a draft. Different ways of working the draft can be chosen. You can decide whether the students should write the story in LessonUp or on their sheet of paper.

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, you may want to select a part.

The facilitator can decide to include a more extensive format of editing. This can be done in different ways:

• Independent editing                Duration: < ± 10 minutes
• Editing in pairs - light              Duration: < ± 10 minutes
• Editing in pairs - more intensive Duration: < ± 20 minutes
• Classroom editing                     Duration: < ± 50 minutes
• Editing Office                             Duration: < ± 55 minutes

Edit your story

Edit your story

The facilitator can decide to include a more extensive format of editing. This can be done in different ways:

• Independent editing                Duration: < ± 10 minutes
• Editing in pairs - light              Duration: < ± 10 minutes
• Editing in pairs - more intensive Duration: < ± 20 minutes
• Classroom editing                     Duration: < ± 50 minutes
• Editing Office                             Duration: < ± 55 minutes

Independent editing 

Instruction for participants

1. Read your text calmly for spelling mistakes. When in doubt raise your finger and ask a question. The teacher writes the answer on the board for other participants to see, a temporary public dictionary.
   
2. When re-reading, check that you have taken into account the structure of your story: a beginning - middle - end. Participants can then add sentences if necessary to add this structure to their story.
   
3. We have already discussed these rules, read over your text and see if you have used them. The teacher provides an overview of the rules of grammar, phrasing or spelling that are currently known, important, to the participants so they can check their text accordingly. An overview of these can be provided by the teacher on posters/digiboard. Participants may also have a notebook that contains rules.

Editing in pairs - light 

Instruction for the participants

1. The facilitator makes pairs and indicates that the participants in their pairs exchange their texts.
   
2. Number one reads out number two's text and vice versa.
   
3. Take your time, prepare the reading aloud and let your teammate hear their text. Reading aloud makes a text sound and brings it to life. It gives the writer an opportunity to hear back his own words and to listen and experience whether his text is correct in terms of rhythm, sentence structure and content. It encourages awareness of the effect of the written text and how it is understood by the other person.
   
4. Participants can now adjust their own text based on what they have heard and the instructions of independent editing. It involves tightening up wording and possibly adding additional information that will make your story clearer.

Editing in pairs - more intensive

Instruction for the participants

1. The facilitator makes pairs and indicates that the participants in their pairs exchange their texts.
2. The participants each read the text of the other from their team and underline those words that they have doubts about. Sometimes the reader doubts something but is correct, that is not a problem. All underlined doubts (spelling, grammar and style) should be worded as much as possible as questions.
3. The goal is for the participants to go through the texts in conversation. The writer gets his own text back with the underlined words. As a team, participants go through all the questions and try to solve them (dictionaries, Ipads/phones and books for support).

All pairs work independently and can ask the facilitator questions if they need an expert. The facilitator writes answers about spelling on the board creating a classroom dictionary -naslag work. After the texts are discussed, each owner starts rewriting their own text, final version.

Classroom editing

Class work on texts is done by looking together at a text by one of the participants, which will be called the learning text.

This work form comes from Language Formation.

Instruction for the participants

1. The facilitator and a participant agree to edit the text for the class.
   
2. The other participants are divided into groups of three to five. 
3. In each group, the facilitator assigns a secretary.
4. The participant who has his text edited publicly, learning text, chooses one group of participants who become his googlers and/or dictionary specialists.
   
5. The participant with the learning text writes his text on the (digi)board.
   
6. The other participants read the text and prepare one to three questions per group about the text: about spelling, grammar, style and wording. The observations they have should be in a questioning form. The secretary writes them down.
   
7. When the group is done with the questions, one of them, not the secretary, comes forward to underline the words to which the questions are attached in the learning text. Different groups can ask a question about the same parts of the text (each group has its own color). Now all groups have the questions indicated in the learning text.
   
8. The facilitator may also ask three questions and can use them to give direction to the knowledge she wants to convey. She adds her questions last.
   
9. The owner of the learning text begins to read his text, when he comes across a question, visible by a sign or underline, he stops and asks the group that has underlined to read the question aloud. The answer to the question may be given by the learning text participant himself with the facilitator and his googlers/dictionary specialists as supporters.                                                  

If the learning text participant is too shy then the facilitator takes a larger role. The process is focused on learning the text together. Not to point out someone's mistakes. The questions are thus addressed one by one. Thus different rules of grammar, spelling and style are covered. The facilitator can provide additional explanations as needed and level. The participants take notes. The teacher can also give extra support to important rules that are not yet generally known by making them visible in the classroom (posters/digiboard). 

The choice of the form in which knowledge is offered depends on the level of the participants and the physical possibilities in the learning environment. After dealing with the learning text, all kinds of points have been discussed with which others can now also start editing/improving their own texts. This can be done in pairs and individually (see Self-editing or Editing in pairs). The points can be on the IWB, on a poster on the wall or in each participant's notebook.

Editing Office 

If the group is advanced, the facilitator can set up an "editing desk. A group of participants check the stories for spelling errors, punctuation and sentence structure. They do not correct the text, but they do underline words about which there is a question. They may also submit a content question in writing to the writer of the text. Participants rotate so that everyone has a chance to experiment with the role of editor.

Create and share an image that resonates with your story

Creating an image - 5/10 minutes

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

Participants go over their experience again in their minds and now choose an illustration that can add something to the experience. 

For example, expressing a feeling in color or adding a detail that has not been mentioned but adds something extra. There are participants who express themselves with ease in words and participants for whom making a picture is natural. Thus, different participants can excel at different times and learn from each other. 

Drawing, painting or modeling are pursuits that are relaxing. The relaxation, even if you are not satisfied with the end result or are afraid of it, allows you to see your experience from a different perspective. Participants gain a broader view of what they experienced. 

Explore & Be(come) Yourself

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