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 INTRODUCTION: Taking action, making change, experiencing new
adventures... these are awesome reasons to get out and do
something. But the richness of the experience, the learning
from the experience, these are equally important if we are going
to transform society through action. Reflection is
integral to learning, because it helps us build self-awareness,
strengthen personal and team growth, and improves our action for
the next time.
POINT TO PONDER:
"We
learn not from doing, but by thinking about what we do.” - Unknown
source.
DIRECTIONS: The following are a
list of reflection activities that are relatively easy-to-use, with
few materials needed.
Emotional Go-Around
Participants are asked
to show with a word, their body, or a facial expression how they feel
right at the moment. Let people show their reaction, one at a time,
and then have participants explain their reaction. This activity can
give the facilitator a sense of the group mood and gives the
participants a chance to express how they feel at that moment.
Service Skits
Split the students
into groups of three or four and ask each group to portray their
service experience through a skit. Give each group 10 minutes to plan
what they will do and up to five minutes to share their skit with the
rest of the group. After each group’s presentation, have the whole
group process reactions, give suggestions for effective future
projects, and give positive feedback to the actor/actresses. This
activity could take 30 minutes to an hour to complete.
Visualization
Take your students on
an imaginary tour of their service experience. Ask participants to
find a comfortable position (lay on the floor, rest your head on the
table, lounge in a chair) and close eyes. Play relaxing music at a low
volume. Ask participants to become aware of their breathing, ask them
to leave their present thoughts and clear their minds. Once the
participants appear to have relaxed, ask them to begin remembering
their service experience. To assist them in remembering their
experience mention common events, allow participants to remember how
they felt before they did their experience, what their expectations
were, what happened in their preparation, how they felt during their
service experience. To stimulate their thinking you might mention
some of what you remembered. Slowly bring them back to the present.
Ask them to become aware of their surroundings, again concentrating on
their breathing, and open their eyes when they are ready. Ensure that
a quiet tone is maintained. Continue to play music, and ask
participants to share their recollections with another person and
finally have people make comments to the whole group.
Group Banners
Using a large pieces of banner paper and
markers, ask students to get into pairs and depict their experiences
using a combination of words and pictures. Give them about 10-15
minutes. When completed ask each pair to share their banner with the
whole group. Use their banners as a jumping off point for processing
the experience.
All Tied Up
Have the group stand in a circle. Holding
the end of a ball of string, hand the ball off to a participant. Ask
them to reflect on a particular question (e.g. what was something new
you learned today?). Once they have answered the question ask them to
hold onto their piece of the string and to pass the ball onto someone
else. Continue the process until everyone has reflected on the
question, and has a section of string in their hands. When completed,
you should have something that looks like a web. When they are all
done talking, make some points about the interconnectedness of people,
how they are all part of the solution, for if one person had not
contributed to their service projects the outcome would’ve been
different, etc.
Service Journals
Ask students to keep a
journal of their conference experience through regular (after each
activity) entries. Provide framework for the journals (e.g. who will
read it, what should they write about, how it will be used).
Variations on the Activity Journal include team journaling, and circle
journals. You can also provide particular questions to respond to,
and use hot topics from activities to reflect on. You may ask
participants to reflect on conference topics, including quotations and
readings from authors, music groups, etcetera.
Time Capsule
As students are being
introduced to your conference, have them put memorabilia and initial
attitudes related to Peace Jam and their school’s projects on paper
to start the time capsule. This could include a short project
description, an agenda for your conference, or anything else relevant
to what’s going on. Have the students write down how they are feeling
at the start of the weekend, how they feel at different points of
their school’s projects (e.g. what they expected at the beginning of
the year, how they felt about your topic or conference before this
weekend, what they feel/felt (before, during or after) their project
as a whole. Put everything into a “capsule” that will be opened and
read aloud and discussed (perhaps anonymously) at the end of the your
conference.
Reflection Ideas Honoring Multiple Intelligences
To learn more about reflection, click here>
Suggested Citation
Fletcher, A. (2002). FireStarter Youth Power Curriculum:
Participant Guidebook. Olympia, WA: Freechild Project.
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