Language Acquisition, Social Justice, and International Volunteer Service - Workshop!

COFLT - Spring Conference 2106

March 12, 2106 

Workshop 3:
Social Justice in the Languages

Language Acquisition, Social Justice, and International Volunteer Service

How can educators intentionally use language acquisition as a tool for developing critical thinking, emotional resilience, and cultural humility?  Can curricular integration promote a platform that advances social justice, inclusion, human rights, and peace?  We will explore these questions and generate ways to use international volunteer service to add value to the classroom experience.

Carlton Rounds

Carlton Rounds is the Director of Campus Engagement for Cross Cultural Solutions for over 20 years. CCS has special Consultative Status with the United Nations and is a founding sponsor with the Brookings Institution's Bridge Building Coalition for best practices in international volunteer service.

Carlton has been working in the fields of international education, volunteer service, and proactive social inclusion and diversity for nearly 30 years. He has traveled, served, and taught all over the world in areas of democratic transition with the intention of expanding the rights of marginalized people and communities.  

Crime and Found Poetry Training - 3 Day Training (Ethics and Values Clarification)

* Written by Carlton L. Rounds and Bobbi Kyle/ January 1992

ABSTRACT

This is an experiential workshop designed to take place over one weekend in a retreat-like atmosphere. The objectives of the workshop are to enhance self-awareness through experiential exercises. The processing inherent in the workshop will be explored by utilizing various writing techniques. Some of these specific writing techniques shall include play-writing, free-writing, journal writing and poetry.

The number of participants will be limited to twenty, with two trainers or facilitators. Clients will be self-selected, will have had previous experience with the writing process and will share an interest in exploring self-awareness. Clients will receive information before the workshop begins informing them to dress comfortably, and that participation in all aspects of the workshop is required. They will be shown an agenda of the weekend before arrival so they know what to expect.

The weekend will be inclusive, with housing provided at the site, all meals shared with fellow participants and some free time scheduled into the session to allow for self-reflection and the opportunity to enjoy the serenity of the retreat setting. Journal writing will be encouraged throughout the weekend and participants will have the opportunity to share their writings with others.

This workshop will be intense and engaging. Our overall goal is for participants to have a great time and learn more about their strengths as writers and people. It is the trainers' belief that if participants can view the risk factor of an experience not in terms of how much they may lose but in terms of how much they may learn, they are better able to balance the risks against the gains in their own minds and make the decision to participate. Ample processing of all activities will be designed into the workshop through both open discussions and the various writing processes with emphasis placed upon individual achievement.


NEEDS ASSESSMENT

After a warm-up and an ice breaker the first morning, we will give participants time to write in their journals about what aspects of themselves and their writing they would like to strengthen over the weekend. They will then break into five groups of four to share these journal entries. Each member of the group will make a commitment to share expertise and support each other in the workshop. This will create a mini support system within the group. Each small group will then write a letter to the trainers to illustrate their most burning desires for growth over the weekend. As trainers this will give us the opportunity to read about their current concerns and address them within the workshop design.

A more formal needs assessment is not necessary in this scenario as the participants will be self-selected and will have detailed information about the workshop's intent ahead of time. Individual needs assessments will be gathered through the letter writing phase and can be integrated into the weekend's activities by the trainers. The success of the weekend will rely upon interaction and a common skill level. We expect that not all participants will be experienced in all areas but they will share a common desire to experience new things.


GOALS AND OBJECTIVES


1) Participants will be given the opportunity to explore various creative writing techniques.


2) Participants will increase their knowledge of how writing can enhance personal processing.


3) Participants will be given the chance to become involved on an experiential level with other people's writings.


4) Participants will be given the chance to increase their awareness of themselves as writers and as human beings.


5) Participants will have a great deal of fun.


DETAILED AGENDA


DAY I


9:00 - Welcome breakfast with fresh roasted coffee, oven fresh pastries, New York bagels, and fresh squeezed fruit juices.Each participant will be greeted, given a name-tag (with the name of their choice on it - real of fictitious), and each participant will be individually greeted by one of the trainers and thanked for giving their weekend to do something important to them. The trainers will express their enthusiasm and excitement for the coming two day workshop.

10:00 - Participants are brought together in a common room for a warm-up and ice breaker. The needs assessment journal writing and letter writing will follow the ice breaker.

11:30 - 11:45 BREAK

11:45 - 1:00  Writing Exercise/Experiential Exercise (with processing)

1:00 - 2:15 LUNCH

2:15 - MICRO EXERCISE #1 "Buckets o' Drama"

Objectives:


1) To explore the process of play-writing.


2) To write an original play


3) To experience the dynamics of having one's writings interpreted by others.


Methods:


1) Participants will be separated into four groups of five. (5 minutes)


2) Five buckets will be placed in the center of the room containing the following:


Bucket #1 - four identical character descriptions


Bucket #2 - four situational settings


Bucket #3 - four odd props


Bucket #4 - four specific actions


Bucket #5 - four more identical character descriptions


For example: one group might receive "a peg-legged waitress at a McDonald's with an egg-beater interviewing a passing mid-wife about Elvis."

Another possibility: "a mid-wife in the back of a bus with a raccoon coat doing a psychic reading for a peg-legged waitress."

The groups will receive their five bucket items, their instructions and go to their assigned small rooms.


(10 minutes)


3) Given these variables, each group will have to compose a play to be read by one of the other groups. No group will know which play they will end up with. Each play must include appropriate background information, stage directions, a group generated third character and dialogue. Given seemingly unrelated information their challenge will be to create high drama. A copy of the original play is given to the trainers. (1 hour 30 minutes)


4:00 - 4:15 15 Minute Fresh Fruit Salad Snack Break


- trainers will photocopy the plays for distribution.


4) Participants will reconvene to the large common room. The plays will be randomly distributed to the small groups (so that each group has a play they did not author). Each group will be given 30 minutes to read over the materials.

(30 minutes)

5) A group of five will sit in a circle in the center of the room with the remaining 15 participants around them. Task breakdown will include: one person to read background information, one person to read stage directions, two to play the assigned characters and one person to play the group generated character. The group will them do a dramatic reading based only on the script they were given. (15 minutes)


6) Each group will perform Step 6. (45 minutes)

7) Participants will be given 20 minutes to write in their journals addressing these questions:

how does writing for an audience influence process?

how is the play you wrote different from the play you heard read?

what surprised you?

what did you like about it? what didn't you like?

what did you learn about ownership of your writing and ideas?

how does it feel to present someone else's work?


* Participants should leave their journals in the room (for separation from the activity) and continue on to dinner.


6:00 - 7:30 - DINNER of Pasta Primavera in a reduced cream sauce served with fresh hot Italian garlic bread and red wine. Fresh ricotta pie and cappuccino will be served for dessert. The rule at dinner will be that no discussion of the previous exercise will be permitted. This will induce individual internal processing.


7:30 - 7:45 Energizer

7:45 - 8:45 Participants will be given an additional 15 minutes to read over journal entries and make additions. The trainers will then facilitate an open group discussion on the "Bucket o' Drama" Exercise encouraging participants to draw from their journal entries.

8:45 - Closing and Homework


Participants will be ask to free-write in their journals concerning these questions:

- if you had to evacuate your home and could only take five material objects with you what would they be? and why?

- what is one thing you most dislike about your everyday life?

- if you could change anything in the world or solve any problem by waving a magic wand, what would you change? What would you be willing to give up to make this happen?

DAY II


8:00 - Participants gather for a totally delicious breakfast consisting of fresh berries, granola, homemade french vanilla yogurt and a variety of flavored coffees.


9:00 - Warm-Up


9:15 - Intimate Team Building Exercise


9:45 - MICRO EXERCISE #2 "Criminal Defense"


Objectives:


1) To redefine and explore the sources and process for creating poetry.


2) To give participants the experience of arguing from a subverted moral position.


3) To create "found poetry" from a high risk experiential exercise.


4) To heighten personal awareness concerning decision making and judgement in a high risk situation.


Methods:


1) Participants will be divided into two groups of ten (one group for each facilitator). The groups will be sent into different rooms. The two groups will be involved in identical exercises. Each person in each group is given a piece of paper that lists a specific crime they have been convicted of. In turn each member must confess to his or her crime using "I statements" without any other statements or justifications. The crimes would include:


- I shot the President of the United States.


- I shot and killed my spouse.


- I embezzled $100,000 from an orphanage which resulted in its closure.


- I euthanized my 58 year old mother.


- I beat my child so badly that it induced mild brain damage.


- I captured, starved and tortured a dog before killing it.


- I forced my partner to engage in sexual acts against their will.


- I was convicted of vehicular manslaughter and DWI after a head on collision with a family of four.


- I was convicted of distributing narcotics to children under twelve.


- I was convicted of attempted murder for knowingly exposing someone to HIV.


(15 minutes)


2) Further instructions are given to the groups: You will be your own jury whose job it is to sentence five of your fellow criminals to death, three to life imprisonment and two to counseling. Before passing sentences, each criminal will have the chance to plead his or her case. You will have twenty minutes to prepare your defense in writing (journal). You will then have five minutes to present your case to the group. (1 hour 20 minutes)


3) Each group decides on process of sentencing be it by vote, consensus or any group generated method. At this point the group is to be notified that one of the group's "criminals" is innocent. By the end of the 40 minutes the group must present the facilitator with a list of the sentence breakdowns. (40 minutes)


4) Facilitator will announce who the innocent person is in the group. Individuals are then given a half hour to process in their journals addressing these questions:


what was your sentence and how was it determined by the group?
how did it feel to try and justify a criminal act?
is criminal behavior ever able to be justified?
what was a common factor in your group's decision making?
which did you consider the worst crimes?
how do you feel about the fact that one person in your group was innocent and sentenced?
did you learn anything about yourself?
list five statements made by other participants that stick out in your mind


(30 minutes)


12:30 - 12:45 Silent Break with touching allowed


12:45 -


5) After break, participants will be asked to generate two lines or phrases in their journals: one line about how they feel after the above exercise, and a quote they remember from the defense or sentencing discussions. (5-10 minutes)


6) Participants should then in turn read the lines they have generated while one member records the lines on newsprint. At this point the facilitator should then step in and give the group the following instructions: As a group, it is your task to take these individual lines and from them generate a poem. Start by putting the lines in some sort of order (in their original form). Then the group should feel free to edit the lines to allow for smooth transition. A title should then be created. Once the poem has been written, the final draft should be written in everyone's journal and on newsprint. The two poems are then posted in the common room. (1 hour)


2:00 - LUNCH is brought in to the common room. Huevos Rancheros on fresh, homemade corn tortillas, potato skins with chili, sour cream, cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon - with imported fruit juice spritzers (with umbrellas).


3:00 -


7) One representative from each group will stand up and read their group's poem. After which the facilitator should open up discussion to the group. The following questions should be addressed:


- how are you feeling?


- how does your poem play a part in what you are feeling right now? does your poem reflect your experience in this exercise?


- how do feel about the process your group went through in creating the poem?


- what have you learned about the sources of creativity?


- how do you feel this experience will relate to future writing endeavors?



(1 hour 15 minutes)


4:15 - 5:00 Acknowledgement for participation in the weekend and closing ceremonies. Informal mingling where trainers will be available and open for feedback and discussion about improving the workshop. Dessert coffees and sinful chocolates will be available.













* Written by Carlton L. Rounds and Bobbi Kyle/ January 1992

Ethics and Values Clarification Training Meets Found Poetry - C.Rounds and R.Kyle

Ethics and Values Clarification Training

CARLTON: Introduction about the training, the three parts, etc.  (5-10 minutes)

Workshop A   

Approximately 30 minutes

Have the group stand in one long line at the center of the room.  Ask each of the following questions and have the participants move either to the left or right side of the room depending on their response.  Depending on the weight of the responses, give them a couple of minutes to discuss their choices with each other… quickly.  Then have them return to the center of the room at the sound of the bell.

The first response is always to the LEFT and the second to the RIGHT.

Questions

1) Do you prefer HOTDOGS or HAMBURGERS?

2) Would you prefer to have your first child be a BOY or a GIRL?

3) Do you prefer COCA COLA or PEPSI?

4) Given the choice, would you rather be born BLIND or DEAF?

5) Would you be willing to pose completely nude in a high class art magazine?  YES or NO

6) Do you consider yourself a LEADER or a FOLLOWER?

7) Would you prefer to die in a PLANE CRASH or by SLOWLY SINKING IN A SHIP?

8) Which is more disgusting, SPITTING or CURSING?

9) Would you rather be one foot TALLER or one foot SHORTER?

10) Which have easier lives, MEN or WOMEN?

11) If you found out your best friend was gay, would you stay friends with him or her? YES or NO

12) Would you commit a crime to provide food or shelter for your family? YES or NO

13) Do you know how old you were when you first began to talk? YES or NO

14) Do you SPEAK UP against injustice or REMAIN QUIET?

15) Do you think human beings as basically GOOD or basically EVIL?

16) Do you believe in the death penalty? YES or NO

17) Have you ever done something that hurt someone else that you regret? YES or NO

18) Is it possible to truly forgive someone? YES or NO

19) Do you prefer your peanut butter CRUNCHY or SMOOTH?

20) Would you rather be a famous ARTIST or a famous POLITICAL LEADER?

21) How many times are you lied to in an average day?  0-5 TIMES or 6-10 TIMES

22) Would you rather live to be 100 or 1000?

23)  Would you rather have a 2-FOOT LONG IRREMOVABLE NOSE or the word PORK TATTOOED ON YOUR FOREHEAD?

24) Which is more important LOVE or MONEY?

25) Would you rather be raised by two FATHERS or two MOTHERS?

26) Do you prefer HORROR movies or COMEDIES?

27) Would you rather marry someone OLDER or YOUNGER than you?

28) Would you rather have a child who LOOKED PERFECT but was severely mentally ill or a child who was BRILLIANT but had extreme physical disabilities?

29) Do you believe that your happiest times have ALREADY HAPPENED or will HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE?

30) Do you prefer a KISS ON THE CHEEK or a FRENCH KISS?

Workshop B (CARLTON)

Approximately 1 hour

Break the students into five groups (5 or 6 in each group).  The groups will be divided by color and should form a circle on the floor.  In the center of the circle, the facilitator will place a set of questions cards face down.

One at a time, each participant will pull a card from the pile and read the question aloud.  Each member of that circle will have the chance to answer the question.

Participants should be told that they should each take no more than 2 minutes to respond to each question.  Be sure to HEAR the other students… don’t just prepare your own answer.  Once everyone has answered the first questions, the next person in the circle should pull a second question and so on.

Workshop C  (BOBBI)

Approximately 1 hour

Written component.  Pass out four slips of paper (by color) to each member in each group.  The facilitator will read the following four questions and each participant should write a sentence or a phrase in reaction to each questions.  Members will each have four sentences or phrases at the end of the exercise.

1. Describe how it feels to have to make difficult choices.

2. What one thing have you learned about yourself?

3. Choose five words that remain in your mind from tonight’s conversations.

4. If you were given the chance to write your own question for this exercise, what would it be?

One participant should be chosen as the recorder The groups should come together and give their slips to the recorder who will then shuffle them, mix them and put them face down on the floor.  Randomly, participants will pull the sentences and lay them out on the newsprint in order.

Talk about the concept of “found poetry”…… all around us.  Our poetry is what we see, how we feel, how we react, how we dream…..

Now that you see these 20 sentences as a poem, take 10 minutes as a group and make decisions about how to rearrange the lines in the poem.  The final poem should be taped to the newsprint. When finished members should write their names on the bottom of the newsprint. And let the facilitator know when they are finished.

Have each of the five groups chose a reader.  That recorder will hold the newsprint and the reader will then read the group’s “poem” out loud to the larger group.

Thank the participants.

Conclusion

Approximately 15 minutes

1. Have you ever done anything like these exercises before?

2. How do you feel differently now than when we began the exercises?

3. What is the value of doing these types of exercises?

FEEDBACK / CRITIQUE

MATERIALS

Workshop A

Question sheet

Happy Apple

Workshop B

Question Color Cards

Happy Apple

Workshop C

Colored slips of paper

Tape

Two sheets of newsprint for each group

Masking tape

Ethics Cards:

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained one ability or quality, what would it be?

For an all-expense-paid, one-week vacation anywhere in the world, would you be willing to kill a beautiful butterfly by pulling off its wings?  What about stepping on a cockroach?

What is your most treasured memory?

What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?  Is there anything you hope to do that is even better?

What was your best experience with drugs or alcohol? Your worst experience?

If you could choose the manner of your death, what would it be?

If you found that a good friend had AIDS, would you avoid him?  What if your brother or sister had it?

You and a person you love deeply are placed in separate rooms with a button next to each of you.  You know that you will both be killed unless one of you presses your button before 60 minutes pass; furthermore, the first to press the button will save the other person, but will immediately be killed.  What do you think you would do?

Do you feel that advice from older people carries a special weight because of their greater experience? Give an example.

When has your life dramatically changed as the result of some seemingly random external influence?  How much do you feel in control of the course of your life?

If you could have free unlimited service for five years from an extremely good cook, chauffeur, housekeeper, masseuse, or personal secretary, which would you choose?

After a medical examination, your doctor calls and gravely says you have a rare lymphatic cancer and only a few months to live.  Five days later, she informs you that the lab tests were mislabeled; you are perfectly healthy.  Forced for a moment to look death in the face, you have been allowed to turn and go on.  During those difficult days you would certainly have gained some insights about yourself.  Do you think they would be worth the pain?

How do you picture your funeral?  Is it important for you to have people mourn your death?

An eccentric millionaire offers to donate a large sum to charity if you will step – completely naked – from a car onto a busy downtown street, walk four blocks, and climb back into the car.  Knowing that there would be no danger of physical abuse, would you do it?

Given the ability to project yourself into the past but not return, would you do so?  Where would you go and what would you try to accomplish if you knew you might change the course of history?

If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?

If 100 people your age were chosen at random, how many do you think you’d find leading a more satisfying life than yours?

If you began to be very attracted to someone of another ethnicity, how would your behavior differ from what it would be toward someone of your own ethnicity?

When did you last cry in front of another person?  By yourself?

What do you value most in a relationship?

What sorts of things would you do if you could be as outgoing and uninhibited as you wished?  Do you usually initiate friendships or wait to be approached?

Of all the people close to you, whose death would you find most disturbing?

Relative to the population at large, how do you rate your physical attractiveness?  Your intelligence?   Your personality?

What would you like to be doing five years from now?  What do you think you will be doing five years from now?

If a crystal ball would tell you the truth about any one thing you wished to know concerning yourself, life, the future, or anything else, what would you want to know?

Personal Literacy Reflections- Thoughts

In 1989 I was sitting at a hotel overlooking the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon when a book fell off the shelf onto my table. I thought that this library themed bar was full of fake books, but it wasn’t. On my table sat The History of the Johnstown Flood, published in 1889, the year of the flood itself. I picked it up and began to read, as my martini grew lonely. This book was amazing and dramatic as it chronicled the eyewitness accounts of Johnstown residents as they were overcome by a wall of water one hundred feet high and watched it demolish their town. I read about sixty pages into the book before slipping it into my bag and stealing away with it. I wondered why this book had chosen me? How did it manage to fling itself into my world and what was so special about this story that I needed to know about it? This book was the driving force behind my first master’s thesis in the field of disasterology and cross cultural/international management. During spring break from school, most of my classmates were making plans to go to some warm place for all kinds of debauchery, but I was set on a rainy hike in the Pennsylvania Mountains tracing the path of the great flood, and visiting the museum. Just as today, poor people were the ones who mostly died, and in fact, the flood could have easily been prevented had regular upkeep been a priority of the rich robberbarrons of the time. I use this story to illustrate that I am very open to different ways knowledge can be discovered and experienced. What I stumble upon, what chooses me, or what I choose to learn often has equal importance to my life.