Wednesday 6/29
- Introductions
- Name, City you’re from, One thing you like/dislike
- Housing keeping: everyone here is a facilitator; Avanthika and Mehrin are always open for any questions/concerns; when you all have the time, please fill out your contact info on the roster
- We gave them the link to a google drive that had all the necessary documents and text we would go over.
- The lector reads the book- Everyone should doddle while listening to what is being read, don’t worry about taking notes about the reading, simply listen and doodle away
- It’s time to come up with a question from the text- ask if anyone needs to see the text before just giving the text away.
- Now, time to reflect on other people’s questions- highlight the one you choose and write a response beneath the question.
- Now, as a group, we will answer the question, “why did you choose the question you chose”
- Next, we moved to the most important question: “What did we do?”
10-minute breather- Before every break time, we let the students decide collectively if they want to take a break.
- Since we didn’t have enough time, we explained the tangent activity and answered any clarifying questions they had.
- We sent them reminders of when we will meet and to bring the tangents in for our next session.
PDF of Animal Farm: file:///Users/mehrin/Downloads/Animal_Farm_Whole_Text.pdf
Questions we asked before the session ended:
- if everyone is okay with us making a GC for the group on WhatsApp
- Remember to upload your doodles and upload your tangents
Friday 7/1
- Introduction once again, name, city, one thing you did today (funny, boring, anything)
- Give them 10 min to look over tangents and pick 2-3 tangents you like
- Speak about the tangents of their interest
- Reflection: What did we do?
10 min break- Before every break time, we let the students decide collectively if they want to take a break.
- Artistic activity: Break into 2 rooms. Groups will decide on a passage to enact using sound and movement. Then, we meet after 10-12 mins, perform for each other and guess.
- Then, we have picked our lector for next week. We let the lector know of the length and asked them to speak with us if any questions come up and we discussed that over a personal text message via What’sApp.
Reminded them of the following before our closing:
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- Remind them we are available always for questions/concerns
- Resend the google drive link
- We decided that from next week, we will *highlight tangents* since many students spoke about one tangent and some tangents were spoken about.
Thursday 7/7
- Welcome them back for another fun session.
- Another question of the day to get to know them better: if you had to be any animal, what would you be?
- Give Nethaaya the podium: she will read about two times while everyone will doodle, and send the pdf of the text to the chat; everyone will write one question; reflect on questions by choosing a question and write a few lines about the question; why that question; “what did we do”
10 min Break – Before every break time, we let the students decide collectively if they want to take a break.
- We came back and decided to do a question/answer session about how their week has been and anything they wanted to share about Sri-lanka since we didn’t have enough time to do an artistic activity. We still counted this as an informative activity session.
- We ended our session and reminded ourselves to bring in tangents for next session.
*For the next sessions going forward: We will write our questions separately somewhere else and we will altogether write the question on our count just so no one’s question is influenced by what they see on the doc.
*Remind them to keep their cameras on to make the sessions more engaging and let us know if they can’t for power cut/ other reasons
Friday 7/8
- Welcome them!
- Reminder: keep the cameras on and participate! If you can’t keep cameras on, let us know- we thank you for joining us despite all the power cuts!
- Fun question for the day: Thanks to Laila, if you had only 6 hours left to live, what would you do and why?
- Moving on to the tangents: you all have 10 minutes to look over all the tangents- please do try to highlight your tangents if possible
- As a group, we can start reflecting on the tangents: the tangents that we found interesting.
- Group reflection of the important question: “What did we do”
Break time- Before every break time, we let the students decide collectively if they want to take a break.
- Soundtrack activity: Play 4 musical bits one by one while participants mark their text
- at the appropriate passage, after finishing the series, repeat for a few seconds (to refresh memory) and ask where it goes and why. A few people offer their decisions and justifications, making technical comments on the relationship between text and music. Be prepared for participants who want to know about the composer, style, period, place, etc.
- Primavera time stamps:
- 0:27- 1:44 listen then ask students to pick a line or two that they thought goes well with the music
- 2:06- 3:18
- Blown to Bits
- Primavera by Ludovico Einaudi listen to it, and doodle away; afterwards a reflection question: how do you feel (if there is time left)
- Picked our lector for the day: Kirthigaa.
- Reminded them to update us about the riots that were going to take place on Saturday and keep themselves safe.
Thursday 7/14
- Welcome them. Ask them how their week has been while also asking them about the riot from Saturday.
- Question for the day:
- Give Kirthigaa the podium: she will read about two times while everyone will doodle, send the pdf of the text to the chat; everyone will write one question; reflect on questions by choosing a question and write a few lines about the question;
- Reflection on why did they choose the question they did. This discussion helped us better understand the text.
- The main discussion: “What did we do”
Break time- Before every break time, we let the students decide collectively if they want to take a break.
- Artistic activity: Listened to a prominent song from Sri-lanka. This was a cultural immersion session.
Friday 7/15
- Welcome them!
- Fun question of the day: If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life what would it be?
- This discussion went off on a tangent on its own since a lot of people didn’t only mention their favorite food but some mentioned the foods needed for survival over a long period of time- hence they couldn’t really choose any food even if its their favorite.
- Moving on to the tangents: we were given 10 minutes to look over all the tangents- please do try to highlight your tangents if its possible.
- As a group, we started reflecting on the tangents. This was as always a very reflective session. Despite the original text covering historical aspects, we went into discussions about science, religion and of course history.
- “What did we do?” This allowed us today to learn not only what they enjoy reading and discussing but also gave an important feedback that they’d like to understand the texts more, hence maybe we can read the text as a group a couple more times.
Break time!
- Then, we explained what blackout poetry was and answered questions regarding it.
- Then we wrote the poems and pasted them on a document but we will share the poems as tangents activity next week since we were short on time this session.
Thursday 7/21
- Welcome them. Ask them how their week has been.
- Shemali was the lector for the day so she was given the podium: she read two times while everyone doodled,
- We sent the pdf of the text to the chat and everyone wrote one question;
- We reflected on questions by choosing a question and writing a few lines about the question;
- Reflecting on the question we chose to reflect on the document
- “what did we do”
Break time
- We went over blackout poems.
Friday 7/22
- Question for the day: What would you like to be in the future?
Break time
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- Brainstorm ideas and suggestions for co-constructing activities/Forum theatre
- Talk about the importance of recording and documenting our work so far. Open the discussion about writing 1-2 pages about Pre-Texts X STRIVERS 2022.
- Points to be discussed: Background, learning objectives, expectations, personal experiences (favorite sessions/moments, any mind-boggling questions or answers, discussions, reflections), major takeaways, ways to continue this kind of learning to other aspects of life, and future planning, skills picked up/enhanced, way forward, feedback/recommendations – would you recommend others to do this program
- *Please do it handwritten and put colors*
- Can this activity engage the family: if you didn’t do this program, what would you be doing differently- maybe spend time with family? Did you speak about any of our sessions with your family- anything they mentioned? Did they question what you were doing? Did they appreciate that you spent your time with us two evenings of the week?
- Made a Whentomeet for next week’s session
- Consent for a virtual group picture (google form)
Thursday 7/28
- Welcome them. Ask them how their week has been.
- Question of the day: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met?
- Give Sarah/Amandhi the podium: she will read about two times while everyone will doodle, send the pdf of the text to the chat; everyone will write one question; reflect on questions by choosing a question and write a few lines about the question; why that question
- “what did we do”
Break time
- Give them 5-7 minutes to brainstorm and hold onto a quote they really enjoy.
- Post quotes on the google doc
- Everyone shares the post that they found the most interesting.
- We took a group picture!
Friday 7/29
- Since today was the last day of our sessions, we welcomed everyone then we started with the question of the day: If you can have any superpower what would it be and why?
- Then, we moved on to the tangents.
- After that, we did our round of reflections.
- We then celebrated Avanthika’s birthday!
- We collected their handwritten reflections!
- Finally, we thanked all of the Strivers and opened the floors to any questions and comments.
- We took a group picture and will stay connected via WhatsApp.
