The range of activities invented by participants in Pre–Texts is impossible to represent or to predict. They are infinite. One of the virtues of Pre–Texts is that it invites each participant to propose an activity for the training workshops. Of the five sessions lasting three hours each, only the first is directed by an experienced trainer. The next four are always surprises, because new participants take turns leading. By the end of the sequence, everyone is prepared to bring Pre–Texts to their respective classroom or workshop. The learner–centered philosophy that makes each of us the author of our own learning is modeled as a practice in the training.
Post cards – drawing on one side, message on the other, sent by characters in the text and circulated from hand to hand among the workshop participants.
Vietnamese Opera (or European, Chinese, etc.) Compose the libretto from material in the text and use arias that everyone knows to perform a scene or a summary. Show time!
Rap, Hip hop, created with elements from the text and the metrical instructions that we all learn.
“Trova,” “décimas,” or any folkloric genre of music and poetry, with instructions for composition.
Decorating cookies, with frosting, sprinkles, etc, inspired by elements in the text (then text–based speeches to offer a creation to one or another participant).
Crossword Puzzles. Fashion show.
Riddles.
Dance, in many genres.
Technology, convert words to virtual images, games, maps, puzzles, etc.
Prose into poetry (various genres), poetry into prose – (various genres). Teach technique.
Newscasts.
Product development and marketing.