Dinamicas de Organizacion y Planificacion (organizing and planning activities)

On index cards, one each, write tasks, roles, resources, decision-making, access to information that go with each position in the organization. E.g., the production worker in the coop, the manager in the coop, the union steward, etc.

Draw one card for each position: steward, president, member, etc.

Line up the roles, resources, etc that belong to each position.

Then, re-distribute the roles, etc. in teams -- what is the best way to distribute roles, responsibilities, why? Are new positions needed? Are some existing positions superfluous?

In this activity from Técnicas Participativas para la Educación Popular participants form a collective understanding of the most urgent problems they face today and the main strengths or positive factors on which they can draw. The goal is to get the group to form a common understanding of their strategic position at a given point in time. This can be helpful for groups of people involved in different projects, or working in different parts of a project.

The Flow:

In this self-assessment activity you use a partner to represent yourself. This requires you to articulate your self-assessment clearly and respectfully, and perhaps more objectively?

In pairs.

The first person speaks to the other as if speaking to him/herself. The task is to assess one's one participation in an activity, meeting, class, etc. The second person stands in as the "self" to whom the first person is speaking, listening actively, only asking clarifying questions.

A "quick and dirty" evaluation activity.

In groups of three, people prepare a short (2 minute) role play based on this scenario:

It's the day after class. One person meets his/her two friends who attended class. S/he asks them, "How was class last night?", pressing them for details. The role play ends when the friend asks, "will you go to the class next week?" and the person replies.

Like in any role play, it helps to choose a specific place and time of day, so people can imagine a context for their meeting.

It is difficult to describe this activity because it is so rich in content and so great a way to practice "horizontal" pedagogy. It is a mash-up of Jacotot's "What do you see? What do you think of it? What do you make of it?" and ???

Materials: color copies of Miguel Marfán's cartoon on the cover of Técnicas Participativas Para la Educación Popular, with the book title removed.

The flow:

Joker gives people a copy of the Marfán cartoon and ask them to look at it closely. Give them five minutes or so.

Another way to evaluate a course (or any other activity, perhaps), that breaks from the standard evaluation form format. This one takes the form of a debate over this proposition: "This course is (has been) a complete and total waste of time and money."

Form two teams, choose sides by flip of a coin, one team is given the task of arguing for the proposition, the other against.

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION

Formal Statements
1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
3. Declarations by organizations and institutions
4. Signed public statements
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
6. Group or mass petitions

Communications with a Wider Audience
7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
12. Skywriting and earthwriting

Group Representations