Connecting Service and Politics

Experience (Second Level) Training, Enrichment & Reflection

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Overview:  Activities and Reflections presented Chronologically and seeking First Year Student Development.

 

Group Reflection:

A New Civic Engagement, Zukin, et al. p. 5ff. and 51ff.

• This reflection directly applies to the Connecting Service and Politics: Second Level overarching goal: to begin distinguishing between community volunteer service and political action. In this reflection, students will engage these two avenues of change and examine their own service, convictions and goals. Clear recognition of new alternative forms of civic participation can provide both opportunities and possibilities for radical social change.  

  •  "Each form of public action is valuable, but neither alone is sufficient to address the myriad collective decisions that must be made in advanced democracies…[T]he ‘proper’ balance is a delicate and changeable one – and dependent on one’s own values.” p. 52
  •  Cliff Zukin Civic-Politics.doc

 

Second Year Goal:  For students to understand their roles as citizens in their community and to begin understanding how they can work as a team with their fellow Bonners and community partners to help make change.

 

First Set of Activities 

Citizenship: Rights, Responsibilities and Struggles

This activity delves into the different types of citizens that encompass a community. Through this workshop, participants will gain knowledge of these types of citizens and have chances to identify themselves with whichever one they most closely relate to. The goal of the activity is for the group to understand how each type of citizen is essential to community growth and change. Building on the “Jimmy/Jen Service” workshop, this set of activities allows participants to understand how each person’s role as a citizen plays a vital part in sustaining a community.

 

 Activity 1 Warmup (Suggested Time:10 Minutes)

In this activity will get participants in the right frame of mind for the rest of the workshop. It opens the floor to have them answer a simple question that deals with their roles as being an active citizen. From this point, the workshop will delve deeper into the different types of citizens there are and how they are identifiable and vital.

 

Activity 2 Get The Group Focused (Suggested Time: 5-10 Minutes)

Transition from the warm up

 

Activity 3 Present Ground Rules ( Suggested Time: 2-4 Minutes)

Here, you want to set some ground rules and expectations for how participants should behave and converse.

 

Activity 4 Concepts of Citizens (Suggested Time: 10-15 Minutes)

In this part of the workshop, you will present the four types of citizens that are going to be used as examples during this workshop. You may want to write them down on a blackboard or poster, as they will be used later on.

 

Activity 5 Responses (Suggested Time: 30-40 Minutes)

This exercise will allow participants to choose their level of agreement with each of the four statements by having them go to designated corners of the room which are labeled with each level (Agree-Strongly Disagree). Then, they will have time to discuss with their groups why the chose that area of the room and report back out to the larger group. This process will be repeated four Times.

 

Activity 6 If You Had To Choose (Suggested Time: 20-30 Minutes)

 This portion of the workshop is similar to the last, except that now the participants must choose which statement they most agree with. Each corner in the room will be designated to a statement, and the participants must go to the corner which they feel most connected to. They will have time to discuss with their groups and then report out.

Group Reflection:

 

Second Set of Activities

Learning Circles

This activity will teach participants how to plan and implement a learning circle, which is a discussion group in which people gather in a circle and share ideas which can then be brought back to their communities, schools, etc; It is a great training tool, as it is implemented through a learning circle itself. Participants can then use a learning circle to gather a meeting of community partners, campus officials, students, elected officials, community agencies and so on to discuss community problems, solutions, advocacy, etc;

 

Activity 1  What is a Learning Circle? (Suggested Time: 35 Minutes)

This activity will teach participants about what a learning circle is and its benefits. Further, through discussion questions, participants will able to actively engage in conversation on their ideas about learning circles and whether or not they think they are a good tool to use.

 

Activity 2 Organizing a Learning Circle (Suggested Time: 25 Minutes)

This portion of the workshop guides participants on how to start up and implement their own learning circle, with a focus on inviting people who are assets in the community.

 

Activity 3 Facilitating a Learning Circle (Suggested Time 25 Minutes)

This portion of the workshop gives in depth instructions on how to manage a learning circle through rules, implementation and guidelines

 

Activity 4 Review and Closing (Suggested Time: 2    

To start wrapping up the Learning Circle, review all the posted flip chart sheets, starting at the first brainstormed and summarize the ideas for each topic covered.

 

Here is the supplemental portion of the Learning Circles activity:   A Guide to Creating.doc

 

Third Set of Activities

Four Corners

This activity allows participants to respond to various statements made by the facilitator by choosing a corner of the room to go to that is designated to their level of agreement: Agree, Strongly Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. The set of statements given in this workshop will have to do with civic engagement, citizenship and political action.

 

Activity 1 Present Statements (Suggested Time: 15 Minutes)

This part of the workshop focuses on participants receiving a handout of statements (regarding civic engagement, political engagement, advocacy, activism, etc;) and having four types of agreement under each. The participants will then mark their level of agreement for each after you have read the statements aloud. 

 

Activity 2 Implementation of Four Corners (40-60 Minutes)

For ths portion of the activity, the participants will then, for each statement, go to a corner of the room designated for the level of agreement that they have chosen. This should be repeated for each statemetnt. They will then have the opportunity to discuss why they chose that agreement with their small groups and then report out. This process will repeated.

  *There will be a supplemental hand out here to guide the facilitator in the appropriate statements to be made for the implementation of Four Corners* 

 

Fourth Set of Activities

Groups Within Groups

This activity is designed to allow participants to get into small groups and discuss topics given. They then will be able to report out to a larger group discussion, thus opening up dialogue on said topics. For the purposes of the developmental model of these workshops, the topics will deal with civic engagement, classes and politics, race and politics, gender and politics and other topics of the like. This workshop can be broken up into two or more days, as the discussions should take approximately one hour.

 

Activity 1 Intro (Suggested Time: 5 Minutes)

Ground rules and Intro to the activity.

 

Activity 2 Gender (Suggested Time: 50-60 Minutes)

In this exercise, participants will talk about Gender and how it plays a major role in politics, activism, society in general and the community in which they live.

 

Activity 3 Race and Ethnicity (Suggested Time: 50-60 Minutes)

Follow activity 2, this time for groupings based on ethnicity/race.

 

Activity 4 Class (Suggested Time: 50-60 Minutes)

Same as previous activities, only this time with class

 

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