Notes
Guided (topic-based) freewriting is an exercise designed to clear mental and/or emotional space and to allow ideas about an issue to begin to come to the surface before you simply push ahead.
In a freewriting exercise, you should not take your pen off the paper. Keep writing even if you find yourself stating over and over again, "I don't know what I'm expected to say." What you write will not be shown to anyone else, so do not go back to tidy up sentences, grammar, spelling. You will probably diverge from the topic, at least for a time while you acknowledge other preoccupations. That's OK-expressing what is distracting you is one of the purposes of the exercise. However, if you keep writing-do not stop-for seven-ten minutes, you should expose some thoughts about the topic that had been below the surface of your attention-that is another of the aims of the exercise. There is no expectation about how much gets clear in this exercise-there will be plenty of time yet and opportunities for being stimulated by others.
Reference: Elbow, P. 1981. Writing with Power. New York: Oxford U. P.
Continue where this sentence leads off:
" When I consider times in the past when I've missed out on raising something that I would have liked to, the thoughts/ feelings/ experiences/ ideas that come to mind include..."
Process Themes to chew on concerning our interactions and process as a group:
* We know more than we are able, at first, to acknowledge.
* Our goal could be for each of us to express "what the project looks like to me," and from that basis develop a vision of our common project, one that still holds each of the individual views within it.
* The challenges are to acknowledge our investment in our specific projects while finding ways to stretch what we are doing and to connect with the projects of the others.
* One way the [product] can be distinctive is if it also reflects the process by which we worked together to produce it.
* The hardest work is to support each other to inquire. (To inquire includes each of us inquiring further on the issues that arise in our own projects and in the projects of others. It also means inquiring into how we support our own work and the work of others.)
* Reflection at the end of each phase is important, leading to one concrete product to take into the next phase.
Ground Rules: the most certain path to deep learning is through dialogue
Suggested by Tom Flanagan, April 2005
All dialogue will be in the form of reflective conversation
All conversation will be introduced in very general terms
All conversation will be based on two or three key things felt to be of interest to all
All conversation will expand upon what we have already shared (e.g., the biographic precis)
All conversation will explain the struggles in our efforts
All conversation of struggles will remain confidential within our group
All conversations will include questions for the group response
All participants will both listen and speak
All speakers will recognize that time is precious and needs to be shared
All listeners will jot down talking points as speakers are introducing a new conversation
All listeners will seek to focus on two or three key talking points raised by each speaker
All listeners will seek meritorious things to acknowledge in each speaker's conversation
All listeners will phrase critique in terms of actions that might be taken
All listeners will seek to use the language and terms of the speaker in their responses
All listeners will regard the conversations as practice in working without "imposed coherency"
All listeners will regard the "time-space context" as during and after the conversations
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WE ESTABLISH THESE TENTATIVE RULES FOR LISTENING AND SPEAKING ABOUT THE WORK OF OTHERS...
* Listen for things to praise (practice a new strategy for listening)
* Rephrase "criticisms" into suggestions (e.g. I found this useful, you might...).
* When commenting on a presenter's project try to do so on his/her terms or in terms that will be understandable across a number of discourses.
* Choose from all things you might say the 2-3 you think most useful to speaker & group.
* Practice handling a workshop structure that does not emphasize imposed coherency.
* Think of the time-space context as during and after (at lunch, in hallways, over email).
AND FOR SPEAKING ABOUT YOUR OWN WORK...
* Talk in a relaxed and conversational mode -- this workshop is not designed to judge you.
* Avoid lecturing, or "delivering" a paper, or re-presenting your precis.
* Start where your precis stopped.
* Given limited time, plan ahead for the few things you really want to share.
* Focus on your struggles, the cutting edge of your work; not only your achievements.
* Raise issues in the most general way possible so as to begin to build bridges across discourses.
* Understand that we are all captives of our discourses and can and must ask for each other's help in buillding bridges across.
* Pose questions to the group -- where I would most like your input, most like discussion.
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