I am collecting activities I have used in my English for Activists courses and other language teaching for a book on Participatory Techniques for Language Learning. Like Popular Education for Union Democracy, to get access to all the activities, and comment on, ask questions about, and contribute to the book, you need to register on this website. See "how to participate."
The book is here.
The idea of this circle game is to take an object and then re-imagine it as a series of different objects. I took this from a children's game I learned from Robyn Avalon when visiting with her family in Santa Fe. Kids love it.
Good for: loosening up, for using language naturally, in a fun and creative way that people at different levels can understand and enjoy.
Set up: chairs in a circle (could also do it standing)
Number of people: at least three
Materials: some simple object
Time: 30 minutes or so
For union and social movement activists, resistance is one of the highest virtues. We all carry around in our minds some favorite image of resistance: workers on a picket line, plan occupations, Norma Rae standing up with the "union" sign, the little fishes getting together to chase away the big fish, etc. We put the images on t-shirts, mugs, buttons, posters. Given our affection for resistance, it is easy to forget that resistance is also difficult, divisive, stubborn, uncooperative, backward, ornery, un-productive, wrong-headed, that is to say, resistant.
BOOKS
Books you must have:
Tecnicas Participativas Para La Educacion Popular The best resource book for popular educators, combines technique (lots of activities) with method and embodies the work of popular educators in Central America.
