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3.2
Critical Feeling in Discussions
Submitted by Jack Byrd, Jr.
Being aware of the emotional charge of a discussion is important. This involves being aware of personal emotional reactions as well as the reactions of others. This activity helps participants to reflect on their own emotional reactions while also asking questions to better understand the emotions of others.
Learning Goals
Develop deeper awareness of how feelings are aroused and redirected within discussions.
Become less susceptible to emotional manipulation while also deepening empathy.
Instructions
Set Up: Prepare for the Activity
Create a slide deck with approximately 10 photos that are likely to evoke an emotional response. These photos can be specific to the group or focused on current events. See Sample Slide Deck by Jessica Friedrichs.
Organize participants into small groups (3-6 ppl).
Begin by introducing the learning goals of this activity.
Step One: Showcase Photos (10 min)
Show photos or slides one at a time. After each photo, ask participants to reflect on what level of emotional reaction they have to each image.
They can do this by silently jotting down notes or they can share their reactions by holding up pieces of colored paper: red (strong), orange (moderate), or yellow (weak).
Step Two: Dive Deeper into Emotional Reflection (15 min)
In small groups or pairs, encourage participants to dive deeper. Beyond the level of emotion, what specific emotions were aroused by the images?
Encourage participants to explain their emotional responses and some context for the response. Focus on 3-4 images.
Step Three: Practice in Full Group Discussion (20 min)
Come back together as a full group and introduce a relevant discussion prompt.
Allow the discussion to unfold as normal but instruct participants to use their colored pieces of paper to indicate how their emotions are registering during the discussion.
Pause the discussion at crucial points (when many participants are holding red cards, for example) to pause and discuss why emotions are changing in the group discussion.
Step Four: Debrief as a Full Group (10 min)
What role do emotions play in the discussion?
When are emotions good for the discussion and when might they be bad for the discussion?
Did any of the emotional responses surprise you?
TIME
55
min
MODULE
Critical Collaboration
This activity is more involved or complicated than a beginner activity. This activity is for groups that have established trust or experience with discussion.
This activity can be used to build trust and interpersonal connection.
This activity is focused on developing or supporting listening skills. See Sample Listening Certificate Program Design to illustrate sample sequencing.
This activity helps to explore and develop emotional awareness, intelligence, or growth.
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0 Comments
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:39:23 AM
Activity 5.4 uses the fun method of role playing and builds on other activities to help participants develop questions and practice gathering information to collaborate effectively with communities as partners. This activity involves working together in small groups and as a large group. It also includes multiple additional resources for participants to continue learning methods and skills to build community partnerships.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:39:00 AM
Activity 1.8 provides a very useful survey to gather information on and help support participants' different discussion styles and needs, exploring various areas like preferences for group size, ways of participating in discussions, any fears relating to discussions, etc.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:34:46 AM
Activity 5.8 further explores direct democracy by proposing the idea of "legislative juries" to improve the current initiative process through collaboration and deliberation. This activity uses role playing to have participants practice deliberation as part of a mock legislative jury to craft ballot initiatives on a given issue.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:27:35 AM
Activity 5.7 uses a fun and tactile activity like building LEGOs to explore the effects of coming together to colloborate and discuss, while also participating together in another physical activity.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:22:49 AM
Activity 5.6 uses memes and futuristic zombie scenarios to develop ways to change people's minds, while exploring various aspects of the methods used to change minds, like assumptions behind ideas, sticking to the facts versus stretching the truth, appealing to emotions etc.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:16:44 AM
Activity 5.5 uses a fun and visual/craft activity to help participants explore the many different types of knowledge, how they are valued, and the role/importance of each type of knowledge in their own lives.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:11:54 AM
Activity 5.3 gives participants to use writing, drawing, and/or speaking to share and discuss the various communities they belong to and/or feel excluded from, the various aspects that define community, as well as the practices of inclusion or exclusion and power distribution in these communities.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:07:26 AM
Activity 5.2 introduces four categories of stakeholders and multiple prompts to help participants work together in small and large groups to create comprehensive list of stakeholders, including those who are marginalized or not as obvious, for a given issue.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:04:00 AM
Activity 5.1 uses gamification by having participants play the Civics Topics Sweet Sixteen Competition to identify their issues they are passionate about both as individuals and as a group.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 2:01:34 AM
Activity 4.9 uses both lighthearted and serious characters, topics, and dialogue to help participants practice viewing an issue from the perspective of multiple people/characters and explain their thought processes and rationale for the choices they think these people will make in a given situation.