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5.3
Identifying Your Communities
Submitted by Janice McMillan
This activity opens up the conversation and makes visible the many different understandings of the term “community.” Its meaning is often taken for granted. Participants also explore how they feel in relation to certain communities or how they exclude certain people from communities they are a part of.
Learning Goals
Develop a nuanced understanding of community.
Critically reflect on practices of inclusion and exclusion.
Instructions
Set Up: Prepare for the Activity
Provide participants with, or if doing this online ask them to have with them, drawing materials, like paper, pens, pencils, and/or markers, if they would like to draw during the activity.
Organize participants into small groups (3-4 ppl).
Begin by introducing the learning goals of this activity.
Step One: Individually Reflect on Community (10 min)
Invite participants to independently reflect on the following questions and write a few thoughts down or draw their response:
What does community mean for you?
What communities do you feel a part of?
Step Two: Generate a List of Characteristics that Constitute Community (20 min)
In small groups, invite participants to share what they have written or drawn.
Have participants reflect on the responses shared as they discuss the following questions:
What for your group makes up “community"?
What are the characteristics of a community?
Ask participants to then generate a list of characteristics that define community for their group. Invite each group to share this list on a board, shared screen, or other surface visible to everyone.
Step Three: Debrief as a Full Group (20 min)
Encourage participants to refer to the list of characteristics generated in their small groups as they discuss these questions:
Do you feel part of the university, workplace, or broader community where you are based? Why/why not?
Are there spaces where you feel like you belong and spaces in which you feel excluded?
TIME
50
min
MODULE
Civic Collaboration
This activity can be completed by any discussion group.
This activity can be used to support facilitation skills. See Sample Facilitation Certificate Program Design to illustrate sample sequencing.
This activity can be used to build trust and interpersonal connection.
Tell us what you think. Rate and review this activity:
Have any helpful suggestions or modifications for this activity?
Share them in the comments below!
0 Comments
Sovi Herring
July 24, 2023 at 7:24:46 PM
I adapted this toward skills students can bring to their next group project to learn about themselves and appropriately accommodate others. This complements our course texts "Crucial Conversations" and "Thanks for the Feedback" as well! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rbVXIQkViuqmg4nnZdKyGsroHQn-_xsn/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=113770591818162655510&rtpof=true&sd=true
July 10, 2023 at 2:15:53 AM
Sovi
July 7, 2023 at 4:01:49 PM
I think this one went really well, especially when adding in premade roles. I didn't have access to a color printer, so I handmade character cards. I had to modify this activity a bit, but it was a blast. We paired this activity with some of the skills from the book "Crucial Conversations". Some also had to be bad/uncooperative communicators in the scenarios we had. Here's a Google Drive link to the materials I used for this activity. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nK0F0JxxTLJvBJYgOSJVFGdwPmGjYzYb/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=113770591818162655510&rtpof=true&sd=true
June 28, 2023 at 1:28:26 AM
June 27, 2023 at 3:21:16 PM
June 27, 2023 at 3:07:43 PM
June 26, 2023 at 10:07:17 PM
Sovi Herring
June 26, 2023 at 8:55:50 PM
I did this as a sub for a class and it went really well! The only feedback I have is that the prompts are a little long. I didn't edit them for this class, but I did offer a second prompt. Other than the bulky-ness, it was a great conversation and activity to have students do. Here are the materials I used in a Google folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QOVDnMYkouMsXtM9DfSVO38adPXdqKyM?usp=sharing
June 23, 2023 at 5:57:47 PM
June 23, 2023 at 3:02:10 AM