PLAN - WHAT DID YOU SET OUT TO DO? | |
| Summary/ Description of Activity | |
| Write Your Life – Everyone has a Story to Tell.The activity encourages seniors to write about their own lives. Many professional and personal experiences will be lost if no one documents them. The activity supports the idea that everyone, no matter how plain their lives may seem, have interesting things to tell. Telling the story is focussed at the expense of correct writing but writing is still chosen for communicating the story. The activity was initiated by Anders Nilsson, a senior deeply involved in writing plays for a local amateur drama group. A photo with all the participants will be taken to document the members of the group. | |
| Learning objectives: | |
| Each person will deliver a written story about their life to one next of kin and maybe also to someone else. | |
| DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY | |
| Date [dd/mm/yyyy] | Autumn 2008 |
| Length of activity | 3 study hours (45 min) x 5 times |
| Frequency | Once a week |
| Organiser | ABF, Educational association |
| Tutor | External study circle leader Anders Nilsson, a local writer |
| Group Size | 8 people |
| Venue | Private homes |
| Location | The geographical area of Vara municipality. SE |
| Environment | Small town/villages and countryside |
| Location Factors | Depending on private cars for transportation between places to meet |
| Partnerships | ABF helps with practical things like taking photographs of several objects for documentation until they get a camera of their own. |
| Target group | Retired members of the women associations within PRO Kvänum and Tråvad - socio-economically a fairly weak group where some risk social exclusion. |
| Contact | kerstin.hagberg@abf.se |
| Marketing | At meetings with other groups we always tell about this group and the textbook that could be used as support. ABF visits local associations to inform about how to start a group like this. However we don’t know if it was the information from him that got this certain group to get started. Personal invitations. |
| Method of delivery | Study circle leader – a person organising and inspiring more than tutoring |
| Equipment required | Paper, pencil, camera and a textbook |
| Other Factors | From the beginning almost everyone wants to be anonymous but as the time goes by and people get to know each other and the goals of the group, more and more of them want to contribute with their own personal story under their own name. |
| Tasks | (Task1) Involving seniors in learning process |
EVALUATION OF ACTIVITY| Evaluation of the Learning Objectives |
| The participants are very positive and think the whole thing is really fun.Openness and willingness to tell others about their lives have developed and therefore we think we have achieved want we wanted. |
| Evaluation of the activity |
| Everything went smoothly and they’re continuing their work this year too.In the end it will probably result in a leaflet where every participant shares a part of his/her life. |
| Evaluation of what was learned by the participants |
| An evaluation form with questions about how participants have experienced the work and what they have learnt will be distributed 23 March 2009. |
| Evaluation of what staff have learned |
| A frequently appearing problem is the fact that participants don’t think they have anything of value to tell. The best way to address this problem seems to be to argue that they are supposed to write because it is fun and because they are then leaving something behind for other people to share. Imagine to search for information about your family history and find a document like this; a story of someone’s life! |
| Keywords |
| Writing; story telling; life storiesWrite your life; Everyone has a story to tell; Sweden |
| ANALYSIS OF EVALUATION |
| What would you change to improve activity? |
| One idea is for the participants to recruit new participants to create new groups based on this real life storytelling by visiting already existing groups and read a piece of their story. |
| What particular circumstance could affect a change in the activity? |
| If the participants would like to use computers in their work that would be problematic because of their lack of knowledge but would in turn open up for a change in the activity. We would then add an activity of learning how to handle a computer. It would also be necessary to either choose a venue equipped with computers or rely on laptops that few of the target group owns. |
| Other possible Activities |
| One of the discussed ideas is to take photos of old objects and have seniors tell a story around this object |
| Best practice |
| The activity can surely be done in different ways and adjusted to new objectives within the same framework. The group will be likely to consider new options during their continuing work together. |
| Transferability: |
| Original activityBe very precise when telling the participants that you don’t have to be especially good at writing and that EVERYBODY actually DO have something to tell! |