Developing a Vision
On this page:
- Activity 1: Carousel
- Activity 2: Story Tapestry
- Activity 3: Visioning Statements
- Activity 4: Gallery Walk
Visioning Activity 1: Carousel
Invite team members to form groups of four or five people. Place each of the following questions on a chart. Create four stations, with one chart each.
- How would we like our community to be different five years from now?
- How can we expand choices for literacy and lifelong learning for people of all ages?
- Where is there a need in our community to provide literacy learning opportunities?
- How might a Community Literacy Plan help us to realize our hopes for our community?
The groups visit each chart in turn, spending up to five minutes on each question. Ideas are recorded on the charts. At a signal, the groups move on to the next chart. They read the comments, add to them and place check marks where they agree with a previous statement.
When all the groups have visited all the charts, post the charts on the walls and invite everyone to look at them again.
Everyone returns to their seats to address the following questions as a group:
- What patterns emerged?
- What are the most important ideas that have come to the surface?
From 2010 Legacies Now
Visioning Activity 2: Story Tapestry
The facilitator begins the activity after group members have had time to share their relationship/roles related to literacy in the community as well as their wishes for community literacy. The facilitator provides this introduction:
“We all have memories of our experiences of learning to read, write, and communicate. We remember our school days, the books we were given, and the joy or pain of those experiences. In our work we may be concerned with literacy as teachers, librarians, parents or in some other way. Take a moment to think about your literacy experiences, in the past or in the present. On a piece of paper, jot down some words, phrases, or a quick sketch that shows one moment from your life’s rich experiences. Try to capture the feelings associated with literacy in that moment. This moment may be about yourself, or about someone else. Focus on the moment and try to capture it.”
The team members write or draw for about two to three minutes. When all seem to be finished, members are invited to share their moment with the person next to them and talk about the feelings they had in that moment. When everyone has shared a story with a partner, invite the group to talk about the stories they heard.
“Please share one thing you heard your partner talk about.”
As the stories are shared, have someone write down all the feelings associated with literacy that are mentioned. Review those feelings. It is predicted that a whole range of feelings will emerge from positive to negative.
Use the feelings revealed in the activity to help shape the vision for literacy in the community. Which of the feelings would the community want a literacy plan to foster and which would it want the plan to prevent?
From 2010 Legacies Now
Visioning Activity 3: Visioning Statements
As a team, discuss literacy and your community.
- What would it look like in your community if literacy was going really well?
- What would parents be doing?
- What would early childhood providers be doing?
- What would educators and school administrators be doing?
- What would businesses be doing?
- What would community partners and organizations be doing?
Based on the results of your discussion, write a few sentences that capture your team’s vision of literacy excellence.
Visioning Activity 4: Gallery Walk
- Designate these five stations in the room:
- Babies and young children
- School-age children
- Young adults
- Place large sheets of paper at each station. These should have a leading sentence such as: “Life for seniors in our community would be better if…” Have instructions at each station.
- Ask people to go to the station that interests them most. The task of the groups at the stations is to imagine your community sometime in the future, and to describe the desired literacy and learning opportunities available to the particular group of people.
- Rotate groups to new stations when directed by the facilitator. If they have similar ideas to earlier groups, they may star or check those responses. If they have new ideas, they can write them down.
- Return each group to their beginning chart at the end of the gallery walk. The group members can discuss how the chart has changed.
- Discuss the results of each station with the full group.
- Use the results to craft a vision statement for the Community Literacy Plan.
From 2010 Legacies Now