Gemeinschaft Home

Co-fascilitated a song writing project

with men living at the Gemeinschaft
Home; a facility whose residents have
all recently been incarcerated.
Shannon Smith

PROFESSIONALISM LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

COMMUNICATION WITH COLLEAGUES SAFE/SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT

- before and after every session colleagues met to debrief - The men participating were never forced to share information

- Sometimes men chose to not participate in creating content but

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS to just observe

- facilitators never dressed "professionally" to avoid making the

participants feel excluded TEAMWORK

- JMU social work and music education students collaborated to

- when setting up the large group space, all the chairs that were
help guide the men to create a song
available were set out in a circle

- the songs created in small groups were shared with the entire
group at the end of the session
INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING
PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLES
LEARNER NEEDS/DIFFERENCES
- all participants are at different stages regarding how long they MAJOR TAKEAWAYS FOR FUTURE TEACHING
have been out of prison
- safe learning environments are essential
- several participants are recovering from drug addiction
- communication with what the learner wants contributes to how
LEARNER CONTEXT much they are willing to participate

- most of the participants are coming to the session after a long day - you cannot force anyone to do anything
of low working-class jobs (dishwashers, turkey farm workers)
- you will never understand the depth of impact of what a person
- many have not yet had dinner making them tired and hungry struggles with
coming into the session
- a person's appearance is not indicative of their interests or emotions
CONTENT PLANNING
- judgements based on a person's appearance says nothing about
who that person really is
- for people who have recently been institutionalized and told what
to do for a significant period, allowing too much freedom can be
overwhelming and, in some cases, disrespectful to the participants

- it is essential to come with a broad idea to offer to the participants

that still allows for their own participation and creativity

PACING
- each participant can offer varying degrees of participation
everyday

- it is important to acknowledge how much and to what degree

everyone can contribute
Read stories from
STRATEGIES the residents of
Listen to songs
Gemeinschaft and
- participants were encouraged but never forced to participate created from
the students who
previous
- consistently creating a safe and comfortable environment is have worked on this
Gemeinschaft
essential project.
projects.