Loesje Campaign
Aims of the practice and description of participants[edit]
The objectives of Loesje are to train:
- Creative writing
- Social outreach and campaigning
- Collective co-creation
- Critical thinking
- Team work
The Loesje method engages people in society and empower them to express themselves as active citizens to find solutions and ways towards mutual understanding.
Resources, Materials needed[edit]
Paper, felt pens, pens.
Duration[edit]
90 minutes.
Step-by-step - what has to be done?[edit]
Loesje uses something called "ACCESS", which stands for Association, Contradiction, Comparison, Exaggeration, Stimulation and Suggestion.
Each learner should have a white paper or sharable online space (padlet, miro, flinga, googledoc etc.) in front of them and work first for themselves. In each round they should reflect, add, change, revise the text they have. The process should be repeated for each topic the learners choose.
In a first round let your learners associate, they should think of all words and ideas connected to the topics as possible. Ask them what does those words mean? What do you feel hearing them? What is maybe the hidden meaning or context of those words?
In a second round let the participants contradict the topics. Let them make words which make the topic sound right, sound wrong.
In the next round let them compare something that is new, with something that is well known. That might help to clarify the meanings of the topic.
In the next round Exaggerate, Make the topics, or the things it implies, bigger.
In the next round stimulate their imagination. Motivate them to take action, inspire them for adventure and show them how rewarding doing something unusual might be.
In the last round suggest and make the learners see things in a different way, make people think about what they read and about what it implies.
If the participants are done writing, let them switch the paper for another subject, leat them read what was written and let them repeat the process.
The texts should be rather short and thought provoking, please make clear to the participants, that long texts are not necessary.
Explain to the group that they can write whatever comes to their mind. Emphasize that this is a group process, that you don't have to write a "Loesje Poster" immediately, because it is important to let yourself be influenced by the others ideas. It is o.k. to just write a word, or an idea, as well as it is o.k. to write what could become already a Loesje Poster.
It is not obligatory that everyone writes on each subject and drawing is also "allowed". Just express yourself and encourage the others to do the same. You can react on what the others have written, making questions, quotes, anecdotes, but we don't think it is helpful to have "yes" or "no" reactions and to be critical.
First of all collect all texts – and hand out to the participants colour-pens. Let everyone choose a colour and ask them to go through the texts again, this time to circle the texts they would like to become a Loesje. They can choose more than one (or none) in each subject.
While reading the texts again, the participants might change something; add or re-write parts. The texts should be however visible for all, might it be that they are stored on a pile, and everyone can go through all texts, they are tapped to a wall or collected in an online format.
In the end the group can see that the texts, which have been circled with more colours, are the most popular.
In the end you can read out loud the most circled texts, and all can comment them.
Explain that the most circled proposals are gathered together and submitted to a vote.
The ones selected go through the final editing and are layed out.
Learning Outcomes - which skills are addressed?[edit]
Co-creation, creativity, communication, writing, campaigning.
How do you check the outcomes are reached?[edit]
Reflect with the participants on the process in an open round. If topical posters are created, the formal check is already fulfilled.
Further links/readings[edit]
http://www.hcdo.hr/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2014/08/PartART-Handbook.pdf