Liberating Structures, Ongoing engagement
Conversation Cafe
Engage everyone in making sense of profound challenges. Use to address difficult or confusing topics.
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With Maha Bali
Educator prep: None
Student prep: None
Asynchronous
Video conferencing, Breakout rooms, Shared online space
Duration: 5-30 mins
Activity purpose
According to the Liberating Structures website, it “engages everyone in making sense of profound challenges. It can be used to address difficult or confusing topics, build trust and share perspectives.”
Useful for
Encouraging equitable conversations and perspective-taking. Encouraging constructive listening.
Preparation
Prompt, instructions, and space for students to take notes.
Instructions
This activity involves sending students into breakout rooms of 4-5 with timed rounds of conversation to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to participate. They will need one person to be the “host” and manage time and take notes (though you could split those roles).
Detailed Liberating Structures description: http://www.liberatingstructures.com/17-conversation-cafe/
Virtual conversation cafe description here.
Duration
At a minimum: Around 16 minutes if you have 4 participants per group, or 20 minutes if you have 5 participants in the group. However, you can increase the time for the “open” round of conversation to 10 minutes instead of 4-5.
Adaptations and examples
N/A
Technical requirements
Breakout rooms and either asking students to record them, or take notes in a shared space like a Google slide or Google doc.
Useful resources
Liberating structures description: http://www.liberatingstructures.com/17-conversation-cafe/
More 'Liberating Structures' activities:
