Glossary

Biography work consists of dealing with the course of one’s own life. Many people feel the desire to deal with decisions/experiences in their own lives retrospectively and from a different perspective. Dealing with one’s own past can give personal security and strengthen self-confidence. It helps to cope better with difficult situations in the future.

Bookbinding is a form of presenting texts and / or prints or pictures that you have written yourself. By joining the individual pages together, a complete work is created that has its own value. The techniques used can range from simple thread stitching to artistic bookbinding with self-made paper.

In class correspondence, one school class enters into a regular exchange of information with another. The letter is the traditional form. The social forms for class correspondence can be as follows:One class writes to another class, introducing itself, its school, its region and so on. It introduces itself, its school, its region, etc. Small groups from one class write to a small group from another class, and individual pupils write to another pupil.

In schools, the –> group council is usually called the class council. Here, the topics, problems and wishes of the students and teachers are negotiated with each other in the spirit of personal responsibility. The class council usually takes place once a week. The –> positions in the class council are assigned for specific times. All topics are introduced by the learners with a leadership function via the –> wall newspaper. The class council is one of the basic elements of today’s democratically organized schools.

At the end of a learning unit, the learning group sits down in a final circle. Each individual takes it in turn to comment on the previous content and / or the group atmosphere and / or their own state of mind or progress in the learning process. The order of participation is often supported by passing around a “talking stone”.

The coffee plenum is a form of self-organization for Freinet pedagogical meetings, further education and training. Here, the work of short-term and long-term forms of the –> Ateliers is prepared and organizationally accompanied. In the spirit of –> participation, the leadership of the coffee plenary is deliberately handed over to the participants by the organizers of the event.

A consensus is the agreement of opinions or goals between two or more discussing or negotiating parties.the origin of the term is the Latin consensus (agreement, unanimity).in Freinet pedagogy, the achievement of a consensus is sought in the co-determination bodies (group council, class council, plenums, etc.), as this usually leads to more productive solutions. Everyone feels involved.

The coyote teaching method is used in conjunction with the Freinet focal points of the “natural method” and “leaving the practice rooms”. Role-playing games from wilderness education have, among other things, the goal of self-discovery in a loving, cross-age community. Coyote teaching brings participants into harmony with nature and the environment. It goes back to Jon Young from the USA, who adopted many of the techniques he used from the teaching and learning of indigenous peoples.

Democracy is of central importance in Freinet’s pedagogy. With the demand to “give the children the floor”, we point out that every child and every person has the right to speak for themselves. Everyone actively shapes their own learning from the very beginning. The group/class council is the place where the different interests of learners and teachers are negotiated. Everyone takes responsibility for learning together.

Documentation – just like –> presentation – is part of the concept of performance in Freinet’s pedagogy. In order to focus more on the learning process, various forms of documentation are included in the reflection of learning performance: from the classic folder, learning reports and learning diaries to portfolios or its Freinet counterpart –> Livre de vie.