Having a theoretical sense of how violence affects learning, I could take a clearer look at the four women in our group. I could see and better understand their behavior. One student could not sit still. She has a beautiful soul and is a beautiful writer, but the way she participated was often disruptive for the others in our group. On bad days, her writing was choppy, disjointed, and unfocused. She would constantly talk and fidget. On good days, her writing was crisp and poetic. Being aware of the issues, I became aware of her needs and those of the other students. Every time she had a bad day, we discovered through her writing that she had had some sort of crisis the day before. When she was fidgeting and talking, she was not trying to relieve her boredom, nor was she being disrespectful. She simply had so many worries inside her she couldn't stay still.

It is always easy to notice the disruptive members. But I became more conscious of the other students as well. Those who wrote beautiful fantasy rather than personal stories and those who struggled to keep a train of thought going in their writing needed as much help as our louder participants. Each person was coping with her life in the best way she knew how. Once I began noticing more about the students and their in-class behavior and personalities, I could see a little more into their lives. I could see our writer who lost her train of thought struggling with too many domestic responsibilities and not enough leisure time. I could see our peaceful fantasy writer finally finding her individuality after years of taking care of others. This insight helped me discover what they needed of me as a facilitator. Rather than mold the students to the classroom, I began to mold the classroom to fit them.

Shaping the Classroom

Janet and I created a space and a classroom structure to help meet participants' varying needs. As we noticed what worked (and what didn't) we made small alterations, so that all of our students would feel welcome and productive. After we noticed the students fidgeting and becoming restless part way through the class, we began incorporating non-writing activities. We tried all kinds of things, from guided meditations to soft music to sculpting with play-doh. Knowing that people have different learning needs, we wanted to expose the women to different types of learning, especially learning though the senses. We brought things to touch, smell, taste, hear and see. Sometimes we wrote about our sensory reactions, other times we talked about them. Some ideas worked and we tried them again. Some ideas didn't go over well and we let them go.