After the start of the second training session within the Pre-Texts educational program, which is currently attended by teachers from the Theoretical High Schools “Eugen Pora” and “Onisifor Ghibu” in Cluj-Napoca, facilitators Cristina Rogoz and Selma Dragoş had the opportunity to coordinate a three-hour workshop at the Academy of Change Forum (online), in which they presented the Pre-Text protocol and worked on it with participants from all over the country, who signed up out of the desire to learn new educational tools that they can use in working with children.
The Pre-Texts program was brought to Cluj as a result of our working visit to Boston in 2019, organized with the support of the US Embassy, and is a learning protocol developed by Cultural Agents, which stimulates critical thinking, creativity and active participation, using literary texts as the basis for the whole process. The main goal is to create a new way of teaching which encourages children to become active readers and which helps them develop those cognitive and emotional skills so necessary during school years and also in adult life.
The reactions received at the end of the workshop encourage us to further promote this extremely useful format, in the hope of extending the collaborations beyond the borders of Cluj County.
Here are some of the participants’ opinions about the experience of participating in the workshop:
“I got rid of the limitations I put on myself when it came to a serious text; now I know that I can approach it directly, with creativity, in order to reach its essence in a more pleasant and easy way. ”
“I went back to high school, to a philosophy class during which I could not understand the main message or ideas. It would have helped if the teacher had used this method. “
“Today’s workshop was a profound, complex and creative learning experience.”
