Tool: Circle self-assessment

Feelings and interests

How do we feel during our time in the circle?

1. Some of us are very quiet and tired when we come to our circles, and some of us have a lot of energy. We enjoy short, fun activities that let us feel calm and also let us be energetic.
2. We come to our circle in different moods, but we feel interested in trying activities that will give us more time to focus, practice, and talk with each other.
3. When we come to the circle, we feel comfortable and ready to try challenging things. We are ready to spend our time working as a team, and not only on individual projects.
4. When we come to our circle we feel ready to work together on challenging things. Even when we come to our sessions in different moods we can manage our feelings and enjoy our work together.

What kind of activities are fun and interesting for us?

1. We want to play games and to have fun when we come to the circle. We are happy, not bored, and want to use this time for energetic and quiet activities.
2. We are interested in learning new skills, practicing different ways to express ourselves, and experimenting.
3. We want to do more activities that help us work well with each other, build and make
   things, and learn about the people and world around us.
4. We want to design and carry out projects together, based on our own ideas. Doing challenging and more complicated activities helps us to feel interested and excited.

Knowing each other and working together

How consistent is our attendance and participation in our circles?

1. There are a lot of different adolescents coming to the sessions.
2. We see the same adolescents at most sessions, but there are some new faces and/or some people who don’t come to every session.
3. We see most of the same adolescents at every session.
4. We see most of the same adolescents at every session. If someone is absent we always know why. If new participants arrive we can bring them into the group.

How well do we all know each other?

1. Most of us don’t know each other’s names yet.
2. We know each other’s names, but most of us don’t know each other very well yet. For example, most of us would not be able to talk about the interests and strengths of others in our circle.
3. We all know each other’s names and have learned more about each other. For example, we can all describe at least one strength and one interest of each person in our circle.
4. All of us know each other’s names, strengths and interests. We feel like a team and are friends.

How well do we work together as a circle?

1. We don’t know each other well enough to work together easily on activities or projects. Sometimes we feel shy, and when we have different ideas about how to do things it makes it difficult for us to work together.
2. We know each other well enough to have fun working together on activities. Sometimes some of us prefer to work on activities individually. When we feel shy, or have different ideas about how to do things, we need the facilitator to help us solve our problems and to have fun.
3. We usually like to do things together in our circle. Sometimes when we have trouble working together we can solve our own problems. Other times the facilitator helps us to solve our problems together and have fun.
4. We work well together, even when we are doing complicated and challenging things. When we disagree we can work things out ourselves.

Learning and using our knowledge, skills and creativity

What knowledge and skills do we have for knowing ourselves and working together?

1. We don’t know many words or other ways to express and describe ourselves, including our feelings, strengths or interests.
2. Some of us know and use different words to describe our feelings, strengths and interests. However, most of us are still learning about ourselves, and learning new ways to express and explain ourselves.
3. Most of us can describe our feelings, strengths and interests. We can express these in different ways to each other. We have learned a lot about each other’s similarities and differences, and we use this understanding to help us work well together.
4. Almost all of us can express our feelings, strengths and interests in different ways. We use our understanding of our strengths and differences to help us work together as a team and to come up with ideas for positive things that we can do in our community.

What knowledge and skills do we have for leading our own projects and activities?

1. We would feel overwhelmed or bored if someone asked us to try planning an activity or project. We don’t know the steps we would take if we had to plan an activity or project ourselves.
2. We would like to try planning and working on some easy group and individual projects. We want the facilitator to show us the steps needed for planning.
3. We are ready to learn and try planning projects together. We want the facilitator to help us when we have trouble, and to make sure we have a plan that can work.
4. We know how to plan and carry out projects together. If the facilitator tries to give us too much support, it slows us down.

What ideas do we have for our sessions, activities and projects?

1. We don’t feel ready to suggest ideas and activities for our sessions, and we like it when the facilitator uses their own ideas.
2. We can tell the facilitator about some of our interests so that they can plan activities that we like for our sessions. We also like it when the facilitator uses their own ideas to plan sessions.
3. We have a lot of ideas and interests for our sessions, and we work with the facilitator to plan activities based on these ideas. We also like it when the facilitator uses their own ideas to plan sessions since it helps us to learn and experience new things.
4. We have a lot of interests and ideas for our activities and projects. Most of the time we don’t need the facilitator to suggest new activities, but sometimes it is fun when they do something new to reenergize us.