This table is an annotated summary of the activities that comprise the Tapestry volunteer training, which all adult participants must complete before they are eligible to serve as mentors. In addition to descriptions of each activity, I have made comments about the various forms of sensory experience, communication, and learning incorporated throughout. In other words, the Tapestry co-directors have engaged in the design and implementation of rich forms of multimodal pedagogy.
Table 1: Multimodal activities in the Tapestry volunteer training.
| Activity | Description | Modes |
| “World circle” | Participants write their name in the middle of a circle on a piece of construction paper and fill the rest of the sheet with words and phrases that describe each participant’s world. This activity could inform participants’ introduction of themselves to the group, round-robin style. | Solo writing; large-group sharing |
| Mentor story | In groups of two or three, participants take turns telling a story about an important mentor’s role in their life, while other group members actively listen. Then listeners draw an interpretation of the story, describe it back to the group, and “gift” the drawing to the original storyteller. | Small-group sharing; listening; drawing |
| Guiding principles story | Hannah shares Godly Play-style “visual presentation” introducing Tapestry’s faith-inspired guiding principles and concludes by asking open-ended “wondering questions” to which large group is invited to respond. Objects remain present throughout the day at the front of the room. | Listening to words; looking at objects; large-group sharing |
| Watching and responding to Digital Stories | Participants watch two first-person Digital Stories created by adults who were in foster care as youth. Participants share with a partner “what spoke to you,” and then participants are invited to summarize their partner’s response with the whole group. | Viewing video; listening; small- and large-group sharing |
| Watching and responding to film Removed, in conversation with revisiting the world circles activity | Participants watch film Removed and immediately afterward receive a sheet with their name cut out and placed within someone else’s list of personal experiences from the earlier “World circles” activity. They are invited to share observations and responses with a partner and to summarize their partner’s reflections during large-group sharing. | Viewing video; reading peers’ writing; listening; small- and large-group sharing |
| Mentor qualities activity | Co-director leads large group in brainstorming activity to integrate learning from the day and construct a list of “qualities that you would want to take with you into this work.” | Large-group cooperative conversation |
| Open, honest questions activity | Co-director tells a personal story of experiencing mentorship. Participants respond by asking open, honest questions about the story, and co-director gives feedback on whether the question felt open and honest. Co-director answers some of the questions. | Large-group practice session |
| Tapestry relationship structure diagram | Co-director draws and narrates a schematic diagram of how supportive relationships are structured within Tapestry, including where the organization’s design discourages relationships and how the design is intended to promote health and processing. | Looking at diagrams; listening to explanations; asking questions |