Workshops: We can do a workshop for you.

The Textmapping Workshops focus on using long paper scrolls and colored markers for reading comprehension and content area instruction. The workshops have been highly rated by teachers [http://www.textmapping.org/comments.html] from 37 states, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Alberta and Ontario, Canada.

The workshops are organized around a series of hands-on exercises and games. You will be encouraged to work with text in new ways that engage a wide range of sensory modalities (auditory, visual, tactile, and kinaesthetic). The instructional approach is fun and fast moving, and emphasizes language-intensive, problem based, differentiated instruction in a cooperative learning setting.

The goal of the workshops is to teach teachers how to use hands-on interactions with text to apprehend comprehension - literally, to perceive, seize, and manipulate it - then scaffold off of these physical interactions to teach students the cognitive skills and strategies that drive comprehension.

The techniques taught are low-tech, low-cost, easy to learn and easy to teach. They are particularly useful for reaching struggling readers, but are also effective in the regular classroom setting.

The room is important. See our room requirements, below.

See our general information.

For pricing and availability, contact: .

General Information

Session Timing and Duration:

• Lecture/presentations can run up to 1 hour.
• Workshops can run from 90 minutes to 6 hours.
• Sessions can be repeated several times in a day.
• Plan on allowing approximately 30 minutes of clean-up and set-up time between sessions.

Attendance: There is a practical, somewhat-flexible limit of 30 participants per workshop - the reason being that there are fewer opportunities for personal attention in larger workshops, and this can impact the overall quality of the experience for the participants. That said, a fully-booked workshop can represent a significant savings in terms of the per-participant cost. There is no limit on audience size for lectures and presentations.

Savings Strategies: You can save money by partnering with other schools and organizations in your area:

• Invite outside enrollment: Invite other schools and organizations in your area to enroll in your workshop. Charge them a fee that reasonably reflects the true total cost of the workshop on a per-participant basis. This is a good strategy to use if you think that the enrollment from your district will be substantial, but still less than the maximum number of participants allowed (see Attendance). This enables you to turn the opportunity cost of a few empty seats into a source of revenue that will reduce the total cost to your district; it means that you can ensure that staff members from your district will have a spot in the workshop, and it enables you to retain control over such details as location and timing.
• Share the travel costs: Coordinate with other schools and organizations in your area. Book your own workshop in coordination with your partners, so that collectively you are booking two or more consecutive days. This enables you to share the travel expenses amongst the partners. This is a good way for large districts - who are likely to have full enrollment (see Attendance) - to capture some savings.
• Combine your resources: Join with other schools and organizations in your area. Work together to pick a single location for the workshop and decide amongst you how to apportion the cost. For example, you and two partners might agree to a straight three-way split, or you might decide to split the cost on the basis of actual enrollment, with each partner paying on the basis of how many participants they send. This is a good strategy to use if you are a small district and can not afford to pay for a workshop on your own.

Here is a list of other schools and organizations with whom you might consider partnering for savings:

• public and private schools
• county and state special services programs
• teacher training programs at local colleges and universities
• reading skills centers at local community colleges
• professional organizations for educators
• local literacy and tutoring organizations
• school boards and parent groups

For pricing and availability, contact: .

Room Requirements

• The more room, the better. This is not a "sit-down" workshop. Participants will be moving about, sometimes clustering into groups and sometimes working individually.
• A large classroom will work best. If one is not available, a library, large conference room, or lecture hall will serve nicely. In a pinch, a well-lighted school lunch room, all-purpose room, or gym will serve.
• The room should have sufficient overhead lighting to allow people to read comfortably.
• No stadium-style lecture halls, please. The stairs can be dangerous for people who are walking around as they are reading, conversing, and otherwise distracted by the ongoing activities of the workshop.
• Ideally, there should be 12 linear feet of working space - tables, backboards/whiteboards and desks are all good - for every 4 participants. For example, a workshop with 28 participants would be well served by fourteen 6-foot tables or eight 6-foot tables plus three 12-foot blackboards
• For the presenter, there should be (in addition to the above) a wall-mounted blackboard or whiteboard, minimum 12 feet wide, with chalk or markers and an eraser; an overhead projector and screen (not blocking the whiteboard); and an easel and pad of easel paper.
• If permission is required from hotel, conference center or facilities management in order for the presenter to be able to tape posters and scrolls to the walls of a room, this must be obtained in writing and a copy of the permission grant must be provided to the presenter. The presenter uses masking tape and will be careful when pulling down all posted materials. He has never damaged a wall in over 10 years of workshops. That said, the presenter will not offer any guarantees, and will not agree to be responsible for repairs.
• If any of the above requirements can not be met, the presenter must be notified no later than one week before the scheduled workshop, presentation or conference so that there will be sufficient time to make alternate arrangements which will enable him to function effectively within the constraints of the available facilities.

For pricing and availability, contact: .