Sample Workshops from Peggy Albers

With 28 years of experience as an educator committed to multimodal literacy, critical and adolescent literacy, and social justice, Peggy offers a variety of workshops to help teachers and administrators implement theoretically-grounded English language arts and literacy strategies that incorporate technology and multimedia, and support all learners.  Choose one of the workshops described below or contact us to have Dr. Albers deliver a customized workshop that meets the particular needs of the educators in your school. 

Content Area Literacy: Reading for Meaning (Grades 3-12)
In this single or multiple-day workshop, teachers will understand how the reading process works, and how learners make sense of content materials. Teachers will learn the significance of understanding text structures within content materials and reader stances, and how to use these structures and stances to support students’ writing.

See an example of Peggy’s handout for this workshop.

Project Media: Creating Strong Technology-Rich Presentations and Materials (Grades 3-12/ESOL)
In this workshop, teachers learn how to work with PowerPoint, Publisher, and Windows Movie Maker as tools for creating rich presentations and publications on a range of topics. Teachers will learn how to insert images, sounds, music, special effects, and also learn how to create written text that is to the point, professionally presented, and entertaining!

See an example of one of Peggy’s Publisher documents created for Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Becoming Critical Literacy Educators or What’s Critical in Critical Conversations? (Grades K-12)
In this workshop, teachers are introduced to critical literacy and its significance in English language arts curriculum. Through participatory demonstrations, teachers will learn to read a range of texts critically, from language-, art-, film-, music-, to drama-based texts.

See sample slides from her workshop presentation on critical literacy.

Multimodality and the Art in Curriculum Design (Grades K-12/ESOL)
In this workshop, teachers experience the Harlem Renaissance curriculum from a multimodal perspective. They see, feel, hear, and sense this literary movement as writers and authors created it. Teachers will learn how to create a variety of multimodal engagements using PowerPoint, art, drama, and music, along with their language texts, and learn how to integrate multimodality into curriculum.

See an example of how Peggy integrates reading, writing, art, and technology as her k-12 teachers create their version of Uptown by Bryan Collier which they entitle, A-Town.

See a photo of Peggy working with teachers from all over the nation in the NCTE Reading Initiative Summer Institute.

Art, Reading, and Literature (Grades K-12/ESOL)
In this workshop, teachers understand the potential of art as a way to support print-based and multimodal literacy strategies. Through the study of artworks, teachers will learn how to introduce literary terms and reading strategies such as finding the main idea and looking for supporting details, how to engage students in thoughtful and critical conversations about texts, and how to encourage strong and descriptive writing.

See a photo of Peggy working with art, literature and comprehension with preservice teachers.

Reading Art, Reading Lives (Grades K-12/ESOL)
How often do your students create artwork in your classroom? How often are you baffled with their images? Art is often integrated into English language arts (ELA) classes, yet reading artworks is less easy. However, when teachers learn to read the images their students create, such readings can reveal much about students’ lives and literacy practices. Teacheres will examine artworks, and identify aspects that offer insight into students’ lives.

See a photo of Peggy working with Fresno area teachers.

Literature Studies (Grades 4-12)
Many teachers wonder how to conduct strong literature discussions. In this presentation, teachers study several texts, linked by theme or author, and participate in a literature discussion. Following, teachers learn the importance of text sets to engage students in literature studies, and also learn how to design and ask questions that encourage students to think deeply and actively about literature.

Lights, Camera, Action! Windows Movie Maker English Language Arts (Grades 4-12/ESOL)
In this presentation, teachers will learn how to teach with film and create original movies, complete with photos, music, transitions, special effects, titles and credits from their video footage. With knowledge of Windows Movie Maker, teachers can learn how to work with such literary genres as memoir, autobiography, biography, and imaginative storytelling through film.

Hamming it up in the Classroom: Working with Drama and the Oral Language Arts (Grades K-12/ESOL)
In this workshop, teachers will learn how drama and the oral language arts can generate strong engagement from students and elicit deeper levels of comprehension of written texts. Teachers will learn the basic elements involved in working with drama and speech (voice, movement, body position), and how to move written text into readers theater, oral interpretation and short plays. They will understand the important link among speaking, listening and performing engagements that encourage their students to consider text from multiple perspectives.

See examples of how Peggy works with Readers Theater and Langston Hughes’s poetry, and how she adapts a young adult novel into a Readers Theater.