Hidden Treasure Encourages Pre-Workshop Reading

Research shows that with pre-exposure of upcoming new ideas prior to a learners’ workshop and constant priming throughout the workshop, retention can be increased by up to 34% (Source: Mack, A, Rock 1998 – Inattentional Blindness).  In other words, if learners come into contact with new ideas and terminology prior to the time you help them uncover these ideas fully, you can help increase learners’ retention by up to 34%.  (There is a hidden word embedded within this tip, eMail us the hidden word and we will send you a bonus tip.)

So what do we have to do to facilitate this increase?  Well, you are probably already doing some of this by sending learners pre-reading, pre-workshop activities and by introducing key words during the morning of a workshop prior to looking in-depth at these during the afternoon.  The only problem we face here is, how do we encourage learners to read pre-reading material before they attend the workshop?

Simple strategies to ensure learners read the pre-reading materials prior their workshop

• Print pre-reading material in a bound A5 booklet format rather than separate A4 sheets.  This format looks easy to read, is handy to carry and read on the bus or train, it stands out being a different size and the pages stay in the right order by being bound.
• Create an eye-catching front cover with the title of their workshop and a relevant graphic.
• Use a large font to make the text look easy to ready and include lots of ‘white space’ in the design ie move away from squashed up, densely packed, uninviting material.
• Print in colour to add to the appeal of the booklet.
• Encourage learners to write on the pre-reading materials ie leave areas for notes and indicate that you want them to write their own thoughts by putting headings such as ‘What I still need to know about xxx’ or ‘How this idea might help me in my work’.
  Send articles from recent relevant newspaper or magazine relating to the workshop, keeping the date of print to show how up-to-date the workshop will be.

Bonus strategy

In the workshop welcome letter you send learners along with the re-reading booklet, why not let them know that there is buried treasure within the reading and when they come to the workshop they should introduce themselves to you and give the secret ‘treasure’ word.  You will then give them their treasure (a prize) for finding the secret word.  Imagine you have a 30-page pre-reading A5 booklet.  On page 2 you could include the sentence ‘Congratulations, you are on the right road to uncovering buried treasure’, on page 15 you might embed ‘Keep going, you are nearly there’ and on page 27 you could say ‘Neuron is the magic keyword word you need to say to me upon arrival at your workshop.  (Neuron is not the hidden word in this example – keep reading).  When learners arrive, reward those that have given you the keyword with real treasure, make this something worthwhile that they will want.  These learners will feel rewarded for completing their pre-reading and will continue to pre-read (as well as retain more from the workshop – the true treasure).  For those that do not offer the keyword, you can be sure that when they see the treasure they could have received, they will certainly be doing their pre-reading ready for next time (just remember to keep changing the position and keyword of the hidden treasure).