Press Release

Georgia Department of Education recommends Scrolls and Textmapping

The Georgia Department of Education is recommending scrolls and textmapping as a means of scaffolding learning within the fifth-grade curriculum for English Language Arts. The recommendation appears in a Unit Framework and Instructional Plan published by the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) on the department's website for educators, georgiastandards.org.

In their background information for the Instructional Plan, the GaDOE explains that textmapping...

"...aids in the improvement of reading comprehension skills instruction by allowing students to see the complete text of an article, short story, picture book, or excerpt of a longer text by laying the pages end-to-end creating a scroll.... Text Mapping has a great deal of potential for use in the classroom to help students understand how text works." (p. 34).

Dave Middlebrook, founder of The Textmapping Project, commented that...

"Scrolls are an excellent book format to use for teaching both comprehension strategies and course content. When a book - such as a picture book or textbook chapter - is fully unrolled, students can see what is, quite literally, a strategic view of the text. It is a simple but powerful way of displaying book content. It helps teachers improve the quality of instruction, and it's fun. Kids love scrolls, and so do teachers."

Cornerstone Literacy has been using scrolls with schools in Muscogee County, GA, since 2009. When asked about this, Mr. Middlebrook commented,

"I am pleased to see the GADoE and Georgia Standards following Cornerstone's lead and adopting my work on a statewide basis."

For more information:

• email Dave Middlebrook:
• visit The Textmapping Project home page
• read our introduction to scrolls and textmapping
• read comments from teachers and students
• follow the links along the right edge of the screen, under Who Cites Us

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