This final section of the manual provides an overview of the skills educators are expected to have and outlines some of the best practices for working with diverse audiences. After you have finished reading this section of the manual, you will be ready to begin training for your first tour.

Educators are responsible for knowing all of the information in the Tour Content for each tour. In addition, educators should familiarize themselves with the information in the Tenement Encyclopedia, the Educator Newsletters, and other educational resources available.

Educators are responsible for ensuring that all visitors comply with the Museum rules. Rules should be announced at the beginning of every tour and enforced throughout the tour. This is important to ensure the preservation of the building and also to make sure all of the visitors have the best possible tour experience. Educators must be sure that no one wanders away from the group and be aware of where everyone in the tour group is at all times. If someone needs to leave the tour early, the educator should escort him/her out of the building. If the educator needs assistance from another staff member, s/he should use the walkie talkies available on every floor to contact the Tour Coordinator.

One of the responsibilities of the educator is to tell a compelling and coherent story. The story should have a clear overarching theme as well as a beginning, middle, and end. There should be effective transitions from one space to another and one story to another. The theme should be introduced at the beginning, reiterated throughout the tour, and summarized at the end. The Program Outline document available for each of the tours provides suggestions about how to tell the story effectively.

The educator should have a good balance between presenting information and engaging visitors in discussion. The educator should begin the tour by asking visitors to share information about themselves, such as why they came to the Museum or what they are interested in learning. Throughout the tour, the educator should: have visitors share the prior knowledge they brought with them to the Museum; elicit responses/reactions from the visitors to the space and to the information presented; and promote meaningful dialogue among visitors. The educator should refrain from asking factual questions that have a correct answer, but should ask a few carefully crafted open-ended questions that, by definition, have no correct answer, but rather ask visitors to share knowledge based on personal experience, beliefs, or opinions about the key issues the tour addresses.

The Museum is committed to being as accessible to as many diverse visitors as possible. This includes adults, children, people with different learning styles, people whose first language is not English, and people with disabilities. This section provides guidelines for working with diverse audiences.

These tips are derived from various issues of The Docent Educator.

• Adult visitors are looking for opportunities to make their own decisions, share what they know, think and feel, and actively learn and grow. Therefore during adult tours, educators should provide chances for choice, engagement, questioning, reflection, interaction, and wonder.
• Give adult visitors time to slow down and think about what they are seeing. When the group enters a room, give them a few moments to look around and see what is there before you start telling its story. This helps to accommodate different learning styles, lets visitors get a feel for the apartment and its contents and gives them a moment to gather their thoughts before proceeding.

Educational experiences for children must be age-appropriate, based on the child's level of physical, social and cognitive development. Keep this in mind when you are doing school programs as well as when you are leading public tours for a group that includes. Don't forget when you are giving a public tour that you have a responsibility to make sure that the children as well as the adults have an engaging and interesting educational experience. The following developmental guidelines and associated teaching style tips should help the educator educate young people of all ages more effectively.

Children, ages 5-6: Are eager to please, enjoy familiar subject material, and understand concepts when related to personal associations. On the other hand, they have no sense of historical time, and may find it difficult to understand that different people may have different points of view. They may have a beginning awareness of the existence of other cultures and people, but don't quite understand what it means in terms of everyday life.

• Whenever possible, use objects and images to narrate the tour and convey ideas.
• Be concrete and specific.
• Instead of trying to present a series of connected ideas or information, introduce one idea and reinforce it repeatedly, in different ways.
• Relate concepts to experiences connected to the child's own reality.
• Engage these visitors through interaction: role-playing, "make-believe."
• Use simple language.

Children, ages 7-10: Are self-reliant, sociable, out-going, cooperate with other children and can work in teams, understand new information especially when related to familiar concepts or personal experiences, and have active imaginations and increasing attention spans. On the other hand, this group can be critical of others, are sometime shy when they are the center of attention.

Children, ages 11-13: Begin to make informed and personal judgments, have an increased ability to perceive the world outside their own, like participating in the discovery of new ideas and finding out about other people's way of doing things. They may, though, be very self-conscious and fearful of appearing foolish, so they may be hesitant to volunteer ideas.

• Emphasize tour questions that have multiple "right" answers, (rather than those with only one correct response). Use questions that accommodate a variety of responses and validate all answers.
• Do not fear the long silence that may ensue as you wait for responses to questions. Eventually, someone in the group will be brave enough to speak out.
• Encourage visitors to ask their own questions throughout the tour.
• Add humor to tour presentations.

Teenagers, ages 14-17: May participate well in lively discussions when their ideas seem well-considered, are confident in their self-awareness and have well-developed perceptual skills, if engaged and well-mannered, can be toured as though they were adults in most circumstances. Teenagers are concerned with establishing their own identity, though they are very susceptible to peer group pressure.

• All of the above tips (for children, ages 11-13) apply.
• Involve teenagers by asking them questions about their lives and interests and relating the information to tour concepts.
• Ask these visitors to tell the educator what information, opinions, and ideas they already have about the tour topics.

Final note about working with children: Don't make the mistake of underestimating the children on your tour by assuming they will not be able to discuss difficult social issues. Children often have strong, insightful, and interesting opinions about the issues raised on the tour, and it is your job as the educator to encourage them to share and discuss those opinions.

Group tours in various foreign languages are available by advance reservation. For foreign language tour information and prices, visitors should call 212-431-0233, x 241. Foreign language guidebooks in various languages for Getting By and Piecing it Together are available in the Visitors Center. Typed English language texts of tours are also available at the admissions desk at 97 Orchard for those visitors who are more comfortable with written English than with spoken English.

When you have people on your tour whose first language is not English, please keep the following tips in mind:

• If someone is translating your tour into another language, pause briefly between sentences so that there's time to translate your statements.
• Speak slowly. Even if you think you are speaking slowly, it is probably not slowly enough.
• Use very simple and short sentences.
• Ask directed questions to make sure the visitors understand you.
• When you ask questions, allow extra time for visitors to formulate responses.
• Repeat and clarify important points.
• After each major point, pause to give students a chance to ask questions and absorb what you said.
• Refrain from using difficult vocabulary words. When you do, be sure to explain them.
• Whenever possible, use gestures to demonstrate what you are talking about.
• Use visual materials as much as possible (photos, census records, etc.).
• When you are talking about things in the apartments, point to them. Use the handling objects to help illustrate your point.

In 1997 almost 22 percent of the U.S. population aged 15 or older had a disability. This means that many visitors who tour the Museum have some level of disability. Frequently, disabilities are not visible. For example, a person of any age may tire easily or have difficulty climbing stairs. Many people have difficulty seeing when light levels are as low as they are in the hallways of 97 Orchard. Many people have learning disabilities.

For this reason, educators should always:

• Let all visitors know assistive listening equipment is available at the beginning of a tour.
• Let all visitors know chairs are available inside the tenement.
• Offer large print documents and transcripts of audio recordings to everyone.
• Make sure visitors can see the educator's face by not turning away while talking. People who read lips need to be able to see the educator's face to follow the tour.
• Refrain from talking while the lights are off in the hallway. Again, people who read lips need to be able to see the educator's face to follow the tour. Also, when working with a Sign Language interpreter, visitors will need to see the interpreter.
• Speak clearly and at a moderate pace.

The techniques that help to clearly communicate to people with disabilities should be practiced at all times. They improve tours for the entire tour group.

• At all times, treat the adult visitor as an adult and deal with him/her directly. Talk directly to the person with the disability, not to his/her companions or aides.
• Make eye contact and introduce yourself.
• Make every person visiting the Museum feel equally welcome.
• Ask before you give assistance. If you aren't sure if help is needed or what kind of help to give, ask the person with the disability. Don't make assumptions about what the visitor is or is not able to do. The best judge of the type of assistance or accommodation needed is the person with the disability.