Inspiration from Author Visits: Tips and Web Resources
Jennifer Jones
The fifth and sixth grade students at my school were fortunate to be visited by author Stacy Hillmer. Stacy is the author of five published stories and one book, An Armadillo on My Pillow . What makes this book and Stacy so special is that Stacy is a product of our school district, and she used the talents of students from her elementary school for the illustrations.
Stacy began her presentation by explaining that she writes about what she knows a lot about - what she loves and interests her. She told the fifth and sixth graders that she loves animals and the "playfulness" of words. These two passions inspired her to write a quirky poem about all of the stuffed animals in her bedroom. As a tribute to the elementary school she attended, she returned to seek assistance from students for the illustrations. Students worked ten hours over the course of ten weeks and used water color pencils to complete the drawings. Stacy explained that one of the challenges for the students was to bring out the personality in the animals. She encouraged the students to envision a rhinoceros doing jazzercise, sweatbands and all.
What I loved about Stacy's presentation was the reality of writing that she brought to her audience. Students left the presentation hearing firsthand about what we teach them everyday in writing workshop: to write about what you know. They learned about all of the research the students and Stacy did to depict the animals appropriately. In a slide show that Stacy shared of the making of the book, our students saw the illustrators working at art tables surrounded by animal books and all of the research they did. They learned that writing a book takes time as Stacy explained the six-month process of writing the poem, illustrating, and finally publishing, and that she didn't start on Monday and finish on Friday.
Finally, Stacy wrapped up her presentation with a response to an audience question. One of the sixth graders asked Stacy, "Can anyone be a writer?" Her response was pure and perfect: "Yes, anyone can be a writer. It just takes practice and you have to write about what you know and love." This made me think about our writing workshops, and that one of our central goals is to help kids live like writers. What better way to help them live like writers than to learn firsthand the arduous project writing can be, and see the benefits that come from that hard work? If you can't bring in a published author to your classroom, remember the power in your students watching you work through the writing process and living like a writer. The themes in Stacy's presentation are themes that every classroom teacher of writing can model for their students. We can all write about what know and love, and give students the choice to write about their passions and what intrigues them most.
We were lucky that Stacy's aunt teaches at our school, so organizing a visit by an author turned out to be pretty simple. If you don't have the luxury of an author or an author's family in your midst, you might consider some of the following suggestions and websites to help you explore the possibilities for author visits:
- Talk to owners of local bookstores in your area. They are the first to know what authors will be visiting when, and might have some additional insight for planning. They might even let you bring your students to their bookstore as part of a cost-sharing agreement.
- Involve your building PTA/PTO in your search and to help with the budget.
- Coordinate your efforts with more than one building in your district to share the expenses.
- Sift through local neighborhood papers that report on the arts to keep an eye out for authors coming to your area.
- Read this article from Scholastic step-by-step process to help you bring in an author. The detailed guide also has fundraising suggestions for helping with expenses:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/tradebooks/inviteanauthor.htm
- Save on the cost of a face-to-face author visit by exploring a "virtual visit" through this weblink: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic111.htm
- The Children's Book Council has more information about authors and availability:
http://www.cbcbooks.org/contacts/visits.html
Author visits are certainly a lot of work for literacy leaders, but the benefits and enthusiasm for writing they generate are truly worth the effort - not just for students, but for our colleagues who also are inspired and renewed by them.
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