In the last week of term 1, I visited West Beach Primary School at the request of librarian Deb Carmichael and the Year 2/3/4 teachers from Rooms 7 and 9. The classes had been doing an author study on me and wanted to present me with something and ask me some questions.
Some of the questions included: What do I like best about writing? When did I decide I wanted to be a writer? When did I write my first story?
At the end of the session the group of students had some story ideas that they thought I might like to write about and interestingly enough I have already written about a few of them! Now we just have to wait and see.
I was presented with a book of work the students had done as part of their author study. They had been given choice of : writing a fan letter, creating a comic strip for one of my books, creating a story board, writing a book review, creating an author information card, designing a new/different book cover, creating a biography poster, writing a comparative text comparing two of my books or creating a book creator.
The WBPS booklet was full of a wonderful combination of all of these activities.
So a huge thank you to: Dakota, Lily, Hamish, Jimmy, Ashton, Lachie, Zara, Bailey P, Isaac, Zane, Faith, Erophey, Tehei, Holly, Tom, Ryan, Mason, Jack, Chelsea, Cooper, Marissa, Kohta, Gracie, Lara, Josh, Mikayla, William, Hannah, Luke, Will, Izzy, Max, Bailey, Elliot, Ali, Pauline, Prabhet, Bridgette, Jasmine, Marta, Lara M, Kai, Emily, Molly, Tyson and their teachers, and to Deb.
Hopefully I will be back at WBPS later in the year to speak with all of the classes.
That sounds like a lovely visit. I love that the students had prepared questions and their activities sound so awesome. As I ready myself to one day do school visits, I am trying to come up with ideas of things other than teaching kids to write. I am not a teacher. I want to engage them differently and get them creating. So some of these ideas sound terrific. Like the comic strip or a new cover etc. Do you ever do school visits, Jane, that are not about how to write? Thanks. Kaye.
Most of my school visits are considered “Author talks” where I talk about my books and where I get my ideas from. I also use lots of props and visuals.