Based on a nation-wide survey of over 600 teachers, librarians, administrators and parents who had hosted author visits, the following information about author visits was gleaned. (Note that “Author” includes children’s authors, author/illustrators or illustrators)

Top benefits of an author visit:

1. Motivates students to read more (91%)
2. Inspires creativity and expression (75%)
3. Motivates students to write more (70%)

Top obstacles to hosting an author visit:

1. Money (88%)
2. Time to organize a visit (45%)
3. Time taken away from classroom instruction (26%)

Roles of those who have hosted author visits:

1. Librarian – school (49%)
2. Teacher (27%)
3. Librarian – public (7%)
4. Parent – program planner (6%)
5. Administrator (3%)
6. Other (16%)

Over 200 respondents also commented on the specific impact author visits have had on their school, library, or individual students.

1) Students and faculty have many types of strong, positive social/emotional reactions to the author visit.

• Inspiration
• Empowerment
• Students and faculty create long-lasting memories of the author visit
• Feeling of meeting a celebrity; feeling special
• Connecting with students and teachers on a personal level (one student invited the author to her birthday party)
• Connection with students who are different:
  • Reluctant readers
  • Students with special needs
  • Ethnic and Language minorities
  • Students learn about persistence

2) Teachers have been able to find direct connections between the visit and the school curriculum.

3) Author visits encourage reading among students in several ways:

• Librarians see increased circulation of books, especially by author who visited.
• Reluctant readers read more.
• Students read outside of their comfort zone – (i.e., reading more challenging books)

4) Author visits encourage writing at school in several ways:

• More writing in the classroom: students as authors
• Students understand the need for revision.
• Students learn that even published authors have to revise and struggle with writing.
• Students learn about persistence in writing.
• Students understand what a book is and the process of writing a book.

5) Initial author visits have led to other larger literacy events (i.e. book fairs, projects, and students publishing books) many of which engaged the wider community outside of the school in literature-related activities.

For a PDF of this information, go here

As part of my school visit program, I enjoy doing writing workshops with kids. One of my workshops is called, “Research Is the Writer’s Edge: Finding Evidence, Finding Stories.” This workshop helps students generate a research plan, develop observational skills, practice finding evidence to back up statements that they make, and create a work based on information they have researched. It relates to the many projects they do in their classroom. Here’s how I do it:

1. I have students make a list of “wonder words” — i.e. “I wonder WHO . . ., I wonder WHAT (etc.)
2. Next, I project an image related to research I’m doing or have done and give students a minute to write down as many wonder questions about it as they can. For this, it’s best to use images that they are not familiar with, such as unusual animals or historical scenes with kids in them.
3. In the next step, students share their wonder questions either in small groups or with the whole class. A recorder writes the wonder question on the board or chart paper. 
4. In the discussion that follows, I have students try to answer wonder questions using the image itself, So, if the question were, “I wonder where it lives?” they use clues in the image to make an educated guess.
5. When students make a guess about the image, I always, say, “What do you see that makes you say that?” Students soon figure out that a question such as, “I wonder what the animal is thinking” is not answerable, but could be explored in fiction.
6. The session ends by giving students a chance to turn the information they’ve gathered into a short work to share in small groups.
7. The follow-up would be to encourage students find answers to their own questions generated in the class.

The overarching “lesson” is that all writing begins with information gleaned from research. And information can come from personal experiences (what a wooden floor looks like vs a carpeted floor) or from outside sources (interviews, books, primary sources, art, etc.) Also, once you know something about an animal, person object or event, you can use that information to create a nonfiction article, a fictional story, a poem and more.

Because my published books are fiction, it surprises kids to find out that I’ve also written nonfiction for magazines. My research always begins with wondering — and chasing down answers to my own questions is fun. . My goal is to help students catch the research bug!

What kind of writing workshop do you do?