Category Archives: case study

This refers to how specific authors and illustrators were assisted in problem-solving their school visit needs.

A Vibrant Author Visit Partnership: Giffen Memorial Elementary School & First Presbyterian Church of Albany

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00-Giffen Author DAy - ListeningtoRoseKentFor years, various writing projects brought me to the New York State Museum on Madison Avenue in Albany, New York. Not once had I taken a left-hand turn onto Pearl Street on my way up the hill to the library. If I had, I would have bumped smack into Giffen Memorial Elementary School, a Title 1 school that is the largest in the city.  Even still, from the outside, I wouldn’t have known Giffen’s juicy surprise: that it hosts a vibrant annual author visit program through a community partnership initiated by the First Presbyterian Church of Albany, New York.

I found out about this program by accident when Debra Fagans, Chairperson of Author/Illustrator Day, contacted me via email, asking if I’d be willing to promote the event scheduled for April 2015. I said I’d not only promote it, but that I’d love to be a part of it. I was delighted to be included with Katherine Paterson, James Earl Ransome and Lesa Cline-Ransome as a visiting author at their third annual event.

Bottom line: I traveled to Albany, had a blast, and was really impressed with this program. Why?
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Podcast: Evergreen School Visit Advice

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Brain Burps About Books - LogoGrab your earbuds and turn up your speakers for some “evergreen” school visit advice. This is an interview that the one-and-only Katie Davis did with me on her podcast, Brain Burps About Books.  Katie is a writer, an illustrator, and a video marketing maven (her description — and it’s true!) Her podcasts include interviews with publishing industry leaders on the creation, promotion and writing of children’s books.

This interview is an hour long. In case your time is short and you want to jump to the bits that are of greatest interest to you, I’ve provided a list of topics we discussed and approximate times in the podcast they appear (minutes & seconds).
Episode #31: School Visit Questions with Expert Alexis O’Neill

00:00  General announcements
05:54 Introduction of Alexis O’Neill, SchoolVisitExperts.com
08:00 Importance of authors being compensated for work
09:01 Surprising world of school visits following publication
09:30 Selling vs giving. Expertise & intent
13:54 AUDIENCE QUESTION: What’s the best way to get school visits?
17:48 Fees & discounts
28:53 AUDIENCE QUESTION: Crowd control. How do you deal with loud, noisy assemblies? How do you get their attention and respect in a humorous way?
35:45 AUDIENCE QUESTION: How can I connect with schools? Mailings fall flat. Other suggestions?
42:18 AUDIENCE QUESTION: How can I develop a program to create an on-going relationship with a school?
46:26 AUDIENCE QUESTION: How do you get in front of the decision-makers – teachers & librarians?
52.10 AUDIENCE QUESTION: How can we promote to schools and keep “green”? Who’s the first contact at a school?
57.22 AUDIENCE QUESTION: I donated a school visit. Media will be coming. What I should I be prepared for?
01:02:05 AUDIENCE QUESTION: How do you know what to charge for the different events? Do you think it’s important to include kids in the presentation or is it okay just to do a PowerPoint to the kids?
01:09:21 END of Podcast

Go Deeper: Multi-session Writing Workshops

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If you’re like me, we do school visits that are typically one-shot, Big Events. For example, my visits typically involve doing large-group assemblies and smaller writing workshops for upper-grade kids all on the same day. But here’s something I’ve done recently that I love:  working with a single classroom in my local community over a period of time with primary school kids.

WORKING WITH FIRST GRADERS: In 2014, I took part in a creative collaboration with a seasoned first grade teacher, Kristen Nordstrom. We met at a conference and wondered if first graders would be able and willing to apply revision techniques to make their nonfiction writing “pop.”

Kristen scheduled me for three sessions with the kids in late spring. They were about to work on their African Animals project. Part of my role was to add “star power” to the mix — a published author who has worked through the exact same process that they were about to begin.

Session 1 (1:15 hrs): I demonstrated my research process with the class.

  • I showed them a photo of a horned lizard and had them generate wonder questions based on an image of the animal.
  • We practiced how to use those questions as a research guide.
  • I shared my rough drafts, the “final” piece, the revisions I had to make as requested by the editor, and the published article.
  • We generated examples of “juicy” verbs to catch a reader’s attention.

Session 2 (1:30 hrs): I visited the classroom 5 weeks later. In the meantime, Kristen was doing the heavy-lifting. She taught mini-lessons on verbs, similes and metaphors, research and drafting. I met with small groups and gave feedback on their works in progress. The purpose was to help them come up with attention-getting openings.

Session 3 (1:30 hrs): At my last visit, kids shared their final books with me and reflected on their writing and revising process. They were proud of their opening “hooks.”

To see the results, take a look at a short film featuring the young writers, filmed by older students:

This project led to Kristen and I doing teacher workshops for her school district and for the California Reading & Literature Project at California Lutheran University. 14 Lang Ranch - Teacher Workshop

WORKING WITH SECOND AND THIRD GRADERS: In 2015, I did a collaboration with another creative teacher, Kathi Byington, in her grade 2/3 combination class. They chose to do a biography project featuring American peacemakers.

Session 1 (1 hr.): Meet-the-author / research process introduction

15 Aspen Projects - Frederick Douglass & Harriet TubmanSessions 2, 3, and 4 (1 hr each):  Students met with me in “we-are-all-authors” critique groups. We shared feedback. The goal was for each to produce a book to enter into the Young Authors’ Faire sponsored by the Ventura County Reading Association. http://www.vcrareading.org/  As with Kristen, Kathi did many lessons with students in-between my visits. I served more to reinforce and extend than to relay information.

Session 5 (1:30 hrs): Publication Party. We “launched” their books with treats. The kids talked with me individually about their projects and writing. The result was a deeper connection with these young writers than could have been accomplished in a single-day visit. The students invited me to their “Living Museum” and “ A Midsummer Night’s Dream” performances, and met me at the local Young Authors’ Fair.

 

15 YAF - Aspen Elem - Kathi Byington & Alexis O'NeillWhy not talk with a local teacher and see if you can forge a creative collaboration in the next school year! Or if you’re already doing this, please leave a comment below and share what you’ve been doing. I’d love to hear from you.

How I Got Back Into the School Visit Game

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Guest Post by Joanne Rocklin

  “While I’d been gone . . . kids had been born who’d actually never seen an old-fashioned slide projector! I was riddled with anxiety.”

 Cover_Orangestreet_Joanne_RocklinI hadn’t published for a few years, but if you love writing and it’s one of the few things you do well, eventually you go back to it. The good news is, I did sell three novels. The bad news is, I had to completely revamp my school presentations to include my new work.

While I’d been gone, school visits, it seemed to me, had morphed into productions involving a great deal of new technical wizardry. Kids had been born who’d actually never seen an old-fashioned slide projector! I was riddled with anxiety. So I spent one happy afternoon reading old posts on the SchoolVisitExperts.com site (an activity I highly recommend) and I began to feel much more confident.  Certain posts and topics were especially important to me:

Tips on Crowd Control

For some reason I’d forgotten that I’d spent a large part of my life as a school teacher, clinical psychologist and parent. Reading old posts, I was reminded that kids themselves haven’t changed. Crowd control is just a matter of knowing the right tricks –humor, a well-placed pause, signals, and some clever, pointed questions to chatty kids help a lot.

Ideas for Great Beginnings

I went straight to the “Great Beginnings” post in the archives–it’s terrific. It was a reminder to Mitzie_Zoe_Puppets_Oaklandme that openings set the mood and the stage. The beginning of the presentation should be engaging, and most importantly, show that you yourself are glad to be there. Some authors begin with a song, some with humor, some with visuals, or costumes, some with intriguing questions. What this post made me realize was that I already had a great beginning – why was I throwing the baby out with the bath water? Or in this case, the silly cat puppet who had problems with his own writer’s block, a puppet that kids have always loved, no matter what their ages.

Lessons on “Shaping the Presentation”

Cover_ZOOK_HC_Joanne_RocklinHere was the post written just for me, and all other authors who are invited to visit schools but need to be reminded why. Why do we do school visits?  Because we are authors! We have lots to say about our books, about our day, about our desks, our pets, our childhoods and about those secrets we’re really excited to share. And here’s the phrase I needed to read: “. . .if you’re not a wizard at PowerPoint”…(Yes! Yes! That’s me!) and then the article goes on to enumerate all the other ways to make my presentation exciting without fancy-schmancy technology: use props, interact with the kids, think of the presentation itself as a story with a great beginning, an interesting middle, and a definite ending. I could do that!

Then a funny thing happened on the way to my school visits. I outlined everything I wanted to do and say. I streamlined my old school presentation and shaped it all like a story. I yak about how my pets have helped improved my writing, interspersed with student participation and the use of props and my trusty cat puppet. 

Relieved of the burden of “having” to use the new technology, I decided to trot over to the Apple store to learn how to fool around with the new Keynote software. Just, well, just because. Just because it didn’t matter as much anymore. And, just for fun. And it was! I fell in love. I am now an official Geek, the proud possessor of a presentation with a certain amount of bells and whistles and music and, yes, piped-in cat yowls.  I may have overdone it, but as I said, it was fun.  And hopefully, if I’m having fun, so will the kids.

Thanks, Alexis!

Disclaimer: Let me assure you that Alexis O’Neill did not pay me to say wonderful things about this site. I did offer to mail her a brisket pot roast but she refused; that’s how much integrity she has.  Or maybe she’s a vegetarian…

Joanne_Rocklin_aug_2010-330JOANNE ROCKLIN is the author of middle grade novels and early readers. Her novel The Five Lives Of Our Cat Zook won the 2013 SCBWI Golden Kite for Fiction, and her novel, One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street won numerous awards including the FOCAL Award from the Los Angeles Public Library and the California Library Association Beatty Award. Joanne has a doctorate in psychology and is a former elementary school teacher. For several years she taught a popular class in writing children’s books at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. She gives presentations to schools, libraries, bookstores and other organizations. http://www.joannerocklin.com/

 

When a Volunteer Freezes

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 So, this kid waves his arm frantically. He is volunteering to come to the front of the school assembly to help out. I call on him and he pops to the front of the room. I put glasses on him as a costume. He turns to the audience – and freezes. There is no moving him. He’s my main character. And if my activity is to be successful, he has to move!

 The last thing I want to do is have a kid lose face in front of peers. So I have to think quickly of what to do.

 First I have to figure out, has the size of the audience scared him?

 I stand in front of him, blocking his view of the room. I whisper, “Do you want to do this part?” If he shakes her head, “No,” then I say, “Would you like to play another part instead?” If he says yes, I give him some smaller part to play. If he says, “No,” I ask, “Would you like to help me choose the person to take your place?” If he says, “Yes,” then I quickly say to the audience, that our volunteer “has decided to choose someone to take his place.” I then invite him to sit close by. This way, he can still feel part of the action and doesn’t have to do the long walk back to where his class is sitting.

 But what if the issue is that he has limited English?

 Again, with my back to the audience, I talk to him. I tell him not to worry – I’ll show him what to do. When we do speaking parts, I whisper the words to him and we repeat them together.

 And finally, what if the volunteer freezes but won’t relinquish the role?

 Let me tell you about this kindergartner . . .

 I was in a room with two classes of afternoon kindergartners together – about 50 kids. I had all the kids stand in a circle. The girl who volunteered to play a bully character, called Mean Jean, was to stomp around the circle wearing a crown and make mean faces at the kids. The kids were to act afraid of her. But when she got to the 12:00 position on the circle, she stopped, stood stock still and began to sob. I still don’t know what caused this – perhaps a classmate said something unkind to her? So I called her back. I asked if she’d like someone else to play Mean Jean. But she refused to relinquish the crown. She continued to cry. We were at an impasse. Then I asked if she’d like to choose someone to play the part with her. She nodded. So my two main characters had “twins” playing the roles and the tears disappeared.

 There is bound to be a time in your school visit experience when a volunteer freezes. But if you have a few strategies for thawing them, then the show can go on!

Case Study: A Happy Ending

FAla & Roosevelt in Car

F.D.R. and his dog, Fala - the subject of one of Elizabeth Van Steenwyk's books.

My favorite present ever is when writers and illustrators tell me of how I helped them be successful in some part of their career. So in the spirit of the holiday season, I’m sharing this happy ending “gift” I received from Elizabeth Van Steenwyk.who sought my school visit advice this past summer.  (See post on 09 01 10,  “Case Study: Designing a Program for First and Second Graders”)

Elizabeth was invited to speak at her hometown school in Galesburg, Illinois. But she “felt out of touch with my audience,” she wrote to her agent.  “After hundreds of school visits over the years, I suddenly needed guidance so I called my friend, Alexis O’Neill who has become an expert in the field.  Over the telephone she said, ‘You’ve got a lot of dogs in your body of work.’  And she was right.  In the space of fifteen minutes we crafted a presentation around dogs in my books and the rest was a piece of cake.”

In a library setting, Elizabeth gave three talks to students in grades 2-6. Each talk changed slightly with the age of the children.

She began her presentation with a PowerPoint scrolling as the kids arrived.  The visuals showed dogs and their owners — teachers, family, movie stars, rock singers, and historical dogs.  Elizabeth writes, “It kept the noise level down and attention locked in place. The PowerPoint, created by the librarian, was absolutely great and kicked off my talk perfectly.”  Elizabeth then talked about her dogs books and segued into what she always includes: constructing a book with suggestions from her audience, a Q and A,  and a conclusion which included an invitation to everyone to come up and pet the stuffed animal version of Fala (the subject of one of her books) on their way back to class.

“Every child, all 370 of them, even cool fifth graders came up and petted my stuffed Fala dog,” she says. “That way, I was able to talk or say hello to each and every child.

At the luncheon with the teachers, all the decorations were dog-related:  dog biscuits (for people), paw candy, and tablecloths imprinted with dog pictures. Afterwards, she signed books. “I would call it a successful day all round,” Elizabeth writes. After being out of the loop for a few years, this experienced writer appreciated a little creative brainstorming to get her presentation back on track.

Elizabeth found a way to engage the kids in a new way, focus their attention at the opening of her session and connect with each child individually, eyeball to eyeball.  

I love that the word “present” is in “presentation.” This happy ending is truly a wonderful present!

Joyful holidays to you all!

Case Study: Designing a Program for First and Second Graders

Recently, author Elizabeth Van Steenwyk, who usually talks to intermediate audiences, asked me for advice:

 “I’ve got a school visit scheduled in October . . . I’ll be speaking to fifth graders, but that’s not what has me worried.  The principal wants me to talk to first and second graders as well . . . What do you suggest?  Sing? Dance?  My tap shoes are rusty.” 

Kids love books about animals!

Kids love books about animals!

Among her many books, I discovered that has two book starring dogs – and one is a nonfiction picture book, First Dog Fala, published by Peachtree in 2008.  Fala, a Scottish terrier, was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s loyal dog.  Perfect!  Kids love animals and can really relate to stories about pets.

 This is what we came up with in our brainstorming session:

 Length of presentation: 30 minutes.  (She could ask for 40 minutes and will have 30 minutes by the time the kids file in and get settled.)

 Focus: Showing the difference between a real story (nonfiction) and a made-up story (fiction).

 Sub-focus: How an author finds facts and puts them together to make an interesting book for readers.

 Big-Picture Audience Take-Away: The sheer joy of learning more about a subject that you love – in this case, dogs!

 Making it 3-D: By presenting material on both the visual and auditory level, Elizabeth will reach more kids (and adults, too) and have more fun in the process.  Here are some image possibilities she can use as props and in her PowerPoint show (some of this will require contacting the school ahead of time, but the pay-off will be terrific)

  • Table props:
    • Stuffed animals, the author’s books
  • Music:
    • As kids file in, play a series of songs that feature dogs
  • Images
    • Famous dogs (of presidents, stars, heroes, or heroic dogs, etc.)
    • Illustrator’s dog (now and “back then”)
    • Author with her dog or dogs (especially on when author was a kid)
    • Images from the books including the covers (of course)
    • Historic photos used in research
    • Sketches from illustrator(s) with perhaps reference photos that they used.
    • Dogs of the school’s employees such as the principal, teachers, librarian, custodian, lunch ladies, etc. These can be clicked through fairly fast or even put to music. The kids will love this!  Even if she includes just two or three photos, it will “humanize” the folks at the school for the kids and give conversation starters for a long time to come.

 Classroom Connection: 

  • Before the author visit
    • Ask the teachers or librarian to read the books aloud that will be featured in the assembly.
    • Encourage the teachers to have kids share stories, draw pictures or share photos of their own dogs (or a dog they know if they don’t have one as a pet) and perhaps make a booklet or a bulletin board display.
    • For class discussion, send clips related to President Obama’s family’s quest to find a pet dog.
  • After the author visit
    • Invite kids to write letters to Elizabeth, telling about their favorite part of the assembly, what tips they learned, or share a story about one of their pets.  This kind of authentic writing experience is priceless – and gives kids practice in writing friendly letters.
    • Leave behind a bibliography of picture books – both nonfiction and fiction – that feature dogs.

 These are just a few of the many ways that Elizabeth – or any author for that matter — can make this a great experience for first and second graders. She still has some shaping to do to find her assembly “story arc,” but the visuals can guide her.

 If you have other suggestions, I’d love to hear them! After all, our presentations are always a work-in-progress – right?!

 BIO NOTE: In addition to First Dog Fala, Elizabeth Van Steenwyk is the author of Three Dog Winter, a middle grade novel, countless short stories and two Los Angeles Times stories about dogs, and over 70 books for children.  Two of her books were made into films: The Best Horse and Three Dog Winter.