Carmela Dutra's Blog - Posts Tagged "inspiring"

Over the past two months I’ve had the opportunity to visit 5 classrooms, grades 2nd and 3rd. I also have had the opportunity to meet other teachers who expressed interest in having me come and visit their classrooms. Visiting the classrooms was such a wonderful privilege, I had been sharing some of the photos on my various social media pages. Each time I posted one I was asked more than once to tell them about the visit. So I thought I would take a few moments to tell all of you about these wonderful visits.

First I have to give a big thank you to a dear friend of mine Irma P. She took the initiative to reach out to the teachers of her niece and nephew. By her doing this, it allowed me to get my foot in the door with other teachers. She is probably tired of hearing me thank her, but here is one more big thanks to you Irma!

Author visits are more than just showing up to read their book(s) to the class and leaving. The best part of the visit is the interaction with the students. But how do you know what to do at these visits? What would I do? Would I talk about myself? About the book I’m reading? What kind of questions would I ask to engage my audience? Being young, their attention span might not be that long. So what would I come up with that would keep them engaged and focused during my visit?



Before visiting each classroom I talked with the teachers many times to find out where their students were in terms of the writing, and reading. What were they focusing on in the classroom? Younger grades might be focusing more on the art aspect of books, trying to tell stories through images. Or for the older students working on their understanding of verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Keeping all of this in mind would allow me to tailor my visit to each classroom to best meet their needs.



It just so happened that all of the classes I would be visiting were working on how to write their own stories (this is an author’s dream classroom visit). What better activity would there be then to have the students help write a new adventure for Lorenzo the Bear to take!

After introducing myself to the classroom I would give them a chance to ask me anything they wanted to ask (most of the time I didn’t have to even ask if they had any questions they would just start shouting things out at me). Before reading I would ask them “What would you do if your best friend didn’t show up to play with you one day?” Their answers were really thought out, and different too.

I then introduce everyone to Lucy Bear! She would spend the whole visit with all of the students. I encourage everyone to share her so everyone can have a chance to hold and play with her. Then I would hand her to the teacher to select which student would hold her first. Lucy Bear has become a key aspect of my author visits. She is used primarily for inspiration when writing. Once the reading is finished I open it up to the students, to see if they have any questions they would like to ask. E.g. characters, the writing process, illustration etc. I am always blow away by the variety of questions they ask me.



Next is time for the best part, activities! They students get so excited when they hear they will not only get to help write a Lorenzo story, but that the book will Painter classroom visit3include their ideas and be dedicated to their classroom. The particular story they were working on was a Winter Wonderland Story, where Lorenzo and Lucy journey to the artic. They are encouraged to think outside of the norm, getting creative is most of the fun!

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The ideas these kids had were so funny and unique. They ranged from artic animals to Pit Bulls, Zebra’s, and even a few made up animals. At the conclusion of my visit all of the students received a certificate, promoting them Junior Authors! They were all shocked when I handed them their certificates, I had several ask me: “Does this mean I get to write my own stories now too?” As authors is any sweeter feeling than knowing that your visit impacted them? Even if just one student puts a pen (or pencil) to paper and creates something of their own, it was all worth it.




It was such a joy to visit these classrooms, work one on one with the students, and to connect with the teachers. The best part is going home with their stories and reading their ideas for the next story The Adventures of Lorenzo the Bear. Once I have the story completed the teachers have invited me back to visit again, and share the story we all created together. I had one teacher tell me, “In all of the years I have been teaching, I’ve never had a single author come and visit my class before. This was a treat for the student’s, but an even bigger one for me.”