Tips for Teachers: Author Visits Part Seven - Study Guides and Classroom Resources

Some authors offer study guides for teachers to download from their website or to purchase, for use either before a visit or just as an ongoing teaching resource. These guides often have exercises connected to certain chapters or episodes in the novel, worksheets about specific characters or may describe potential projects related to the subject matter of the author's books. Two of my novels, The Sorcerers' Letterbox and The Heretic's Tomb, are set in the Middle Ages, so teachers can plan projects about medieval life and society, castles, warfare, research the Black Death and other historical events. The plot of The Alchemist's Portrait involves an art gallery in a museum and students can be asked to draw inspiration for some creative writing exercises by examining classic paintings and portraits. Children can create superheroes and comic books using The Emerald Curse as a resource or even invent their own unique board game. I have word search puzzles for children to download at any time, although I also encourage teachers to make use of these before an author visit, to familiarize the children with my work. Teachers can also access The Super Scavenger Search, where the answers to a series of mind boggling questions are hidden in different pages all over my website. Resources like these enable students to learn about the author and thus have lots of great questions on the day of the visit.