Author Talks
Like book talks in reading workshop, author talks are an inspiring way to begin your work each day in writing workshop.
What are author talks?
Author talks are exactly what they sound like. They are 2-3 minute discussions about some of your favorite authors, so that your students can begin to see themselves as authors and see similarities between themselves and REAL PUBLISHED authors.
How do you decide what authors to share?
Start with some of your favorite authors in the beginning of the year. Your students will see how passionate you are about some of your favorite authors. They may even begin to try out some of the advice from authors in their own writing!
In the beginning of the school year, I like to start with authors that talk about using a notebook to keep all their ideas because that is what we are doing in September, launching our writer's notebooks.
Many authors talk about doing this.
Here are a few that I like to begin with in September:
Ralph Fletcher: http://www.ralphfletcher.com/tips.html
Avi: http://avi-writer.com/writing/writing.html
Steve Jenkins: http://www.stevejenkinsbooks.com/
Lois Lowry: http://www.loislowry.com/
Choose authors that are relevant to the grade level that you are teaching. Research some of the common authors that are popular in your grade level, see if they have a website, and discover if they have advice for young writers, where they get their ideas, what inspires them, and what made them become an author. You can spend more than a day or even a week on one author. Give a few tidbits about the author and then tell some more the next day. This would also be helpful if you do an author study of a particular author in reading workshop and then discuss him/her in writing workshop. Sometimes, I even scan the classroom to see what kind of authors they choose to read to discover which author I should discuss in writing workshop. If students like to read from a particular author, typically they will want to try out some of the things that that author does in their own writing.
Again, Scholastic is another great resource. The site has some written interviews, as well as video interviews with authors.
Visit their author index for specific authors and their interviews:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/author-video-index
Sometimes they even have live interviews that your class can watch about specific authors. For instance, in the fall we were able to "visit" with J.K. Rowling. Next week, my students will "visit" with David Baldacci, one of the authors of the series 39 Clues, in which he will take them on a virtual tour of the Smithsonian and discuss some of the artifacts that are referenced in the book.
For more information visit this link: http://decodinghistory.scholastic.com/
