Group items tagged

Welcome to the Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs List!  I’m Kate Messner, the children’s author and educator who maintains this site.  I started it because I’ve found that virtual author visits are a great way to connect authors and readers, and I realize that many schools facing budget troubles don’t have the option of paid author visits. With that in mind, this is a list of authors who offer free 20-minute Q and A sessions with classes and book clubs that have finished reading one of their books. As an author, I offer free Skype chats for the following titles:

There are going to be times when they will be scratching their heads over something they have read, but not quite understood.

It's actually pretty hard for me to write this type of a post. I don't do well with being informational and I'm nervous letting you into my world when it comes to how I actually teach. Perhaps I'm afraid of being judged. Perhaps I will look too traditional or, at the opposite end, too far away from the research-based "best practices." I made a ton of mistakes last year. However, one thing that seemed to work was an increase in motivation to read. I'm not entirely sure why this was the case, but I think it had to do with autonomy, choice, getting help with skills, critical thinking and high-interest texts

our two main characters must have internal goals and external goals that they’re trying to reach. If you can bring your characters’ goals into conflict, and thus the hero and heroine into conflict, you have a good chance of creating believable tension that will keep your readers engaged.

One of the best ways to get your students motivated about reading is to provide them with online platforms where they can meet other student readers and share their recommendations, reads, and book reviews. When students know that people other than their fellow mates or teachers can read and interact with what they post, they can show more engagement  and interest .

These works are warnings; feverish missives churned out by half-mad prophets and visionaries whose message is uniform and clear: If we do not change our ways, these wastelands and teeming urban slums will be our future

But in order to effect any such change, there has to be a spark—these writers have to force the reader to feel emotions powerful enough to disrupt our routines; to shatter thought patterns and leave us so shaken that we have no choice but to alter our lives.