Planning A School Presentation
adapted from How To Promote Your Children's Book On A Shoestring by Nancy Bentley and Donna Guthrie
Before you accept an invitation from a school or library, think carefully about the program you want to create. There are three basic types of author or illustrator programs that you can present.
- A Personal History Presentation. This talk includes personal background, introduces your books, and allows time for answering questions from children.
- A Performance Presentation. For this dramatic presentation, your work takes center stage. You can read from your work, draw pictures, show slides, and save personal information for the question-and-answer period.
- A Teaching Presentation. This approach focuses on teaching the process of your craft. You can design grade-appropriate lessons to illustrate the various aspects of writing or drawing.
Presentations can vary with the size of the group and the nature of your visit. If you're addressing a young writer's conference, you may want to start with a Personal History Presentation and save the Teaching Presentation for small-group time.
No matter which kind of presentation you design, remember that you're speaking to children. You must keep the presentation lively, interactive and upbeat. For many children, this is their first opportunity to see and hear a real, live author or illustrator. They'll want to ask questions, so leave time for a question-and-answer period.
When you're preparing for a school visit, ask yourself: What age group will I be talking to and what will they want to know? This will keep you on track. Presentations are like stories. They have a beginning, a middle and an end.
The opening, or beginning, sets the mood, the pace, and the audience's expectations. It hooks the children into listening. Tell them in advance what you plan to talk about and how the presentation will be organized.
Planning a Personal History Presentation
You'll want to include:
- Information about yourself
- Information about your work
- Examples of or stories about your work
- Time for questions
- Book sales and autograph session
Keep the opening informal. Tell students a little about your family, your home town and your pets.
In the body of the speech, explain what type of writing you do, how many books you've published, why you write for children, how you get ideas and what a typical day in your life is like. If you're the author or illustrator of a picture book, make slides of the book. Slides make it easier for a large group to see the work.
End your talk with a personal story that reveals something about you and your writing. During the question-and-answer period, remind the students that questions begin with who, what, where, when, why and how. Try to keep them on track. When a question's been asked, repeat it so that everyone can hear.
Planning a Performance Presentation
Consider including in your program:
- An overview of your work
- Readings from the text
- Demonstration of how you draw
- Slides or video shows
- Storytelling
- Book sales and autograph session
In a Performance Presentation, you focus on your work. The students in your audience will be interested in how your work has changed and evolved. They'll want to know about your creative process. You may decide to show them how a character develops from early sketches to the finished product. Choose a particularly exciting part of your book and read it to them. Stories come alive when they're read, especially by their creators.
If you're an illustrator, the audience can help you create a character. Take suggestions from the students and draw on an easel in front of the group. Sign the finished product and leave it for the school as a souvenir of your visit.
The Performance Presentation lends itself well to slides or videos. Make slides of your book. As your career grows, you can rearrange your slides for different styles of presentations.
The benefit of a Performance Presentation is that you become a live storyteller to the children. Practice reading your books so you can perform them from memory. Storytelling will give your talk pizazz.
Planning a Teaching Presentation
When teaching, it's helpful to:
- Introduce one aspect of writing or illustrating
- Read or show samples from your work or the
work of others
- Allow time for students to practice the concept
- Share and evaluate
- Sell and autograph your books
A Teaching Presentation can be an opportunity to teach what you love -- the process or writing or illustrating. This type of presentation works best with grades three and up, for groups no larger than 25 students. In a Teaching Presentation, you have an opportunity to introduce a concept, explain it in detail, and engage the students in practicing the skill.
Choose a single aspect of writing or illustrating, such as showing not telling, descriptive paragraphs, good characterization, layout, design or color. Create a lesson plan that introduces your concept. For instance, explain what a good lead or "hook" is. Read the first paragraph from your book or the books of others to illustrate the point. Work first as a group, then let each child practice individually. Encourage the children to share what they've learned with the group.
There are many books on how to teach writing to children. Look through them to get ideas for lessons. You may want to leave a lesson plan with the teacher so that children can review the skill.
If you have extra time, talk to the children about their favorite books and authors and ask them what they think makes a good book.
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