Author Visits' Profound Impact on Readership
by Nadine Bailey, TK Teacher Librarian -
In the past year, the TK library has been delighted to welcome a number of authors into the school including Sarah Brennan, Otto Fong, Gaby Tye, Fleur Vella-Chang, Lesley Anne & Monica Lim, Bhakti Mathur and Radhika Puri. Why do we invite authors? How does it benefit our students and what impact does it have on literacy?
Research in the UK and USA indicates that author visits have ‘a profound and lasting impact’ on encouraging reading, engagement with books and writing, and stimulating students to read wider than they would otherwise. In our community, exposure to “real live” authors, particularly our two younger author guests, Lesley-Ann Lim and Gaby Tye (who both are published authors in their teens) allow students to envision a writing path for themselves beyond classroom and curricula demands. Our authors have been generous with their time and patience in answering students’ burning questions honestly - including “how much money do you earn?”.
Before a visit, it’s helpful to have a chance to familiarise ourselves with the author and their works. Our authors have been very impressed with our students’ inquiry skills and ability to find information so that questions are meaningful. Following an author visit, we always notice a surge in demand for their books as students clamour to be among the first to read these new additions to our library. The authors manage to capture the imagination of the students and the writing and reading process becomes more authentic.
Following the success of author visits with our students, we’ve arranged a special guest for our parents too - Maya Thiagarajan author of “Beyond The Tiger Mom: East-West Parenting for the Global Age” will be giving a talk on “How to Prevent the Summer Slump” on 7 June 2016 from 8.30-10am in the TK Library.
Looking towards the new school year, we hope that we can expand this programme beyond single session author visits, to include workshops with authors and illustrators in smaller groups within the classroom. We hope this will have an even greater personal impact on our young readers and story creators!
Author Visits TK
Bibliography:
Silverman, K. N. "Connecting Authors to Readers through the School Library."
Knowledge Quest 41.5 (2013): 26-29. Print.
Society of Authors. "The Society Releases Its Research: Author Visits in Schools." The Society of Authors. Society of Authors, 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 May 2016.