Most of the teachers are reading either part of one of his books or the whole thing, which is so awesome. Prisoner B-3087 was a favorite of our sixth and seventh graders last year, so many of them are already familiar with his work.
A few of the teachers said they didn't have time (or the inclination, sigh...) to do a read-aloud, so I offered to do a "quick and dirty" author visit preparation class for their students. I think it's gone pretty well so far--tomorrow I'll be doing it with eighth graders, who are the true test!
I start the class off by booktalking Prisoner B and Code of Honor, and briefly mentioning The Brooklyn Nine and the League of Seven series. Then we watch a quick YouTube video that Alan posted of his office at home. He specifically mentions that he'll be seeing the kids soon a couple of times, so it's a great intro to him.
After that, I introduce the stations I've designed for the kids to get to know him, his books, and his website.
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| Station 1: Prisoner B readers' theatre |
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| Station 2: Code of Honor readers' theatre |
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| Station 3: League of Seven interview (segment) |
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| Station 7: I Have/Who Has question game |
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| Stations 4-6 |
- Station 1: Prisoner B-3087 readers' theatre (six characters)
- Station 2: Code of Honor readers' theatre (four characters)
- Station 3: League of Seven/steampunk info--author interview segment
- Station 4: Alan Gratz biography--website scavenger hunt and number game
- Station 5: Alan Gratz's first six books--website scavenger hunt and word search
- Station 6: AlanGratz's newest six books--website scavenger hunt and word search
- Station 7: Author Biography (from website)--I Have/Who Has questions
- Station 8: Listening station--Prisoner B on audible.com (segment)
The students have free choice of which stations they'd like to do, the only restriction being that they can't do the two word searches right in a row. The kids are dying to check out his books after each class, so I take that as a great sign that our visit will be successful!
I hope to run my creation by Alan when he's with us, and if I get permission, I will make it available on TpT for free. Or you can contact me here and I'm happy to share.
