Getting Ready for an Author Visit!

In a few weeks, middle grades author Alan Gratz will spend a week in my district, visiting five different schools.  He will be with us on Thursday, October 20, and our whole school is getting ready for him!

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.

Station 1: Prisoner B readers' theatre

Station 2: Code of Honor readers' theatre

Station 3: League of Seven interview (segment)

Station 7: I Have/Who Has question game

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.