Tips for Teachers: Author Visits Part Nine – Scheduling and Equipment
The author will normally have planned their workshops and presentations before their arrival at the school, but make sure you also discuss a schedule for the visit with the author beforehand. Ask them how long their sessions usually run for, the audience sizes they prefer, if there will be time for questions, any dietary needs the author may have if you are providing any meals and if they have any audio-visual requirements. The author may also be uncomfortable being photographed or filmed, so make sure you ask about that in advance.
At a school familiar with author visits, everything is usually handled very well. However, it’s not unknown for a school to have arranged too many sessions, allowing no time for students to get in and out of the library, gymnasium or wherever the author is presenting. The author may also be unpleasantly surprised at the size of an audience. Let’s say their presentation is very interactive and requires participation from the students. This may be ideal with up to a hundred students, or even with a single class, but could be less than perfect if the author is unexpectedly faced with a group of three hundred or more.
The author may have specific presentations for different age ranges, or ones for which they use different props, so make sure that you let them know if your school prefers those particular sessions, so that the author doesn’t show up without the appropriate materials.
