I will have a few different programs available for classroom visits and they are as follows:
Make your own monster: Character
This is for younger kids (preschool to younger elementary school). We’ll talk about character, and how well we have to know people (or monsters) before we write about them. Then we’ll have them make their own monsters. First they walk like the monster, then they tell me what the monster ate for breakfast. Then they tell me what their monster is scared of, what kind of music he or she likes, etc. The younger kids can draw pictures of a monster. The older kids can work on a story.
Make your own monster: Taking the plot over the top
This one is where I talk about what has historically been my own weakness in story writing (in that my stories can be a little quiet) and how I learned to bring things up to the next level. We talk about plot, about escalation and tension. Then we’ll take a normal situation and talk about how to make things go Over the Top for an exciting story. We’ll write one together as a class.
Review your own monster (or somebody else’s)
This is traditionally for older kids, but I can also make it work for elementary school. How many times in school did you hear a teacher say, “Your opinion is fine, as long as you back it up”? We’ll talk about how to back it up, how to look at things with a critical eye, and how to make reviews accessible to your audience. I used to be a music writer back in the day, so here I’ll bring out some of my old music reviews, and some other people’s, too. We’ll talk about book reviews, about opinion, and about backing up that opinion. We can do some music reviewing for class based on some snippets of tunes I can bring in. Or we can do first pages of books that I can read aloud.