Written by: Tania Jordan, Teacher Librarian
Every year, our ECE & Primary school is fortunate to host an International children’s author for a week to celebrate books and reading. This year, with travel restrictions and the context of COVID-19, there were necessary changes to the format of Book Week with the author visit being the most obvious departure from tradition.
Would a virtual author session be engaging? The resounding answer is yes! Primary students across both Pudong and Puxi campuses, were able to meet, virtually, three international authors of picture-book style biographies.
The authors spoke with passion about their books, their work as an author and their lives beyond being authors. Written to serve a purpose, the authors talked about writing inspiring true stories of people who had overcome substantial challenges. Their essentially non-fiction books presented in the style of picture books, required persistent and thorough research and told stories that both young and old can aspire to.
Age-appropriate sessions were given for students from K4 to Year 6, with all students having read the book of the author that we were focusing on. A question from each class based on their response to each book, formed the Q&A section of each author session.
Besides the author sessions, many students took part in the poster activity in the lead-up to Book Week. During the week itself, students enjoyed the uncommon thrill of wearing pyjamas to school for some comfortable reading, wearing the costume of someone significant on the Friday and in many cases, enjoying a story read by a classroom visitor or by a parent, virtually.
While challenging to do something different than previous years, it was a beneficial experience. Our school learnt that by using technology, we can come together across campuses and tap into a wider pool of celebrated international authors – united by reading!