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What You Should Know about Hosting a Visiting Author

Has your school ever hosted a visiting author? If not, I highly recommend it. Through the years, we have had quite a few visit our school, and the students were so inspired by them. This post explains the benefits of bringing an author to your children. They will love it.

Has your school ever hosted a visiting author? If not, I highly recommend it. Through the years, we have had quite a few visit our school, and the students were so inspired by them. Our school has hosted a few including Julia Cook, Jeri Watts, and Brod Baggert. In this post, I want to share the highlights of Brod’s visit to our school. I will always remember them all, but Brod’s visit was both funny and inspirational.

Brod Baggert has to be one of the funniest presenters I’ve ever heard, and his poetry is funny too., The children laughed throughout his presentation, but he was able to work in key teaching points too.

Introducing Brod Baggert

Has your school ever hosted a visiting author? If not, I highly recommend it. Through the years, we have had quite a few visit our school, and the students were so inspired by them. This post explains the benefits of bringing an author to your children. They will love it.

If you’re an elementary teacher, chances are you may have a few favorite poems. You might choose Emily Dickinson or Robert Frost. In my classroom, it’d more likely be Jack Prelutsky or Shel Silverstein. However, I have found a few others that my kids have thoroughly enjoyed. Ken Nesbitt and of course, Brod Bagert are two that can quickly cause an uproar in my room. My kids truly love his poems.

Our Favorite Brod Baggert Poems

Have you read the poem, “Booger Love” from Brod Bagert’s book, Giant Children?  Gross as can be, but oh so hilarious (especially if you want to hook in your boys)! I also love “Invisible Line” from Brod’s book, School Fever.  The poem I would choose for my back pocket though would be “The Library Cheer” from his book, Shout! Little Poems that Roar. As a reading specialist, you can probably guess why. It’s a poem I share with my students every year. It’s all about the joy of…BOOKS!

Key Take Aways from Our Visiting Author

Since Brod came to visit our school, I have been a huge fan of his poetry. In fact I’d say he even inspired me to give poetry writing a try. Of all of the resources I’ve developed, the two I am attached to most are my Concept of Word Poetry Sets for our youngest kiddos and my Poem of the Week Bundles I put together. There is just something about creating a piece of work all by yourself that is completely original. I think giving that power to our kids is really super important. Kids need the joy of completing a polished piece of work. I love that authors provide beautiful examples of finished work for kids.

Since Brod’s visit and shortly after he published Giant Children, I was able to meet a few other authors including Steven Kellogg, Jan Brett, Gary Paulsen, Jeff Kinney, and this year’s highlight, Jacqueline Woodson. Each visit has given me such great memories and attachments to their books. Children need those opportunities too., so if you’re able to bring in an author, by all means, make it happen. They share their writing process, where ideas come from, and who inspired them. Most of the authors share what they read too. If you can bring in an author, Brod is a great choice!

Here’s a video clip from one of Brod’s school visits.

How to Celebrate Poetry after Your Visiting Author Comes

  • Poetry is best shared orally, so be sure to read them aloud.
  • Explore sensory words and imagery, as well as other poetic elements.
  • Spend time writing a poem as a class, in small groups, and individually.
  • Pull together an assortment of poems for your students to read and rank to make a Top 20 List
  • Introduce your students to more serious poets-Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost.
  • Visit the library to show your students where to find poetry books.
  • Bring in “Famous Poets” (aka moms and dads) to share their work.
  • Have your students do a mock interview of the “Famous Poets”.

Resources Highlighted in the Post

Free Poetry Resources

I used this last freebie with many different poems to prepare my kids for our state testing. If your kids are tested on poetry, you might check it out to see if it would work for you too. I used poetry from Jack Prelutsky, Giggle Poetry (online), and a few from Shel Silverstein.

Has your school ever hosted a visiting author? If not, I highly recommend it. Through the years, we have had quite a few visit our school, and the students were so inspired by them. This post explains the benefits of bringing an author to your children. They will love it.

The other poetry freebie I’d like to share with you is a sensory words set. It’s been featured in the TPT newsletter. It is a fun hands-on lesson. The bundle is shared above.

Has your school ever hosted a visiting author? If not, I highly recommend it. Through the years, we have had quite a few visit our school, and the students were so inspired by them. This post explains the benefits of bringing an author to your children. They will love it.

Regardless of how you choose to celebrate National Poem in Your Pockets Day, I hope you’ll find a way to help your students enjoy and appreciate the rhythm, rhyme, meaning, and feeling of a great poem.

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Has your school ever hosted a visiting author? If not, I highly recommend it. Through the years, we have had quite a few visit our school, and the students were so inspired by them. This post explains the benefits of bringing an author to your children. They will love it.

Carla with Comprehension Connection
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Hello and Welcome to the Comprehension Connection Blog!

I’m Carla, the author of Comprehension Connection. I’m a recently retired Literacy Coach and TPT author. I’m a Wife to a great guy, Mom to two grown children and two fur babies. I’m a Virginia Blogger, a Travel Lover, a Coffee Drinker, and a Gal who loves All Things Techie.

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take away the guesswork and use this k-5 yearly planner to introduce the best authors to your students.

With this planner, you will get a valuable roadmap for author study curriculum to avoid overlap and the time needed to search for and plan mentor text lessons. Your students will love meeting these amazing authors. I look forward to sharing more with you.