Online Author Talk with Scholasticans of St. Scholastica's Academy, Marikina

Among the many things we learned from the Lockdown Years in the Covid Era, it is the skill to go online for meetings, assemblies and learning sessions. When Brianna, a high school student from St. Scholastica's Academy Marikina hit me up on Messenger asking about a writing workshop, I offered to do one via online. After months of planning, it pushed through!

As a priming activity, I sent her a link to a video recording on developing character and made her a member of our Early Readers' Project on Facebook. That is why, when I met her and her club members online, they had questions prepared for me.

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Of the many questions they asked, one stood out. To quote: What is the best approach in writing a story for children, the way Dr. Seuss wrote stories or Roald Dahl's?

The question shows the young writer's reading influences, her knowledge of children's literature and the desire to write her own story for children. To this question, I responded by telling them the purpose of Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl as I perceive them and my own context as a reader of their books.

While both writers put forth a world of their own in their writing, Dahl is more purposive of retelling and presenting stories of childhood experiences. Dr. Seuss makes use of riddles, word play and whimsy in his storytelling which is perfect for learning phonics, phonemes in a fun and playful manner. So I asked the student her purpose in writing a story. When the intent and purpose are determined, the path to the writing process is clearer.

As a librarian, I can't help but wish to send a feedback to the teachers, parents and librarians of St. Scholastica's Academy Marikina. They have in their midst readers who dream of writing stories for children younger than them with the hindsight of their influences on books they have read growing up. Imagine what richness in stories they can bring if they too are knowledgeable of local writers! 

Our work never ends. 

Virtual Author Visit at Lowell Elementary School, Chicago, Illinois

What technology can do! 

I had my first Author Meet and Greet this year with the kindergarten class of Ms. Rebecca Cotto and Ms. Genevie De Castro of Lowell Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois. It was on Book Giving Day, February 14 in the US and 2am of February 15 Manila Time.

I had a wonderful chat with the students as they all responded eagerly to the stories I told them. My Daddy My One and Only is always a winner for this age group while I am Happy to Be Me opened a lot of insights about the self and the decisions we can make  to be a little kinder to ourselves. Even 6 year olds are able to grasp that idea. Amazing 🤩 

Thank you Genevie! Thank you Lampara Books! Thank you young readers! This is grace upon grace upon grace! 🙏🏽💜🙏🏽

Tingnan ang post na ito sa Instagram

Isang post na ibinahagi ni Genevie de Castro (@littlepeopletamer)

The Light House Diary Entries of 2021

Rounding up posts about work, especially on my entries for The Lighthouse Diary.

 The Lighthouse Diary Entry #24 - One of the many things this pandemic robbed me of doing is the joy and the experience of leisurely visits to parks, museums and libraries. Going out to walk among the trees, plants and works of art is a source of relaxation, a time to be and an opportunity to step back from work and worries. It is a dredging ritual for the brain and the soul delights in this form of nourishment. An hour or two in a museum or library, an unhurried walk in the park and a snack and coffee afterward.

The Lighthouse Diary Entry #25 - I am part of the team assigned for the supervision and mentoring of juniors who will begin the Extended Essay and Senior Project (EE/SP) this year. Much thought was spent on the planning of the kick-off and presentation to students since we are all experiencing the difficulties and challenges of learning during the pandemic. As a school who believes in Conceptual Learning and Constructivism, we take into consideration the contexts, experiences, interests and attitude of our learners. As teachers and educators, we are learners too. That is why, when we set out the launching of this years EE/SP journey, there is a spark of hope and a clearer vision on what we need to accomplish by February 2022. It is important that students complete the EE or the SP with joy and a sense of self.

The Lighthouse Diary Entry #26 - I attended a webinar yesterday morning. Yes, another webinar. The local distributor of Turnitin, APAC Marketing organized a 2 hour webinar on Academic Integrity at the heart of teaching and learning processes. There is less talk of the Turnitin app and more of practices in teaching and learning. 

The Lighthouse Diary Entry #27 - This week at the Academy, we learned about the Skill Tree. A Skill Tree is a series of skills that programmers use to create games. Needless to say, we are learning how to incorporate gamification in teaching and instruction. Here is what I made for the library's instructional program for research skills.

BA Library Online Author Visit of Ms. Natasha Vizcarra - The Online Author Visit of Ms. Vizcarra was very informative. She covered important aspects of the writing and the research process. Sharing what she learned from real practice and building on skills overtime was precious. We learn by doing, indeed! We hope that her input and the sharing of her thinking process allowed us to reflect our own approach and style.

And here is  a post that discuss How I prepared for the Online Author Visit.

Now that is done, I continue taking stock of the work that lies ahead.

BA Library Online Author Visit: Writing About Science with Ms. Natasha Vizcarra

And it is done! Ms. Vizcarra's visit in the Academy was cool and fun!

Here is my short reflection and thank you message to our learning community, most especially to the teachers and the students who helped make the activity possible.

The Online Author Visit of Ms. Vizcarra was very informative. She covered important aspects of the writing and the research process. Sharing what she learned from real practice and building on skills overtime was precious. We learn by doing, indeed! We hope that her input and the sharing of her thinking process allowed us to reflect our own approach and style.

I am still munching on this line from her talk: My editor frequently challenged me. So I ask myself, how open am in accepting challenges from peers and readers of my work? As a Teacher Librarian in BA, I think about the research services we provide students if these are relevantly challenging to them. With just about the right amount of support. 

Feel free to reach out to us for responses, questions and insights on this activity. 

Do consider donating a copy of Spikeys, Prickles and Prongies to our partner public schools. 

You can also buy a personal copy for your child, pamangkin or inaanak. Once again, thank you! Your participation is also a great help for the local book industry.

View and read my previous posts about Ms. Vizcarra's Online Author Visit by following these links.

Online Author Visit Plan and Proposal 

Priming Activity: Getting to Know Ms. Natasha Vizcarra

How to plan an Author Visit? Here are tips in planning and hosting an Author Visit in the School Library.

Planning for an Online Author Visit

I am really excited planning this Author Visit of Ms. Natasha Vizcarra. I am sharing some parts of my plan and the poster which our Communications Associate made for this event. Here is the link to a blog post I wrote a few years back on how to plan and organize an Author Visit.

Author Visit: Writing About Science During COVID Times with Natasha Vizcarra

DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVE:

This Author Visit is contextualized around research and its value to meaning making, to the responsible communication of facts and information and in the creation of knowledge for readers, young and old. Ms. Natasha Vizcarra, a seasoned writer and editor, has been researching and writing about Science even before the dawn of the COVID age. The kind of writing she does, apparently, takes on greater relevance when Ilaw ng Tahanan published her book, Spikeys, Prickles & Prongies: A Coronavirus Discovery Story (2021), a children’s book about the coronavirus.

 In this visit, we are curious to find out from Ms. Vizcara how a topic as lethal as the coronavirus can be written creatively for children. With the proliferation of fake news, misinformation and disinformation, we are eager to know how she  approaches the selection and curation of information, especially topics concerning Science when preparing for a writing task or project. As a learning community, we are interested to listen to her sharing of experiences as a Science writer in an age of unprecedented change.

TARGETED CORE VALUES:

Adaptation

●      By understanding the story of a science writer creating a book about the coronavirus, we are able to gain confidence in braving the pandemic as individuals and as a community.

Bayanihan

●       The Author Visit has a book donation drive for students of our partner public school in coordination with CAS Coor, BASC and UPServe (?) A minimum of 30 copies shall be bought for book donation to public school students.

●      The Author Visit is open to the BA Community and teachers from our partner public schools will be invited to attend.

Connection

●      Concepts about the creative process and skills on research shared by the guest speaker connect to tasks and projects in the subject areas.

●      This event may inspire more students to begin CAS projects related to the Sciences and consider pursuing a career integrating the humanities to the sciences.

Online Author Visit: Character Development and The Hero's Journey at the Beacon School

I have always been fascinated with The Hero's Journey (John Campbell, 1949) as a framework for understanding and writing stories as well as developing character. Based on the writings of John Campbell, the Hero's Journey is a pattern that is present in all myths and religions of the world. Many writers and storytellers make use of it to craft stories and works of fiction. Thus, in my Author Visit at the Beacon School a few weeks ago, I started the grade 8 students with a priming activity on The Hero's Journey.

Good timing! According to the English Teacher, they are to begin with Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing where characters are flawed and blessed with the will to overcome them. The Hero's Journey, though plot driven focuses on the character and how he/she responds to events and people of his/her world.

For my input session, I first defined what I believe stories are and moved on to present the Hero's Journey connecting it to my views as an author. I then presented a compressed framework I use to develop character. For this, I made use of Nico, Daddy Elephant, Ate and Ino putting emphasis that what they go through is either determined by events and their relationship with other characters. I ended my session with three tasks that students can do on their own.

A few hours after, I received an email from the English teacher and the school's librarian saying how inspired everyone was to begin their own stories. This feedback from the learning community is a ray of light in this difficult time.

Let's carry on!

Online Author Visit 2021: When Students Write Back To Me

I am glad when I get feedback from children and young people. This group of readers are the people I write for. Their comments, questions and replies to my books or author visit sessions affirm the work I do and inspire me to improve and to continue writing. 

In a recent online Author Visit at the De La Salle Zobel Learning Resource Center, I designed the online experience consisting of a priming activity, an input session that is 15-20  mins long and a post activity. The priming activity is the introduction to the session and it is aimed to prepare listeners or participants to the session. I use the theme, main concept and skill as anchors of my activities. For this Author Visit, I used Character and Character Development as theme and skill. I worked around the concepts of story as windows, mirrors and doors. 

Have a look at the infographic and the questions I asked to prepare the child audience by following the link. The video for the input session is up on the Librarians Tambayan channel on YouTube. 

Included on the video are activities that students can do asynchronously. Imagine my surprise when the librarian sent works of students a few days after she presented my video through the library's web portal! I also received emails from students. I replied to them, of course! 

One student asked me for writing tips and how he can improve his story map.

Thank you for doing the activity :-) !

You followed the instructions and did more - you wrote a story! The next step is to clean and polish what you made. Here are my suggestions:

1. Keep your sentences simple. Go back to the story and identify sentences that need to be changed. Remember, a sentence expresses an idea. 

2. Try putting in dialogues between and among characters. What conversations did the family have about going to Baguio? What did they feel about Cara the dog being hurt? What did the vet tell them about taking care of Cara's wound? How did they all feel about adopting a pet in the end? 

3. Make sure that the images you picked for the story are good for sharing to others. Your librarian can help you establish this. Send your librarian a message.

I would be interested to see improvements on your story. Good job!

The librarian shared the students' works with me. I will be sharing some of them in the blog with permission from the students and their parent/guardian.

World Read Aloud Day 2021: An Online Author Visit at Keys School Manila

 

Today is World Read Aloud Day! Yesterday, I spent it with K-3 students of Keys School Manila. I read aloud my story My Daddy! My One and Only! (illustrated by Jomike Tejido, Lampara Books 2012). Nothing beats a face-to-face session, but doing an Author Visit online for the time being since it is the age of the pandemic is fine by me. 

In this medium and learning environment, the definition of engagement and participation changes. A 30-minute session is already a long haul for learners in K-3. In my experience since the pandemic started in March 2020, my storytelling plans must include visuals that are colorful, appealing to the eyes, music that is short and lively, a well selected story and activities that students can do asynchronously.

I am still learning as I go. If anything, that is one of the good things that this pandemic has brought me.