Last year, I noticed an increase in the number of schools on social media seeking to engage with authors on a more regular basis.
As a retired school improvement adviser with two children’s novels under my belt, I was increasingly asked to send postcards and email letters to individual classes to encourage reading. While it took me some time to write these letters, I began to appreciate the scale of the task for teachers: not only did they have to select and contact the authors, they also had to maximise the learning opportunities.
With all this investment at stake, I felt it was time to look more closely at the impact of regular links with authors, to find out what specific outcomes teachers might expect from the partnership.
With this in mind, I invited 20 interested schools from across the UK to work with me on some action research based on the following question: what impact can regular email letters between a key stage 2 class and an author have on children’s reading and writing?
I agreed to send an email letter and some suggested activities to each designated KS2 class every half term. This would then be followed up with written feedback from the teachers. The feedback was to be evidenced by recording children’s verbal and written responses and any changes in their attitudes to reading.
Teachers made use of the learning opportunity in various ways. Most already had my books Red Snow and Angel’s Child in their class library and several had used the quiz in Angel’s Child for guided reading.
Schools like Dinnington Community Primary School read Angel’s Child to the whole class, while Walton Primary Academy found this novel raised issues relevant to their Year 6 PSHE topic on “age and helping others in the community”. Elms Farm Community Primary School linked one of my suggested activities to an aspect of “Talk for Writing” and Glebe Primary School used my letters as a stimulus for World Book Day.
Contact with authors: what difference does it make?
Six months later, with schools in turmoil due to the pandemic, we were forced to abandon the project. But by then, due to the dedication and sheer tenacity of the teachers, I had already collected some valuable feedback from schools consistently reporting the following outcomes.
The first was that children were excited to be in touch with a “real” author; parents of children at Granby Junior School, for example, talked at the school gate and on Seesaw about how enthusiastic their children were. This excitement motivated children to engage in more in-depth discussion about books and apply the author’s writing tips to their own work. Edwards Hall Primary School noted how the more reluctant learners were willing to carry out the author’s suggested activities “because they were on board with being part of a special project”.
Children also wanted to share their work with the author and appreciated the feedback. Hockley Primary School said: “Our children have been thrilled when you have commented on what we are doing…it has made them, and us, feel very important.”
The letters motivated some children to reply to me, making comparisons across texts and asking questions. Indeed, children from Hasbury Primary School wrote: “We agree with what you have written about creating a main character who faces lots of obstacles. It’s a bit like what we are reading in class at the moment…”.
I replied to them, and it was agreed that information about the writing and publication process from the author helped improve children’s knowledge and understanding of authorial perspective and intent.
Despite the limitations of this project, it does suggest specific ways that regular communication with an author can impact positively on children’s reading and writing. It also indicates that regular email contact between an author and a school has a lot to offer.
How to build relationships with authors
So how can schools establish contact with an appropriate author and what are the implications in terms of cost and time? My own experience, together with conversations with teachers and other authors have led me to the following conclusions.
The best and most cost-effective way for schools to contact an author is on their author website or on social media. The details can usually be found on the author’s books or through the publisher. If an appropriate book has been selected for a class read, it’s well worth contacting the author directly to make a link. This is a better option than selecting an author at random. The communication has to be meaningful for both parties.
Aside from a capacity issue, it’s costly and time-consuming for authors to respond to multiple requests for cards, bookmarks or posters, but authors are often happy to communicate with children via e-messages, especially if a whole class is reading their book.
Local indie bookshops and libraries are often keen to support schools and can facilitate lively events and useful contacts with authors, and accessible online sites such as Authorfy are a popular source of information with links to authors.
Most children’s authors are very approachable and keen to use their considerable experience to help teachers develop reading for pleasure and information. We are all workers in the same vineyard of encouraging reading and writing in schools. While nothing can ever replace an author visit, e-messaging from an author, poet or illustrator is cost-effective for both parties and has a lot to recommend it.
If the experience of the schools in this project is anything to go by, attempts to link children with an author in this way will definitely be worth the effort.
Larraine Harrison is a former school improvement adviser, governor, and author. She tweets @larrainesharri3
