How to Use PowerPoint for School Author Visits

Make the Most of Writing-Based Classroom Activities

Sep 23, 2009 Marg McAlister

Every child in the class will be able to see everything clearly, and participate fully, if the author makes PowerPoint animation a feature of the visit.

No more problems with kids up the back of the room kicking each other or slyly pulling hair because they've given up trying to see pictures that look like the size of a postage stamp! The bonus is that even inexperienced users of this software will find a lot of help for users of Powerpoint online.

Here are some useful tips on how to make PowerPoint a welcome feature of a school author visit.

Powerpoint Slides for Picture Books

Scan in the cover and all pages. Crop the photos to eliminate the text, using the PowerPoint 'crop photo' tool. (In Office 2007 this is found on the "Picture Tools"/Format ribbon that appears when the photo is clicked on.)
Import or paste images onto PowerPoint slides. Leave room at the bottom to insert a text box; into this type the original text from the book.
Use the PowerPoint animation function to have the text appear at the click of a mouse. By doing this, the author can encourage children to discuss the pictures and say what they think is happening (prediction skills) and then check it against what the author actually wrote.
Pictures on the page can be built one element at a time. This can be a lot of fun for kids as they try to guess what is going to appear next. Build up creatures, scenes and people in this way. Authors who have some knowledge of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements can cut out whole figures or even parts of figures very precisely.

Using PowerPoint for Chapter Books

Scan the front and back covers of the book. Discuss the cover art and how it relates to the story. Talk about how covers are created for books (i.e. publishers have a stable of illustrators and choose one to do the illustrations and cover art.) Discuss the book's title and how the author came up with this title: the author may also like to mention any titles that were discarded. Look at the back cover blurb. Talk about the purpose of the book blurb (that is, it needs to make the reader keen to read the book without giving away the ending or any essential plot twists).
A possible activity would be to get children to come up with alternative titles for the book, or they can try writing their own version of a book blurb. They could also attempt to write a blurb for one of their own stories.
Do a screen capture of the first page of the book. Put it on a PowerPoint slide and talk about how the first page needs to hook the reader. Invite children to discuss how this page led into the rest of the story (if they have read the book) or what they think might happen (if they haven't read the book).
On one slide, show a list of characters from the author's book. Invite children to nominate their favourite character and talk about how he/she fits into the story.
Use the PowerPoint animation tool to show children, block by block, how the author created the plot. (Use PowerPoint to 'build' the plot on the screen one element at a time. Any author who is not sure how to do this will find plenty of help online for presentation design or animated PowerPoint presentations.) Use animation to make different plot blocks appear. Invite children to suggest different plot directions. How could the story have ended differently?
If the chapter book is illustrated, scan some illustrations and ask children to tell the group what is happening at this stage of the story.

Use PowerPoint Slideshows for Teaching Children about Writing

Teaching Story Structure

The Story Opening: As a group exercise, flash up onto the screen four opening sentences (created by the author) and ask how these might lead into a story.

The Middle: Explain how the author creates conflict and tension by giving the character problems to solve in order to reach his/her goal. Present two possible problems and ask children to suggest how they might be solved by characters in the book.

The Ending: Explain to children of the importance of finishing a story so it satisfies the reader and ties up all loose ends.

Other Features of Storybooks

Scan a book's imprint page and put it on a PowerPoint slide. Discuss copyright, ISBN, and other publishing information. This could also lead to a discussion of how a writer finds a publisher.
For an audience of emergent readers, use a picture book or a very simple chapter book to discuss sentence structure and punctuation. (e.g. "When you see this mark [question mark] at the end of a sentence, what does it mean?")
For older readers, display a short excerpt of dialogue. Talk about things like speech tags and how the author makes dialogue sound convincing. (Remember that anything on a PowerPoint screen should be easily visible for those at the back of the group. Resist the temptation to put too much on one slide.)

Writers who use PowerPoint for school author visits will find that it makes talking to a group much easier. The author can still hold up the actual book at the beginning of a talk and point out that it can be found in the school library or in a book store – but a PowerPoint presentation cuts down on audience restlessness and allows the author to talk about writing while maintaining eye contact.

Since PowerPoint is so widely used in business and schools, users will not only find plenty of help in how to use PowerPoint online, but also a wide range of free templates for PowerPoint (including many with school themes).

The copyright of the article How to Use PowerPoint for School Author Visits in Writing for Children is owned by Marg McAlister. Permission to republish How to Use PowerPoint for School Author Visits in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.