Half-day author visits for middle schools
One half day, run in two parts. Every student in the building sees the assembly. A smaller group then sits down and writes something of their own.
Fiction Factory Workshops is one visit with two moving parts. The assembly reaches the whole school at once and does the work of getting a room full of eleven year olds interested in where stories come from. The workshops then take small groups and put them to work.
Splitting it this way is deliberate. An assembly on its own is entertainment. A workshop on its own reaches ten students. Together they give the whole school the idea and give a smaller group the chance to act on it the same morning.
The programme is written for middle school students. The assembly works for a full middle school audience, and the workshops draw smaller groups from within it. If your school covers a wider band of ages, say so on the request form and the session is pitched to the room you actually have.
Room layout, equipment, session timings, how the workshop groups are chosen and arrival time are all agreed in writing once a date is settled. Nothing about the day is left for the morning itself.
Each format has its own page, because a principal and a librarian tend to want different answers about them.
Part one
A high-energy session for the whole school, built around Secrets from the Sky and the idea that started it. Students hear where a story comes from before anyone asks them to write one.
Every story starts with one idea. What will yours be?
Part two
Up to ten students per workshop, so nobody sits at the back. Hands-on writing activities, and time to read work out loud to the group.
Afterwards
A Young Author Certificate, the piece they wrote, and a better answer to the question of whether their ideas are worth writing down.
Both are a half-day visit. The difference is how many students get into a workshop.
Any combination of assembly and student workshops can be arranged.
Send the dates you are considering and the grades you want in the room. No payment is taken on this website.
