We’re so excited about our Skype in the Classroom lesson for young writers. We’re now scheduling our class with 13 teachers in the United States, Ireland, India and Australia. During the lesson, which will be conducted with these teachers via Skype, we’ll share our experiences writing our award-winning book, publishing it, and publicizing it (including being featured on the Today Show).
Today we spoke with a teacher in India who would like her young writers to learn how to do YouTube book reviews in the style that Michael does them on his YouTube Channel. Her students will do some book reviews via Skype, and we’ll post them on our YouTube Channel. We’re also working with a school here in Portland, teaching young kids how to review books. More posts about that soon!
Most of the teachers have asked that Michael, age 5, be present during the class. They say his love of books will help inspire their young writers and readers. “Tell me how he became such a book lover,” a teacher asked me today.
Michael is very excited about meeting students from all over the world. If kids ask him about his favorite books, he’ll likely say that his favorite books right now are Scooby-Doo, Nate the Great, Henry and Mudge, and Berenstain Bears. He loves books that include both dogs and mysteries and has reviewed many on his YouTube Channel.
Our lesson begins with a discussion about why we wrote our book: to overcome sad feelings about the death of our dog, Lucy. We then discuss the importance of creating characters and having conflict in a story. We also address how critical it is to gather feedback from peers and adults–and how to evaluate that feedback and incorporate it into a writing project. Our advice: Listen to your gut. Young writers, you don’t have to incorporate all the feedback you get, especially if it doesn’t seem right for your project. Also included in our lesson is information about the final product and choosing how to publish it.
Publicizing a book is critical. In our Skype in the Classroom lesson, we share all the ways we’ve gotten the word out about our book. This is a long list, and includes this blog! And of course, we discuss how to write a book review (We are offering to do this as a separate class, if there’s not enough time).
See our lesson online at Skype in the Classroom here:
Write, Publish, and Publicize an Award-Winning Book!
We love the feedback we’re getting from teachers and others about our projects.
“Your blog is doing a great thing and very inspiring to a generation of future readers!” said one blog reader.
Teachers, let us know if you’d like to sign up for our class! Sign up through the Skype in the Classroom link above–or email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com!