On September 24th, I had the pleasure of participating in a “Virtual Author Visit” sponsored by the Pace University School of Education. Over 60 students and faculty members attended via Zoom.
The conversation was moderated by Dr. Elizabeth Smith, and Dr. Francine Falk-Ross, who are both Professors at Pace University’s School of Education.
During the course of the hour – long visit, I answered questions about why I wrote my three books, the power of story telling as it relates to children’s literature and teaching, children’s book authors who have influenced my work, my school visit experiences, and much more. I also responded to questions posed by the audience, many of whom were undergraduate Pace School of Education students.
I want to thank Dr. Smith for initiating this event, Dr. Falk-Ross for enthusiastically participating, and Desiree Narciso, who handled behind the scenes technical assistance.
Reactions to the visit:
“The themes in Dr. Franks-Randall’s books, including kindness, social justice and anti-bullying, are all valued in an elementary classroom. During her author visit to Pace’s School of Education, she suggested ways that our future educators could incorporate these themes into their own teaching. She talked about her own journey as a storyteller and lover of children’s literature. Carol left the future teachers feeling empowered to embrace personal narratives as a way to connect to young students and create a more kind and empathetic classroom community. Thank you for sharing your talents and wisdom with us!” Dr. Elizabeth Smith, Clinical Assistant Professor, Pace University School of Education
“Something I liked was that Dr. Franks-Randall throws in a few big word into her books because they are powerful. Kids may not always be able to read them, or understand them, but they are learning and can ask questions. This is building their vocabulary and building their understanding. They learn to make sense of these words and ask questions which makes them even smarter. Another thing about the author’s writing process is to always have a beginning, middle and end. She never wants to leave her audience hanging, she wants to give them what they came for. She encourages a plot for her books and this provides them with structure. Lastly, she thinks telling students your own personal narrative is an amazing teaching tool. She was talking about how things in your life matter and writing about them is very important. She really encourages telling students to have them reflect upon their own because their writing will thrive like hers. I really enjoyed Dr. Franks-Randall sharing her stories and her experiences with us. I think this adds to our own learning goals because we got advice and first-hand perspective from a real author that has been through what we are going through and the process of learning to teach and teaching to learn.” A.N., Pace University Student
“Dr. Franks Randall inspired me as a future educator because of the activity ideas she was giving for her books. She explained that for one of the books, children get into groups of 2 or 3 and create a poster to persuade people to read the book. This causes kids to be engaged in the reading and also take matters into their own hands of creativity. Also, another activity she created was that the kids act out parts of the book and they get to play the characters. Both of these lessons showed me how many ideas there are to do for books and that the possibilities are endless. All of her activities were hands on learning based on the book that will keep students engaged and motivated.” R.S., Pace University Student
“Overall, the author visit was very insightful. Dr. Franks-Randall showed me some great writing activities to do with students and how to get them to be more involved with their reading. I also learned how powerful that children’s literature can be and how it can persuade a student’s decisions. Her talk connected with my aspirations as a future teacher because I want my students to read diverse books and have meaningful conversations about them. I also want my students to be engaged with the activities that go along with each story. When listening I began to wonder how I could use her books within the classroom and how I could tie them into a lesson. Also, I was reflecting on all the things that need to get done within the school year so when she said that as teachers, we need to pick books that have a wide variety to them to maximize the short amount of time there is for reading within the school day. The visit with Dr. Franks-Randall really got me thinking about incorporating her books into my future classroom and using them for a variety of different lessons.” V.B., Pace University Student
“Carol Franks-Randall started talking about her illustrator and what I found so shocking was that she never met her. They do everything virtually and through email or dropbox. I think
hearing her story about taking risks is so important because it is so easy to get wrapped up in everyday life and it is easy to be so scared to do something that you end up not doing something that could have been beneficial for you. She also spoke about how the process worked with her illustrator and how the cover of the book is essential because it is the first thing that you see. If you see a book and are not interested in the cover then you most likely will not go out of your way to read it. When you go into early childhood or childhood classes it is important to see books and lots of them. She wanted to make sure that the cover stood out enough that children would want to take it off the shelves which I admire. I am so glad that I went on the zoom call and listened to this wonderful woman.” T.A., Pace University Student