Wherein the lunch bunch book group visits with Anne Ursu via Skype

The 5th grade lunch bunch book group had an engaging and dynamic time reading The Real Boy by Anne Ursu. Each week, this exuberant bunch would arrive spilling through the door with questions and statements.  It was a great way to begin our discussion.  

Today, these readers visited with Anne Ursu and had a few of their burning questions answered (they could have gone on much longer, but needed to get back to class).  Anne was wonderful. She answered each question thoughtfully and succinctly and left these readers satisfied.  She also imparted strategies for writing - I am eager to see how this knowledge impacts them.  

Here's information from an earlier post on the lunch bunch book group:

The Lunch Bunch Book Group has been reading The Real Boy by Anne Ursu. Each week we gather to reflect on the book, share events that surprised us, and share theories and predictions. It is often this last part that gets the students so excited. Along with discussions, the students have been using pen and paper and technology tools to express themselves.  Here are some of their projects.

The Lunch Bunch Book Group reads The Real Boy

The Lunch Bunch Book Group has been reading The Real Boy by Anne Ursu. Each week we gather to reflect on the book, share events that surprised us, and share theories and predictions. it is often this last part that gets the students so excited. Along with discussions, the students have been using pen and paper and technology tools to express themselves.  Here are some of their projects.

Anne Ursu was...

"Inspiring!"

          "Informative!"

                          "Nice!"
                                   "Helpful!"
                                               "Amazing!"


These are the words my 4th and 5th grade students used when completing my sentence about Anne Ursu.  She visited our school yesterday and she was inspiring, informative, nice, helpful and amazing. The students loved hearing the stories behind her books.

 

They also loved getting writing advice from a "real" writer.

Today, in library I had the students reflect on the visit by sharing a "take away" from the visit.

I also gave them an opportunity to ask any questions that they had not had a chance to ask yesterday.  

We ran out of time yesterday and there were still so many hands left in the air! 

Which character in Breadcrumbs do you think best describes yourself and why?

How does writing books influence your life?

Are any of the characters in your books based on real people from your life?

Are you interested in magic because both The Real Boy and Breadcrumbs involve magic?

Where did you get the idea for Caleb in The Real Boy?

Why did you give the characters in Breadcrumbs such interesting traits?

Was there specific inspiration in making Hazel a misfit?

We use a story arc in our classroom, do you?

How do you come up with your descriptive words?

What is the first step in the writing process?

What’s your favorite part of writing books?

What do you do when you get writers block?

How do you get inspiration for a book?

How long does it take to get your books written and published?

Which was the hardest book to write?

Are you writing any books right now and if you are what is it about?

Anne answered all of these questions and more!  I heard form the classroom teachers that a few students were using some of the writing strategies that she shared in the morning during their afternoon work!