AUTHOR VISITS
What teachers like: Cross-curriculum language arts and visual learning. Lots of laughs!
What kids like: Imagining travel to fabulous places. Creating their own wild and crazy poems! Lots of laughs!
Program Description
My picture book presentations include:
- reading Ten Rules You Absolutely Must Not Break if You Want to Survive the School Bus
- discussing examples of animal imagery
- find-the-squirrel activity
and / or
- reading The Travel Game
- discussion of the globe and travel to foreign places.
My poetry presentation is interactive and includes:
- an explanation of what a concrete poem is
- a brief history of the form
- reading of some of my concrete poems
- showing the relationship between the graphics and the words
- for smaller workshops, helping each child create an original concrete poem or story
Audience:
Best suited for grades K to 8.
Honorarium
Contact John Grandits to find out about speaking fees.
Reviews for John’s Speaking Engagements
“Watching you effectively communicate the magic of language to students on a daily basis was a treat for the students and me personally. Teachers have phoned to say their students are writing concrete poetry, even though it has not been assigned!”
— Maureen Lasley, Tahoma Dept. of Education, Red Bluff, CA
“Thank you for the wonderful poetry presentation! All the sixth graders enjoyed your fun-filled presentation. The teachers, as well, came away with great ideas to enhance the teaching of concrete poetry.”
— Carole Disalvo, Thompson Middle School, Middletown, NJ
Reviews for John’s Books
“Grandits combines technical brilliance and goofy good humor to provide an accessible, fun-filled collection of poems, brought to life through a brilliant book design.”
— School Library Journal, starred
“An exuberant celebration of wordplay that’s certain to broaden kids’ understanding and appreciation of the possibilities of poetry”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Graphically inventive sequence of concrete poems . . . mimes an 11-year-old's sarcastic perspective...A technically (and imaginatively) inspired typeface experiment.”
—Publishers Weekly