Author

Author Cards

Introduction

Have you noticed that there are lots of baseball card clones available now. Baseball cards have led to NASCAR cards, football cards, basketball cards, and even rock star cards. What if the library had author cards to look at?

For Example:


Avi	Caroline B. Cooney	Jerry Spinelli	Phyllis Reynolds Naylor	R. L. Stine

Task

You've been asked by the University of Delaware's "Festival of Words" committee to create author cards for circulation during the festival. You realize that you'll need some information similar to what is offered on other collectable cards: names, pictures, biographical information, statistics, etc. You recognize that it might be smart to spotlight one of the author's books that is to be presented. Reading the book would be the best way to do that, but just in case you haven't you may want to visit some book review sites. Check out our card catalog too and take a look at the book....take it out. Maybe their publisher may have some information on them. Check them out to!

Once you've got the low-down on your author begin to make a power point to support your card presentation. Authors are verbal masterpieces. To make your presentation interesting you have decided to allow "pictures to tell a thousand words." So the only words that the committe will see will be on your title page and bibliography. No problem because you'll fill in the blanks during your oral presentation. Have fun with creativity.

Where to go for help : Go to a search engine and look for your author. Look for information on authors in the library.

Step 1: Research the author. Remember to jot down your resources AS you use them. It's easier to do it then rather than trying to find the spot later!! You might look for following information:

a picture(s) of the author
biographical information (Name, Date of Birth, Hometown, Family)
list of books that the author wrote; pictures of those books

Step 2: In Microsoft word create a folder for your information, resources, and pictures. Save the author picture(s) into your folder as a jpeg or gif file.

If your picture is on the internet, do a right click on the picture and choose Save Image As. Save it onto your folder under my documents.
If your picture is in a book, use the scanner attached to the computer and scan the picture. Crop the picture to the size you need, then save it to your disk.

Step 3: Create your card using Power Point.

Step 4: Print your card out, fold it in half and trim it. Turn it in to be laminated.

Step 5: Now the fun begins. Open Power Point on you computer. Using a blank presentation slide begin your work. Remember to keep pictures and sounds to those that pertain to the author: his/her works, thoughts, character, etc. You need at least 4 slides other than the title and bibliographic slides (a total of 6 slides).

Evaluation

Well you've checked them out. You found out who they are, where they live, and what makes them tick. Anyone of them could be your neighbor, family member, or friend. What were the impressions of them when you presented them to the class? How collectable will that card you made be in later years? Have you created a visual picture of the impact of the author that is lasting to the committee?

Teacher's Page

re-created by J. Reynolds Dec. 2002

original ideas from "Author , Author"