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School & Library Visits

Book a school visit. Your students will feel lucky you’re their teacher!

When kids meet authors, illustrators or performers, books and stories are brought to life. School visits have lasting benefits for kids and adults, and teachers often see a related surge of creativity in the classroom.

It’s easy to find CANSCAIP authors, illustrators and performers for school visits. You can find and contact our Members from their profiles on this website. Their school presentations can be tailored to the curriculum, or student ages and interests.

Do you want to invite a CANSCAIP member to your school or library? 

See who's available here 

Content of school visits

  • Authors might talk about the process of creating books, show their first drafts and editing notes, and read aloud from their books. 
  • Illustrators might show their sketches and finished art, and demonstrate drawing techniques.
  • Performers might be singer-musicians, storytellers of traditional or original tales, puppeteers--and many have a combination of performance skills. 
  • Writing workshops could include interactive writing exercises with guidance from the author.
  • Illustration workshops could include creating characters or scenes, with the illustrator offering suggestions on facial expressions or perspective.
  • Performance workshops might include storytelling with call and response, singalong, learning a song, and improvisation of rap.
  • Presentations and workshops are usually followed by Q&A.
  • Many CANSCAIP Members also offer presentations via Zoom or other platforms.

Lasting benefits of school visits

  • Kids experience the story behind the story—writing, rewriting, researching, expressing creativity, finding ideas, and using their own experiences.
  • Kids feel encouraged to create their own stories, artwork, and performance.
  • Teachers are inspired with new ideas for teaching creative writing, essay writing, illustrating and storytelling.
  • The creator reinforces the value of essential learning tools like planning, research, self-editing, rewriting, practising.
  • Meeting an author, illustrator or performer  is a revelation for some kids—that their love of writing stories, making pictures, or performing could become their adult work. 

Getting ready for school visits

  • Familiarity with the books is the key to successful school visits. Students get very enthusiastic about school visits when they’ve read the books, and can see the an author's, illustrator's or storyteller's connection to story.
  • Teachers can incorporate the upcoming school visit into a teaching unit, such as research, crafts, and preparing questions students would like to ask.
  • Arrange for the author, illustrator or performer to bring books, CDs or DVDs to sell. Kids of all ages love getting books and other items autographed.

Payments for school visits

  • Like any professional, authors, illustrators and performers charge for their presentations.
  • Our Members set their own rates, but in the interests of maintaining a professional level across the country, CANSCAIP suggests $300 (plus GST/HST) as a minimum for presentations up to an hour (based on Canada Council for the Arts guidelines). Some of our Members will charge more. 
  • If long-distance travel is required, the additional costs are generally covered by the school.
  • Nearby schools and libraries may also be interested in a visit, and sharing travel expenses. And your author or illustrator will appreciate the extra bookings.

For a listing of CANSCAIP Members to invite to a school or library, click here.

We recommend that teachers and librarians read the FAQ for Teachers on Author, Illustrator and Performer Visits to Schools prepared by CANSCAIP members Rachna Gilmore, Liam O'Donnell, Margriet Ruurs, Valerie Sherrard, Christine Tripp and Frieda Wishinsky.

Speakers for Conferences

CANSCAIP Members are often asked to speak about the creative process, read from their work or perform for audiences at conferences.

CANSCAIP Members charge a fee for their professional services. Our Members set their own rates, but in the interests of maintaining a professional level across the country, CANSCAIP suggests a range of $300 to $1000. Because these presentations are written specifically to address a conference theme or workshop topic, they require a great deal of preparation time, and therefore a larger fee.

For all of the above, GST/HST and travel expenses are over and above the presentation fee.

CANSCAIP
720 Bathurst St., Suite 412, Toronto, ON M5S 2R4

Email: office@canscaip.org
Phone: 1-416-515-1559

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