Author discussions - circle time chat

melbourne writers festival August 2015 - why not get talking sooner? 

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I was in a Year 5 classroom recently exploring their class library. In fact I was more interested not what was on the shelves , but what was in the hands of the readers. Paul Jennings was. There was an argument about who got to read Unreal which ended with a student screaming "But I'm not Unbelievable - I'm Unreal" which made me giggle... These are books I remember loving and reading as a young reader years ago which got me thinking why can't we use circle time discussion to focus on an author? It happens all the time in the world beyond the classroom - look at the Melbourne Writers Festival program! So here are some circle time (discussion) prompts for teachers to use with their co- learners based on the conversation with Paul Jennings that appeared in Dumbo Feather, late 2011.