Our Program
Key Principles
- Everyone has a story to tell.
- Sharing stories promotes connection and engagement.
- Engaging the entire school community is essential.
- All children deserve access to quality books.
Through a unique collaboration with schools, The Author Experience delivers a sustainable program grounded in the transformative power of story. Our goal is to build a lasting culture of literacy—one in which students, their families, and educators craft their stories and develop their voices together. The pillars of The Author Experience are author partnerships, family engagements, and targeted professional development. Participating students will demonstrate increased confidence, self-efficacy, and literacy proficiency. In addition, the students and adults in the greater school community become more connected.
The partnership includes:
- A face-to-face author visit with second-grade students who all get a bag full of books including at least one of the visiting author’s books and a writer’s notebook.
- Video interactions with students from the second-grade classrooms when they are in 3rd-5th grade. Students receive an additional writer’s notebooks and books (also by the visiting author).
- Professional Learning Modules for staff about embedding stories throughout the curriculum, helping students cultivate their stories, and engaging families in the process. (Some authors participate in these, others do not.)
- Second grade family co-story creation event. (Some authors participate in this, others do not.)
- School-wide family events (like story slams, story creation using story quilts, reading stories). (Some authors participate in these, others do not.)
We partner with schools that have at least 80% of their student population receiving free or reduced lunch.
(TAE currently works with schools in New York City and New Jersey. We are hoping to expand to other locations in the future.)