“Can We See ur Dog[?]”: Co‐Constructing Virtual Author Visits in the Chat

Abstract

Author/illustrator school visits are literacy events that positively impact children's motivation to read and write. The emergence of COVID‐19, however, made face‐to‐face visits impossible, forcing visits to use video conferencing platforms. The assumption is that these virtual visits are a “lesser version” of the face‐to‐face visit: less engaging, less effective, and less inspiring, but our experiences (and data) offer a more nuanced perspective. We analyzed data generated during a virtual author/illustrator school visit with Sara Varon to better understand what kinds of interactions emerged between authors/illustrators and children in virtual spaces. We aimed to answer: How do children, teachers, and authors/illustrators co‐construct meaning during a virtual visit through the use of the chat function? The implications of our work have the potential to redesign author/illustrator visits moving forward—whether those are virtual or in‐person.