School visits

Nancy tailors her school appearances to meet the mix of topics that will be most useful to students and teachers. Both programs are suitable for small or large groups. Nancy is available to sign books. The time and place of the book signing will be the choice of the school.

Kiss Your Brain is a humorous, engaging program customized for preschool and primary students.  Nancy discusses how books are made from the real-life ideas behind each book.  She reads from her books and talks with students about how she came up with the idea for the story.  This program is interactive with student participation.  With each idea presented by a student, the student is asked to kiss his/her brain. Students learn the process of developing an idea, writing a manuscript, the roles of editors and publishers, and how books are printed.  A few minutes is allowed for questions from the audience.  Sessions are 45-60 minutes in length.  The session time can be adjusted to meet the needs of the school.

The Write Stuff is a full-of-fun program for older students.  Nancy discusses the writing process and actively involves the students by teaching them how to create ideas for stories. She emphasizes generating and developing ideas, writing manuscripts, revision, editing, and publishing. She also stresses the use of the five senses to develop detailed descriptions in writing. Preliminary sketches, revised manuscripts, and book galleys are shown to the students with detailed explanations of how each plays an important role in the publishing of the book.  The program ends with a question-and-answer session with students and teachers. Sessions are 45-60 minutes in length.  The session time can be adjusted to meet the needs of the school. Nancy has experience in writing test questions for CCSS national testing in the area of writing.

• Award-winning author Nancy Kelly Allen follows this rule: create pictures with words. Nancy discusses how she writes stories, from the generation of the idea, to the development of the plot, to the finished manuscript; the process of book publishing; techniques for effective use of picture books in the classroom; helpful hints and usable ideas in an attention-grabbing approach to introducing literature to children.  These practical concepts can be applied to teaching students in subjects across the curriculum in grades K-8.  Both fiction and nonfiction books will be used in a variety of educational strategies. The author uses her own books as demonstrative models as well as books by a variety of authors.
  
  

• Nancy has experience creating test items in writing for National Standards testing. She presents fresh ideas using creative writing exercises for the elementary and high school classrooms.  The author uses sensory devices to engage the writer’s imagination. The program will focus on writing fiction and informational works, including the following:
  How to
  *hook the reader in the beginning
  *use sensory descriptors to create pictures with words
  *develop characters
  *use action to move the plot forward 
• *develop an organized story with a beginning, middle and ending
  *use precise word choice to show actions and feelings
  *create dialog
  Research information
  First vs. final drafts