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Booking A Workshop

Brian "Fox" Ellis
Fox Tales International
P.O. Box 10800
Peoria, IL 61612
309-689-8000

ARRANGING A WORKSHOP:

Workshops are available for students, teachers, parents, naturalists and the clergy. They can be one hour or two hour presentations, daylong workshops, a weeklong Artist-in-Residence, or a semester or yearlong course offering. All workshops are experiential; the only way to learn storytelling is by doing it! Fox's experience as a classroom teacher allows him to readily share his talent and ideas in coherent step-by-step instructions while allowing participants opportunity for creative self-expression. Each presentation is given emphasis to fit the needs of the host. Fox has taught graduate level courses, business and sales seminars, elder hostel programs, high school and junior high, as well as pre-school. This broad range of experience insures that each program is tailored to meet the needs of the participants.

For students the focus is on improving thinking and communication skills through creative writing and dramatics. Self-concept enhancement and intrinsic motivation are indirect benefits of this process. Teachers can choose the primary emphasis: creative writing in the content area, or dramatics and the art of telling tales. In the "Tale Tellers" presentation each student will learn the skills necessary to bring the printed page to life and then tell a story to his or her peers. In the "Recipe for a Story" workshop, students will be guided through the writing process with the goal of creating an original story. Themes are chosen by the teacher and can cover any of the topics outlined in the performance themes. Possibilities include poetry, tall tales, science stories, historical-fiction and oral history projects among others.

For educators the emphasis is on using storytelling as a tool for integrating the curriculum. Writing strategies and the writing process are reviewed. Cooperative learning is emphasized. There is ample time given to basic storytelling skills. More importantly, teachers are challenged to discover ways to integrate stories into the curriculum "on Monday." The workshops have been designed so they can easily be adapted to most any grade level. They also complement most state and federal mandated curriculum guidelines. Specific workshops for educational conferences, school in-service days and after-school staff training sessions include:

• Bringing Classic Literature to Life: Storytelling Basics
• Storytelling and the Reading-Writing Connection
• A Tapestry of Teaching Tales: Storytelling and Creative Writing as Warp and Weave for Integrating the Curriculum
• Learning From The Land: Storytelling and Creative Writing as Tools for Teaching Science
• Mark Twain’s River History (And Her-Story, Too!)
• Creative Writing Across the Curriculum in the Cooperative Classroom: Integrating Various Pedagogical Models for More Effective Teaching and Learning
• Learning to Tell Our Story: Auto/Biography and Oral Histories
• Storytelling, Multiculturalism and Conflict Resolution: Anthropology Through Mythology & Folklore

For a more detailed outline of these and other workshops please click here: Workshops

Parent workshops focus on telling family stories and creating a rich literary environment in the home. Parents are guided into deep memory to tell the stories of their childhood and their relatives. Oral history projects are initiated and ideas for encouraging reading and writing are shared. Research has shown us what we have always known: a child’s first teacher is his or her parent!

Naturalists can gain a better understanding of their local environment and learn exciting ways to communicate that information. They will learn to read the stories of the land, sing the songs of animals, and tell the tales of creation.

Rabbis, Ministers, Priests, and Sunday School Teachers are encouraged to comb the world's religions for wisdom tales. They are invited to allow the voice of the Spirit to speak through them. Sacred text and personal experience can be blended to create powerful sermons and soliloquies. Stories are the seeds for contemplation and discussion.

Businesses and Sales Meetings are a great venue to work on the art of storytelling as a sales tool. The workshop will help employees to open lines of communication and to build community in the corporate culture. We will share stories of successful sales strategies and tragedies narrowly averted to glean the wisdom of our peers. Successful leaders are great storytellers. Great storytellers are also good listeners. Participants can develop presentation skills while simultaneously exploring corporate history and mapping out a vision for the future.

If you are interested in hosting a workshop or seminar you will need to answer many of the same questions in the next section Booking a Performance. Please call 309-689-8000 or use the link below to discuss the possibilities.