| Music, Storytelling, Education |
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John is available and ideal for a wide variety of venues and occasions. He will develop a program to entertain, amuse, inform and delight the audience for which he is booked.
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Music
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 John's music sets are chosen to suit the audience. He likes plenty of participation from his audience so that it is an experience for them and not just a sit and listen event. If background music is what you want then that can be accommodated. His sets are developed from a basis of acoustic and electric guitar, dulcimer and blues harmonica. The type of music he covers ranges from contemporary and traditional folk music, to country, blues, a little light rock and a few humorous songs for good measure.
His English accent is a distinct advantage in developing a rapport with the audience.
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Story Telling
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Available for Schools, Festivals, Fairs, Parties, Historic events, and Libraries.
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How Storytelling has connections with the Ohio Academic Content Standards
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- Language Arts
- Reading Applications
- Sharpen Listening skills
- Good oral presentations
- Figurative speech
- Descriptive vocabulary
- Adjust volume and stress important words
- How to set up suspense and humor
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| An in depth presentation will also include |
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| Writing Process |
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- How to develop a story.
- Discuss revising and editing both in the oral and written presentations of a story.
- How to set up good starter sentences and use description to enhance interest in the story.
- Using the stories, students will see how to identify the main idea,
See how ideas connect, Predict outcomes, Draw conclusions and make inferences.
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| Literacy Applications |
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- Analyze plot and setting
- Identify the theme, major ideas and cause and effect
- Appreciation of other stories
- Be able to respond to the stories
- Critical Thinking
- Be able to formulate open-ended questions,
Develop a critical look at the aspects of the story
- Critique the characters and their actions.
- Brainstorm possible alternative actions.
- Using critical thinking skills come up with a better plan.
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 John's story telling is for children, grownups or families. He has a wide collection of ancient folk tales, contemporary stories and a number of which he has written himself. Many of his stories are related to places he has visited or lived. England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. You not only hear a story but learn a little geography as well.
John uses guitar, harmonica and any other props he thinks may be useful when telling stories. From the ancient tale of Physicians of Myddfi to the Roman Gold mine of Dolicothy, to the Terror of the Cellar you will be enchanted, terrified and happy.
Watch a Story! - 2Mb - Windows Media
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Education
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John is available to enhance school subjects such as, Geography, History and other Social Studies in conjunction with teachers. He has found that students ask questions that are prompted by having a live Englishman in front of them. It is an opportunity they may never have had before.
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The aim is to enhance the following bench marks
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Geography
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Students use knowledge of geographic locations, patterns and processes to show the interrelationship between the physical environment and human activity and to explain the interactions that occur in an increasingly interdependent world.
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History
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Students use materials drawn from the diversity of human experience to analyze and interpret significant events, patterns, and themes in the history of Ohio, the United States and the world.
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People in Societies
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Students use knowledge of perspectives, practices and products of cultural, ethnic and social groups to analyze the impact of their commonality and diversity within local, national, regional and global settings.
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To find out more, please contact me!
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Workshops
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John is available for workshops on Folk Music, It's history and progression through the years. How folk music traveled to the Americas and took on it's own life. How folk music was the newspaper of the day and the spread of the Broad sheets.
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John's Background
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John’s interest in History, Geography and the Social History of Britain inevitably led him to a study of traditional folk music. He found that folk music became a central thread that pulled all of these subjects together.
John became
interested in folk music in the early 70s. He became a regular visitor to Folk Clubs in the area that he lived in England. Starting to play guitar within a few months of discovering the folk scene he went on to perform at open stages and various folk clubs, pubs, festivals and other venues. He has also been known to get a tune out of a penny whistle, English concertina and a banjo.
He has been involved in running Folk Clubs in Worcestershire, Devonshire, and Carmarthenshire in Wales. He has been a much sought after MC at festivals, folk events and numerous charity events.
John Plays: Washburn acoustic, Washburn semi acoustic, Gibson Les Paul, Dulcimer and Blues Harmonica.
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