Dream On has brought fantastic native English speaking Storytellers to visit schools throughout Latin America since 2003.

Dream On for 2010, is presenting Storyteller Andy Wright.

Andy works full time as a Storyteller, giving over 2000 performances every year to children of all ages.

Andy Wright previously did two successful tours for Dream On in Argentina and in Uruguay in 2008, visiting a variety of schools:

Lilia Wiman of St Andrew's, Olivos, prepared this photomontage, which will give you a visual flavour of his performances:
http://www.storyteller.net.au/sound/AndyW.wmv
(WMV files can be viewed in Windows Media Player, which is part of Windows)

Silvia Rivara of Cristoforo Colombo (Italian-Spanish-English) said:

"I just wanted to thank you all for the wonderful time we had yesterday at our school in the company of Andy. The feedback we got from our students later on showed that they enjoyed the storytelling session enormously..."

Marcela Logioio of Colegio Río de la Plata (Spanish-English) said:

"FUE ES-PEC-TA-CU-LAR!!!! I was SPEECHLESS!!! Al final, yo estaba más exhausta que él y me creí todo!!! Olí los olores del cuento, ví los personajes, me asusté, me reí… LO VIVI como le sucedió a todos mis alumnos..."

The success of these visits lies in the impressive ability of the Storytellers to adapt their stories to different levels of English and different ages. Below are links to story samples BUT bear in mind when listening that Andy adapts to the audience, regulating speed and changing vocabulary to ensure that students understand and interact with the stories.

Listen (Anansi) Listen (The Hobyahs)

He was born in Berkshire, England, but his family immigrated to New Zealand where he spent much of his childhood. Andy does a lot of international work these days and is often seen as a Cultural Ambassador for New Zealand.

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Andy's early life was deeply affected by having a blind mother, blind grandmother and blind great grandmother, all of whom told stories in the ancient celtic tradition. One aspect of Andrew’s storytelling is the ability to paint pictures with words. Andy was influenced and learned to storytell from his visually impaired family members, which lead to a great reliance on his choice and use of words, and with a wide range of voice.

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His accent is very clear for English language learners. The more your students listen to native speakers, especially in person, the more they will pick up a good and natural accent and understand the intonation and rhythm of the language.

A brief introduction to Andy as a storyteller and what it is like to grow up with blind family members.

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2-4 stories depending on the stories and their length. Each story has a short introduction. Stories are chosen according to the audience's needs.

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The kind of interaction varies: from clapping and body movement or chanting (Kindergarten) to discussion of English Literature or debate (Secondary).

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Finish with a thank you to the audience and a simple message about the value of stories.

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"The importance of working with English speaking story tellers, lies in children responding better to real situations such as: having an English native speaker story teller visitor" Colegio Fleming - Read full comment