Share here news from your area regarding reading groups, your teacher training activities in the field of reading and literature and also some news that might interest the whole group. This is a space to broaden our interaction with other teachers who may join us in the future.
     You can also share here some information on reading projects you have developed with your students or some research you have been carrying on in this area.
    
     We all look forward to hearing what you have been doing in terms of reading and literature in ELT.
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Hello all
     I received a message from Rosie Pike from the the BBC World Service in London from a programme called 'World Book Club'.
     Each month the programme invites a well known author onto the programme to talk about their most well known book. Then they ask readers form all over the world to put questions directly to the author.
    
     Rosie contacted us to see if any of you would be interested in reading the next books and putting questions forward. In the next few months they will have Sara Paretsky talking about 'Indemnity Only' and also Edna O'Brien on her book 'The Country Girls'.
    
     If some of you have access to these books and interest in participating , please check
     BBC World Book Club
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Dear friends,
    
     I would be interested to hear from any of you who may be involved with Creative Writing in EFL. There are plans here in Brazil to evaluate interest in a joint ELT-Arts Project to promote creative writing (short stories, poetry etc) as a unique insight into the cultural diversity which English as a lingua franca helps to disseminate.
    
     Bye for now,
    
     Graeme.

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CRITICAL READING: THE LEARNER IS THE STARTING POINT
    
     This project was developed as an outcome of the Hornby Summer School Brazil 2006 by two of its participants: Maria Esther Linares (Lima –Peru), and Chris Lima (Porto Alegre-Brazil) and it had the support of the British Council. No funds were necessary for its development as all the work was done using the free blog tool available in the internet.
     We would like to explore the possibility of exposing upper-intermediate and advanced students to carefully designed questions aimed at developing critical reading and critical literacy. We believe that being encouraged to respond to such questions would not only help learners to become more aware of how language is used to convey meaning, the authors’ suppositions and their implications; but would also help to improve their general reading and writing skills. Therefore, we would like to evaluate possible outcomes and assess if this sort of exposure would indeed produce the results expected.
    
     OPEN BOOK PHASE 1
     Posts - The first phase of this project lasted from March to July 2006 and 120 students participated in it. The set book for that semester was Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Three sets of questions were posted in the project blog and learners wrote 106 comments altogether during this period.
     The Questions – the questions ranged from pre-reading questions to comprehension questions in a later stage. Although our objective was to introduce critical literacy to EFL learners we reckon that most questions posted to not follow into the CL scope. They vary from traditional reading to critical reading in this first phase because considering the reading habits of our students we opted to introduce the CL sort of questions gradually.
    
     OPEN BOOK PHASE 2
     From August to November 2006, we :
     • worked with George Orwell, 1984.
     • had the majority of the questions falling into the Critical Literacy category
     • had students creating their own blogs to comment on the set book and also for any other sort of topics they choose to write about.
    
     AIMS
     We believe that the following aims were successfully achieved:
     -to motivate students to draw their own conclusions and express them in writing;
     -to motivate students to do extensive reading using the FCE set books;
     -to help students learn how use blogs for learning purposes.
    
     COMMENTS
     We believe this has been an innovative way of giving a new dimension and purpose to the reading of FCE set books and also innovative in the use of students’ blogs for learning purposes.
    
     Students enjoyed the experience and would like to be part of a similar project but this time choosing the books they would like to read, not only the FCE set books.
    
     Hope our experience will enlighten other EFL teachers regarding critical reading and literacy.
    
     MEL and Chris

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Dear All
    
     First of all, I'd like to apologise for this quite long absence from here and for not being able to reply to your posts. This was due to some health problems. I'm still slowly trying to recover, but I'll do my best to catch up and come back into the debate. Missed you all!!
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Hi everyone
    
     Just a quick note to give congratulations to Mostafa on being awarded a Train-the-Trainers certificate from the University of Middle-East Project -UMEP. Congrats Mostafa!!!!
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Hello everyone
    
     Replying to Adolatkal's post to the *In the National Gallery* thread about promoting our group, I'd like to say that I'm really glad that our members are interested in bringing more and more teachers to join us. I'm already happy that there was a sign in an event in Uzbekistan telling people about the group.
    
     People in the British Council are doing their best to help us and promote this initiative. As you know we now have our own webpage to help to promote the group and I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank everyone that has helped this to come true: Juliet Wragge-Morley, Timothy Ackroyd, Susan Tranter, Fitch O'Connell and also Penny Trigg and Julian Wing, from the ELT department.
    
     I believe that what we, as group members, can do is to spread the word around and invite people to visit our webpage and join us. We hope to count on you all to help to bring other teachers from all over the world to discuss these great texts with us.
    
     Please, click here to visit the ELT e-Reading group webpage
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Hi everyone -
    
     Just to invite you to take a look at this article by Terry Eagleton published in the Guardian today about William Blake's original political vision. Really interesting. Please fell free to post some comments here in our Chat Corner :)
    
     The original political vision: sex, art and transformation

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Posting on the behalf of the BBC World Book Club
    
     JG BALLARD on BBC WORLD BOOK CLUB
    
     On Thursday 24th January 2008, JG Ballard will be talking about his novel The Empire of the Sun on World Book Club
     If you would like to put a question to JG Ballard about The Empire of the Sun, or be a part of the programme recording, please email
    
     worldbookclub@bbc.co.uk
    
     Based on JG Ballard's own childhood, Empire of the Sun is the extraordinary account of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai - a mesmerising, hypnotically compelling novel of war, of starvation and survival, of internment camps and death marches. It blends searing honesty with an almost hallucinatory vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint. Rooted as it is in the author's own disturbing experience of war, it is one of a handful of novels by which the twentieth century will be not only remembered but judged.
    
     The BBC World Book Club is a unique radio programme that brings readers from around the world together with their favourite writers.
    
     Every month the presenter Harriett Gilbert invites you to send in your question to a best-selling author. Since its launch five years ago, the writers appearing on the World Book Club have been of the highest calibre. The Nobel laureates Wole Soyinka, Orhan Pamuk, VS Naipaul and Doris Lessing as well as several Booker prize winners including Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Salman Rushdie have been among the many that have answered questions from their readers around the world.
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Hi! Im Pilar, I´m a teacher and teacher trainer from Argentina, my students have uploaded a blog, thereis one story for children and ways of exploiting material for teens, the address is www.prof-3-y-4.blogspot.com
     It will be some pleasure to hear your comments on the blog.
     Thanks!!

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Dear Chris,
    
     I am new to Chat Corner, but not new to this Site.
     I live in The Bahamas where I am a Writer. I am presently assisting Junior Writers ages eight years to twelve years in developing their Creativity and Skills to become Published Authors.
    
     Our Group is called ""The Commonwealth Writers of The Bahamas TCWB". There are Adults writers as well, but we have been preparing the Children to display their Creativity by Public Speaking.
    
     They have been presented to Her Excellency Dame Ivy Dumont, Governor General of The Bahamas at Government House.
    
     We discovered the Childrens skill in Writing two years ago during a Short Story Competition. The Theme was "Write About A Hurricane Experience".
    
     We never expected them to write in such details of their experiences. There were three winners, Shannon Butler 9yrs, Donario Archer 9yrs,
     and Brandi Wheeler, 10yrs.
     There are 700 islands in The Bahamas, twenty of those islands are inhabited.
     Some of our Junior Writers live and attend Primary School in these Islands. It is very difficult to communicate with them so we have developed a Radio Program called "Writing The Region" where information is broadcasted throughout the Islands.
    
     This is very expensive, but very necessary. We are Non Profit.
    
     The Children are preparing their Book for Publication,
     in 2008. They have been busy last year trying to raise funds, but never enough.
     Plans arte being made for a Writers Work Shop in February.
    
     I will keep you up to informed.
     HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.

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Dear Caribe
    
     Thank you so much for sharing information about Junior Writers with us. It's fantastic to know what is going on in so many different places, especially when teachers really have a committment to projects that make the difference to people in their communities. Congratulations on that and I wish you all the success!
    
     Please, do keep us informed and let me know if I can be of any help in your project.
    
     All the best
     Chris

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Dear Everyone
    
     This is a very simple message, just to wish you a great New Year - full of health, love and joy.
    
     Thanks so much for your support and participation in 2007, which has made this project such a rewarding reading and networking experience. We hope to count on all of you next year to keep our discussions going on.
    
     HAPPY 2008!!
    
     Chris

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My name is Joseph Mwansa. I am a lecturer in English and African languages teaching methods in Zambia. I would be intereted in hearing from teachers all over the world who, like me, teach both their mother tongues and English. My current interests include finding ways of building a reading culture among the youth; exploring links between first and second language reading and writing and how this can be used to improve reading and writing proficiency in our learners.
     Happy New Year and happy reading!
     Joseph

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Hi Joseph,
     My name is Maria Esther Linares and I started a project last year of critical reading for adolescentes, specially the ones taking the FCE (First Certificate in English) cambridge exam.
    
     Hope we can share some of the work we have been working with.
    
     Thanks
     MEL

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Hi Mel!!! Your name!!!! my mother was María Esther Linares too!!! Incredible! I ´m from Argentina and I do share your interests, I´m in the field of using Literature an songs as springboards for multiple response in the classroom, I teach at primary and tertiary levels and I´m a teacher trainer and Head of teh English department at the teacher training college. I feel it wil be wonderful to shyare experiences!!!!
     All the very best!
    
     pilar

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Hi Pilar,
     What a coincidence. Please give your personal e-mail to send some of the material I have been working on.
     Regards
     MEL

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Hi Maria,
    
     Thanks for the message. I would be very interested to see what you are doing. My project is still in the planning stage. I want to run it as an experiment. But can pass on details later.
     Thanks
     Joseph

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Hi Mel!! my email is maryadelpilar@yahoo.com.ar
     hugs!!
     Pilar

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hi Joseph! One of the things I´ve been doing with my students is a bblog on children´s lit. and some material to exploit with teens : the blog address is :www.prof-3-y-4.blogspot.com
     i´d love to hear your comments.
    
     Pilar

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Hi Pilar,
     I'm Liliana from Peru. I have visited your blog and I really like it!
     Congrats!!!
    
     Liliana

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Dear Chris!
     Thank you so much for your commitment to projects related reading/writing activities. I am a member of UzTEA-a professional organization of English teachers of Uzbekistan. I have already written you about our annual conference and find your reply about my not so pleasant remarks about some misappropriations within our organization very sensitive. We have annually a conference called CATEC, also the conference for all 5 post-soviet central Asian countries, which will be dedicated to the problems of writing skills and will be organized in Amati, Kazakhstan.. I would like to prepare a report based on my own experience, as a member of ELT Reading Club. I would like to contribute with my presentation ““Diverse written replies on one authentic text”.
     I am very sure that nobody know something very concrete about our Reading club here in central Asia,, because I did not hear any voice more . I suppose, this will be a good chance to promote Reading activities a and organize central Asian ELT Group chat corner.
     .How could you support me?
    
     Halima .Adolatkal.
     Besides, Adolat means in Uzbek
     rightness,correctness.Kalanov means to be great,
     more widely treating , concerning more people.These are my family name and the name of my Granddauther.

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Dear Adolaktal
     First of all, I'd like to thank you so much for your initiative. It would be fantastic if you could spread the word about our group in Central Asia and let people participating in the conference know about what we are doing here. I've prepared a PowerPoint presentation about the group that Pasi is going to use in a conference in Angola.
    
     If you could send me your email address, I can also send the presentation to you and we can exchange some ideas about it. Thanks once again for this! :)
     Cheers - Chris

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Dear Chris!
     Thank you very much! I suppose we have worked as a team of collaborators, contributing with so diverse opinions on the same text.I have recently visited Europe, was also in Austria, Germany , Netherlands.So many reading clubs are here! But nobody till present have read /interact about Doris Lessing's stories,also, we are the FIRST ones! Our experience must be heard!why not to begin with the Central Asia? Don't vorget,that Doris ia a child of the very asian soul!!!
     I really appreciate your commitment and assistance.
     Many wonderful books for our readers and a vivid online interactions in the New 2008 Year!!!
     Halima
     Here is my e-mail adrdess halima43@mail.ru

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Hello everyone
    
     Sorry for the absence from here but I was in Peru for Critical Literacy seminars and I also took the opportunity to present our group to the participants in the events.
    
     People showed a lot of interest in the reading group and I hope we will have more people visiting us soon. :)
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Hi everyone
    
     I would like to invite all of you to join our Literature Forum at Exeter Online - the virtual counterpart of the IATEFL conference that will take place in Exeter next April.
    
     Please, see the message below and the instructions on how to join the forum and the debates there.
     I hope to meet all of you at Exeter Online Literature Forum.
     Cheers - Chris
    
     IATEFL EXETER CONFERENCE:
     EXETER ONLINE WEBSITE LIVE
    
     Online conference coverage of the 42nd
     IATEFL Conference
    
     The Exeter Online website is now live at:
     http://exeteronline.britishcouncil.org
    
     The British Council and IATEFL have launched the
     Exeter Online website which offers coverage of this
     year's 42nd IATEFL Annual Conference in Exeter.
    
     The Exeter Online website allows remote participants
     to take part in one of the world's biggest ELT
     conferences through a variety of resources including:
     - Video recordings of selected sessions
     - Audio recordings of selected sessions
     - Live streamed plenaries and events
     - Moderated special interest discussion forums
     - Chat sessions
     - Blogs and photo albums
    
     To visit the Exeter Online website, go to:
     http://exeteronline.britishcouncil.org
     The first time you visit the site, you'll need to create
     your own free user account. Just follow the easy
     instructions.
    
     This initiative builds on the earlier collaboration
     between the British Council and IATEFL in
     Aberdeen last year, which brought together
     1,600 teachers and trainers at the actual conference,
     and 2,500 online. This year we expect a much larger
     audience, and this is a real opportunity to take part in
     the biggest online ELT training community.
    
     The launch of the Exeter Online website gives you
     an opportunity to share ideas with teachers all around
     the world. There will be interactive coverage with video
     presentations, reports and interviews 'almost live'
     from Exeter.
    
     We look forward to meeting you online, and hope
     that you will share this information with your colleagues
     worldwide.
    
     Gavin Dudeney Secretary, IATEFL
     Julian Wing British Council Exeter Online Project Manager
     Nik Peachey IATEFL Online Editor
    

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Hi all
    
     Just to let you know that thanks to support of IATEFL and the British Council I was able to present at the Literature, Media and Cultural Studies SIG pre-conference event in the IATEFL Annual Conference in Exeter.
    
     I was able to present our reading group and invite delegates to spread the word around when they go back to their countries. I hope we have mor epeople joining us in the months to come.
    
     Thanks a lot to Amos Paran, then the SIG president, for inviting me to be part of it. :)
    
     Cheers
     Chris

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Hi all
     Just to give you some good news. Pasi Nova, from Angola and one of our most enthusiastic members, has had a new baby called Hosanna.
     Congratulations Pasi!! We hope you can came back to the discussion board soon and bring little Hosanna with you. :)
    
     Chris

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chris
    
     well done . ı am really very happy . ı hope u can manage it and everyone will surprise thinking that they have never seen such a good presantation..
    
     see u

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Hello everyone
     I'd like to share this with you. Thanks Penny for letting me know about it and Philida for putting me in contact with the Core Group.
    
    
     'Colleagues based in Birmingham have come up with an interesting way of promoting reading.
     You will find below a really interesting initiative to promote reading and stimulate discussion about reading. It has been instigated by Birmingham Core Skills Partnership, which is based in England . The materials are absolutely free! You will be sent further instalments if you subscribe, for details of which see below. You could also encourage your own students to register.
    
    
     A free taster of poems, tales and non-fiction just for us: The Word’s the Thing
    
     What is it?
     One part of Birmingham ’s contribution to 2008 as the national Year of Reading is to encourage large numbers of people to read similar things. It then becomes much easier for them to have some ‘reading in common’ to talk about…..to be part of a unique set of conversations across the city and beyond.
     A number of new poems and very short fictional ‘tales’ have been written especially for this purpose. These have been donated, to be freely distributed as widely as possible to people in Birmingham and beyond.
    
     The poems: Background
     These were written in deliberate attempts to cover a range of lengths and styles. Some are meant to be taken quite lightly; others are meant to be lingered over. The people involved in bringing these poems together have donated them for use in the Year of Reading in Birmingham .
     There is the possibility of using further ‘episodes’ as triggers to gather in other poems written in 2008 by people living or working in Birmingham.
    
     The tales: Background
     These are (fictional) stories told to an imaginary researcher. They capture fragments of the lives of each narrator. The ‘tales’ are being brought together as an imagined account of social research but, in the meantime, a selection have been donated to Birmingham’s 2008 Year of Reading activities.
     As more ‘episodes’ come out, it will be interesting to know what your views are of the lives described, but for now why not simply read them and talk to others about what you have read.
    
     The original circulation was a set of tasters – if you want to get the further several episodes (between now and October) please go to
    
     http:// www.thewordsthething.org.uk
    
    
     Core Skills Partnership
     Focus for April: Read anything and everything: Read anywhere and everywhere
     Birmingham believes: ‘reading is good for you’; ...... ‘reading at home, in own time, makes a difference’; ...... ‘reading is not just books; not just fiction; not just in English’

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Hello everyone
    
     Just to let you know that last week I had the opportunity to present a talk and a workshop on our ELT e-Reading Group for a group of teachers in Fortaleza, in the very north of Brazil, and another in Porto Alegre, in the extreme south.
    
     It was a fantastic experience and the response I got from these teachers was really encouraging. I hope some of them will join us and start using our group as a literary resource for themselves and for their students.
    
     I used a Power Point presentation to talk about the group and if any of you would like to have this material to spread the word about our group in some conferences in your countries, just send me an email and I'll be glad to send it to you.
    
     My email address is chrislima90@yahoo.co.uk
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Hi all
    
     I'd like to share with you some information about other literature initiatives going around at the moment.
    
     The Novel Week - from 24th to 30th August we will be talking about our favourite novels at the IATEFL Literature, Media and Cultural Studies SIG discussion list. You are all invited to join us and enjoy a friendly talk about the books you like. Please visit us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LMCSSig/
    
     The Extensive Reading Foundation new website - if you believe that reading extensively can help your students to learn English, that is definitely a place to visit. You will find useful links, interesting articles and also a poll where you can vote and make comments, if you wish. Please, do take a look at
     http://erfoundation.org
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Hello Everyone
    
     I would like to thank all of you that have supported this Group along 2008. Your participation, commenting on the texts, reading them and spreading the word about the group among your peers and friends was really important to make the Group grow and mature.
    
     I wish you all a wonderful 2009 and I hope we can continue reading and sharing ideas together.
    
     Thanks so much for the wonderful gift of your participation.
    
     HAPPY 2009!!
     Chris

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Hi Everyone
    
     This message is to invite all of you to visit the Literature Forum at Cardiff Online.
    
     IATEFL CARDIFF CONFERENCE: CARDIFF ONLINE WEBSITE NOW LIVE!
     Online conference coverage of the 43rd IATEFL Conference
    
     The Cardiff Online website is now live at:
     http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009
    
     The British Council and IATEFL have launched the Cardiff Online website which offers web coverage of this year's 43rd IATEFL Annual Conference in Cardiff.
    
     The Cardiff Online website allows remote participants to take part in one of the world's biggest ELT conferences through a variety of resources including:
    
     - Video recordings of selected sessions
     - Audio recordings of selected sessions
     - Live streamed plenaries and events
     - Moderated special interest discussion forums
     - Chat sessions
     - Blogs and photo albums
    
     To visit the Cardiff Online website, go to:
     http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009
    
     This initiative builds on the earlier collaboration between the British Council and IATEFL.
     Last year, 1,600 teachers and trainers attended the Exeter IATEFL Conference, and over 5,000 participated online.
    
     This year we expect a much larger audience, and this is a real opportunity to take part in the biggest online ELT training community.
    
     The Cardiff Online website gives you an opportunity to share ideas with teachers all around the world. There will be interactive coverage with video presentations, reports and interviews 'almost live' from Cardiff.
    
     We look forward to meeting you online, and hope that you will share this information with your colleagues worldwide.
    
     Gavin Dudeney - Honorary Secretary, IATEFL
     Julian Wing - British Council Cardiff Online Project Manager
     Nik Peachey - IATEFL Online Editor

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Hi Chris,
    
     Thank you very much for your latest post here informing about this wonderful event: The 2009 Cardif Online Conference.
     I've already been following some of the Pre-Conference information and left a short introductory post.
     I've noticed that you are a Moderator for LMCS forum as well as Mostafa. I hope to talk to you there and continue our learning from experienced and expert teachers like you.
     Good work!
     Cheers!
    
     Maria do Céu

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Hi Everyone
    
     This is a very special invitation to join the Canongate worldwide readalong around Life of Pi in August of this year. The website has just gone live at http://www.lifeofpi.co.uk
    
     Project coordinators are aiming to recruit readers from all over the world to join the readalong. They are bringing out a new edition of Life of Pi, which won the Booker prize in 2002, in July, and this is a great opportunity to reach out to all those people around the world who’ve not yet enjoyed a book that’s often thought of as a modern classic.
    
     There are no 'rules' - rather the idea is simply to bring people from all over the world together through literature. There is no commitment needed from sign-ups other than to read the book at this particular time.
    
     If you would like to sign-up, just go to the web address above.
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Dear All
    
     Passing on to you the invitation to attend the British Council BritLit event in London. If you happen to be around, don't miss it!
     Cheers - Chris
    
    
     Short and Scary - using literature as a language tool in the ELT classroom
    
     Workshop for teachers of English, 23 July 2009, British Council London
    
    
     The British Council recently launched a series of events and seminars for 2009 and 2010 to encourage debate on areas of contemporary interest in the field of English Language and Learning. The series combines informal networking events
     with more formal workshops, presentations and symposia. Topics to date have included supporting teachers of Young Learners, Equal Opportunity and Diversity in the English classroom, and ELT opportunities in India and China.
    
     Our next event, on 23 July, showcases BritLit - a project which focuses on how language skills are acquired and enhanced through the written and spoken word. The event will contain a workshop exploring the potential of short texts of
     literature and poetry in creating real language learning opportunities for students whilst at the same time engaging them in cultural exploration and
     critical thinking.
    
    
     To apply for the workshop, please RSVP, quoting BritLit workshop to:
     Donna Roberts, Events, British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN
     T +44 (0)20 7389 4123
     E rsvp.events@britishcouncil.org

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Hi everyone
    
     Its summer in the northern hemisphere and the perfect opportunity to lie on the grass - or on the sand - and open a book. The Guardian has published their list of summer reading, just in case you are running out of ideas - there are books for all tastes :)
    
     http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/05/summer-reading-books-recommendations
    
     Cheers - Chris

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To celebrate the second anniversary of the ELT e-Reading Group, we are inviting English Language teachers worldwide to use their imagination and become short story writers and poets themselves. The best three pieces of writing submitted by the ELT e-Reading Group members in the following categories will be published online on the British Council Teaching English website in the e-Reading community group.
    
     Fiction/Short story: choose one story which has been discussed in the group and write your own piece of writing inspired by it. Short stories must be 700 -1000 word long and could be possible continuations of the original story, exchanges among characters, new versions of a particular situation in the story, etc.
     Poetry: write a poem inspired by one of the stories read in the group.
    
     Rules for participation:
     1. Only ELT e –Reading Group members can participate in the contest. You can join the group by clicking here.
     2. Each member can only submit one piece of writing, in just one of the two categories.
     3. Submissions should be made by email attaching a Word Document with name, country and email address for contact
     4. Texts should be typed in Times New Roman 12, using 1.5 spacing, and respecting the word limit.
     5. Authors agree to have their work published at the British Council teaching English website without the payment of any fees, but retain the authorial rights over their production.
     6. Pieces will be judged taking into consideration: originality, imaginative use of the language, command of the language and appeal to a worldwide readership.
     7. Texts will be judged by a panel and decisions are definite. Judges will not be able to give feedback on entries.
     8. The deadline for submissions is 31 October 2009. Works selected will be announced by 15 December 2009.
    
     Please, send your submission to chrislima90@yahoo.co.uk
    
     Judges will be: Sanghita Sen, Chris Lima and Fitch O'Connell.

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Hello, Chris & Everyone
    
     Thank you very much for inviting ELTeachers worldwide to participate in such an interesting, challenging project. Let's hope we can get inspired enough to be able to submit any piece of writing.
     I'm very glad to "encounter" you again here for being attentive to your suggested activities, thus keeping up-to-date with literary events promoted by The British Council.
     I hope you have enjoyed your holidays of deserved relaxation.
     By the way, did you participate in the Canongate "Life of Pi" Readalong experience? It was a powerful "Life journey" for me, and I was delighted with the story/stories, and the extraordinarily intelligent way those were told!
     Best wishes,
     Maria

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Dear All
    
     I'd like to share with you the news of abrand new website devoted to connect EFL professionals and literature.
    
     WordPowered brings together teachers of English from a variety of backgrounds by using short stories, poetry and film. The project offers a place where creative reading and creative writing can intermingle.
    
     There are three parts to the project:
    
     In Words: short stories and poetry are explored with EFL teachers in mind and where the emphasis is on using literature as a tool to teach language.
    
     Poetry & Film:short films made to accompany spoken poetry are used to explore the potential for student engagement and response.
    
     YouWrite: teachers are invited to submit their own short stories, longer fiction or poetry for publication on line to share with fellow teachers of English.
    
     And we already have the poems of some of our group members published there :)
    
     Please, visit the website at
    
     http://www.wordpowered.org/
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Reading is good for everyone especially since it offers us an opportunity to share our skills, tastes, and favourites in what we see what we read and recently I read from my Play "References" at King Edward Vl School Southampton to Theatre Students who performed the sketches ... proving once and for all we are what we read!
     SM Thompson

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