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Welcome to the enCompass Culture discussion boards. Join in and talk to other readers around the world. It's easy to do. If you've never visited here before, you need to register first. You will then be sent an e-mail to confirm your registration, click on the link and then you can join in any discussions. Select the one that interests you, read other postings, then choose which to reply to and click on reply. Please read our guidance notes for details.   Web Board e-mail alert service To be notified every time someone adds a new post to a discussion board, visit the 'my account' page and add the board to your notification options.   Back to discussion boards...   ELT e-reading group 'Canon Alberic's Scrapbook' by M.R. James This is perhaps one of the finest gothic stories in English literature; also because it joins two of our most cherished interests: books and ghost stories. M. R. James, was... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) June 28th, 2010, 12:18 PM (4 replies)   'Michael - A Pastoral Poem' by William Wordsworth The text of this month is one of Wordsworth most famous and beloved poems. First published in the 'Lyrical Ballads', this is a narrative poem - a story that unfolds... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) May 14th, 2010, 09:07 PM (38 replies)   Research on Our Group Dear All Our group was created in August 2007 and since then the number of teachers visiting it and posting here has steadly increased. We are now a quite extensive... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) March 30th, 2010, 09:18 AM (6 replies)   'The Head-Gardener's Story', by Anton Chekhov I believe this is our first short story in translation here in the open group and it comes from a master of the genre, the Russian Checkhov. I found it... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) March 13th, 2010, 01:00 PM (7 replies)   Sharing Point Reading is a contagious experience. Most of us like reading and sharing the texts we enjoy with our students and perhaps experiement with them in the classroom. This is a... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) February 25th, 2010, 10:53 AM (69 replies)   'David Swan' by Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer better known for 'The Scarlet Letter'. His writings are considered part of the the Romantic movement and are full of... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) January 29th, 2010, 11:40 AM (20 replies)   Winners of the 2009 Writing Competition Dear All I hope you will enjoy reading the short stories and poems written by our fellow teachers and winners of the 2009 ELT e-Reading Group Writing Competition. You can... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) January 6th, 2010, 07:59 PM (25 replies)   Season Greetings Dear All 2009 is coming to an end and a new year is approaching with all the expectations and hope it brings along. For most of our readers in the... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) December 6th, 2009, 06:12 PM (13 replies)   'The Story of an Hour' by Kate Chopin Kate Chopin (1850 – 1904) was an American author of short stories and novels, mostly of a Louisiana Creole background. She is now considered by some to have been a... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) November 14th, 2009, 12:35 AM (24 replies)   'Fire Baloons' by Rich Michaels This month our story comes from WordPowered, a new website that aims at promoting the connection between ELT and literature. It is a contemporary piece of writing which tells the... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) October 4th, 2009, 02:55 PM (11 replies)   'The Half-Brothers' by Elizabeth Gaskell A poignant and profoundly human story in which Gaskell makes us see the fragility of life and the turns relationships can go through. Masterly written and extremelly touching - I... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) July 26th, 2009, 12:11 PM (15 replies)   'Billy Elliot' chosen by Fitch O'Connell ‘Billy Elliot’ is the story of a boy from a coal mining family who decides to be a ballet dancer. His decision causes, perhaps predictably, a great deal of family... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) June 1st, 2009, 07:34 PM (0 replies)   'The Child's Story' by Charles Dickens 'Once upon a time, a good many years ago, there was a traveller...' Our story this month is a morality tale by Charles Dickens. The theme is quite recurrent in... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) May 26th, 2009, 11:07 AM (29 replies)   Sonnets by William Shakespeare April is Shakespeare's month and I thought of proposing you some different reading this time and invite you to engage with a bit of poetry :) Please, choose any of... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) April 17th, 2009, 11:18 AM (11 replies)   'The Hand that Feeds Me' by Michael Lewin Our story this month comes from BritLit and was written by the American born writer Michael Z. Lewin, who lives in Bath in England. It is a urban tale which... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) March 17th, 2009, 06:49 PM (19 replies)   'The Verger' by Somerset Maugham Our February story comes from a writer that is usually forgotten in our times, but who was extremely popular in the 1930's. This is an interesting story which can give... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) February 6th, 2009, 03:23 PM (32 replies)   'The Nightingale and the Rose' by Oscar Wilde This is a fairy tale published by Oscar Wilde in 1888 in a collection of stories for children called 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales'. However, this is much more... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) January 13th, 2009, 03:55 PM (21 replies)   'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol was first published on December 19, 1843. The story was instantly successful, selling over six thousand copies in one week. Contemporaries noted that the story's popularity played... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) December 4th, 2008, 07:29 AM (10 replies)   'Emma' chosen by Chris Lima This is a very personal choice indeed. Austen is still my favourite novelist - no matter how great contemporary novels we have in our own times, for me no ones... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) November 8th, 2008, 12:29 PM (6 replies)   'The Red Room' by H.G. Wells Dear All Back to one of the classics of short stories in English. The text of this October is 'The Red Room', a story that, we hope, will engage you... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) October 11th, 2008, 11:04 AM (58 replies)   Down the Market by Selma Dabbagh I have thought quite a while before choosing our new short story. It comes from New Writing 15 and it is a unique piece in a number of ways. It... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) August 15th, 2008, 08:32 AM (10 replies)   'Amy Foster' by Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad is regarded by many as one of the greatest novelists in the English language and a master prose stylist. Some of his works have a strain of romanticism,... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) June 16th, 2008, 10:01 PM (10 replies)   Poets' Corner Welcome to the Poets’ Corner. This is the new section of our ELT e-Reading Group devoted to poetry. We would like to invite all our members to use this space... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) May 26th, 2008, 12:23 AM (293 replies)   'Uncle Tom's Cabin' chosen by Sara Walker Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) By Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) Last year, my interest in slavery was aroused by publicity surrounding the 200th anniversary of the British law abolishing the slave... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) May 10th, 2008, 06:36 PM (4 replies)   Novel Choice - our readers' picks Welcome to Novel Choice. This is the new section of our ELT e-Reading Group devoted to the novel – perhaps the most popular and also our most beloved literary genre.... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) May 10th, 2008, 06:27 PM (0 replies)   'Clap hands, here comes Charlie' by Beryl Bainbridge Our new text comes from BritLit. Beryl Bainbridge's black comedy takes as its setting a noisy, argumentative working class family in Liverpool, getting ready to see a pantomime based on... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) April 28th, 2008, 09:27 PM (13 replies)   'The Landing' by Anita Desai One of most vivid memories of my childhood was when my grandfather used to gather all his grandchildren around him in the evening and feed us wih scary ghost stories.... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) March 2nd, 2008, 05:19 PM (19 replies)   'Visiting Time' by Emma Brokes Our January 2008 text first appeared in 'New Writing 12', published by Picador in 2004. When journalist Emma Brockes went to get material for a story about a man whose... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) January 20th, 2008, 03:34 AM (12 replies)   'After sharp showers...' by William Langland 2007 is coming to an end and the Festive Season is a time to celebrate and meditate. We have so far discussed texts that explore a number of issues, but... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) December 10th, 2007, 09:36 AM (10 replies)   'In the National Gallery' by Doris Lessing This month we bring you a new short story, this time from the New Writing 15 collection. In my point of view, this is a quite intriguing text and I... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) November 11th, 2007, 11:25 AM (12 replies)   'The Curse' by Arthur C. Clarke This October we would like to invite you to read a new text from the BritLit project. 'The Curse' is a little story - and it is a very short... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) October 7th, 2007, 05:27 AM (26 replies)   ELT Group Chat Corner 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.... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) October 3rd, 2007, 02:12 PM (42 replies)   Live chat with the Romesh Gunesekera Friday 28th September at 12 noon we will have to plesaure of having Romesh Gunesekera the author of 'Ullswater' and 'A House in the Country' talking to us about his... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) September 20th, 2007, 07:48 PM (15 replies)   'A House in the Country' by Romesh Gunesekera Dear All Reading and discussing 'Ullswater' has proved to be a really enriching experience and we thought of inviting you all to read another text by Romesh Gunesekera so that... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) September 6th, 2007, 04:45 PM (22 replies)   'Ullswater' by Romesh Gunesekera Hello everyone This is the first text we are inviting you to read and comment on. I hope you can share your impressions and your views here. 'Ullswater' is based... Started by ChrisL (210 posts) August 20th, 2007, 10:19 PM (32 replies)   Welcome Introduce yourselves here and choose which books you are going to talk about. Started by JulietWM@BC (3 posts) August 14th, 2007, 11:05 AM (120 replies)     Times displayed are UK time.