English-Spanish's Clubs

At the end of last academic year, the English teacher of the 1st year was assigned to replace the elected director of the degree English/Spanish, who had resigned. Later on, in November, she was elected as a one-year director of the same degree. Thus, in the last week of December, there was an informal meeting with students' representatives and they came up with some very interesting ideas worth putting into action:
* reader's club, in which books already read or being read will be discussed; it aims at developing your speakingt skills and sharing your knowledge of the world;
* speaking club intends to improve your speaking skills and eventually it will lead to a debate club, which is a much higher level and with very specific rules to follow;
* creative writing club for those who are interested in developing their writing skills beyond what is done in class and leading to a more "artistic" domain;
* finally, study groups for those who have more difficulties in certain courses, though they may work withour the presence of teachers: it may just be gatherings of students who share knowledge and helo each other with occasional visits from the teachers - a kind of "atendimento".

Owing to timetable constraints, we had to split the clubs according to year and, today, the 4th January 2011, the creative club for the 2nd year started! with only one student, which only comes to show that bed is more appealing than participating in something new and different, even if with the same "old" teacher! Notwithstanding, we shall continue and strive to make this a successful project as others.

First lesson: to write one needs to know a lot of the language, in all linguistic aspects. It is not just believing you're an artist and have a "thing" in you that makes you write well and creatively. Fiddlesticks! One needs to be demanding and critical, as these are only acquired through a lot of reading and discussing.

I leave you with this quote by Philip Pullamn at the end of his third volume of "His Dark Materials", "The Spy Amberglass":

"I have stolen ideas from every book I ever read. My principle in researching for a novel is 'Read like a butterfly, write like a bee', and if this story contains any honey, it is entirely because of the quality of the nectar I found in the work of better writers."

CM