A Brief Overview
The Background
The BritLit project arose when the demands for its teaching centres
to consider how British Culture might best be promoted, and the desire
of its London based Literature Department to raise the profile of contemporary
British literature within Europe, came together in the minds of teaching
centre staff in Porto.
The Problem
Portuguese teachers of English in the state education system in Portugal
are obliged to present their students with a series of set texts, but
time and lack of resources are often against the teacher. A common complaint
is that there is to time to do justice to the potential of the literature
option.
The Solution
BritLit offers to work with Portuguese teachers to fill this gap, and
to bridge the lack of time of resources by providing detailed background
material and classroom resources. On-line and off-line support packages
and an active, 'hands on' input are offered, which help to make British
literature in English classes in Portuguese schools an immensely attractive
option. The British Council in Portugal and APPI are working together
to make this happen.
You Select, We Provide
The principal idea is that teachers select the literature options -
the set texts from the national syllabus, especially for years 10 and
11 - which they wish to work on and to outline the kind of material
they think would be useful. British and Portuguese staff work together
to produce a variety of materials to support the state schoolteacher.
These materials include a series of classroom activity-based worksheets,
wall posters, simulations, vocabulary and grammar focussed homework
sheets, as well as access to a greater world of links and resources,
information and support through an internet web page. The potential
extent of electronic communication support is explored with the BritLit
presence on the joint BBC-British Council web site www.teachingenglish.org.uk.
The Future
The development of the project since its inception in September 2002
has been rapid and exciting. Officially launched with BritLit teachers
kit no 1 ('Weekend' by Fay Weldon) Also during the first Academic Year,
numerous writers and poets have been brought over to work with teachers
and students to 'animate' the literature. The latest visitor was Fay
Weldon, who helped launch the project at the 16th APPI Conference in
Sesimbra.
You Count!
The starting point is you, the teacher; you, the educator, you, the
reader. Someone who thinks literature is an important vehicle of language
education.
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