keep it simple, but try to make it swing: AC English Club Showcase

Every Saturday we lead an English club at the local library, alternating weekly between watching a movie and doing other speaking, writing and listening exercises. Last week we put to use the massive stack of construction-paper matted magazine pictures my mother and her women’s group so graciously made and sent our way. We organized a rotating system of 12 minute activities including poetry and short story writing. Included here are the productions of local students from high school students to university graduates. I have written them here in their unedited form, with permission from the authors.

Circular Story: One station’s task was to make a short story, the first group making the introduction, the second continuing it, and the third concluding. They were given a picture and intended genre for their segment of the story. The pictures correspond to the text following each one.

Blue-Eyed Argentinean Terminators
Mystery:

“I know this place,” thought Jack. “I’ve seen it in my dream.”
His heart started beating faster as he approached the old well. The wind was blowing gently and the sky was clear blue. The same picture he saw in his dreams every night. Every other night before, insomnia ruined his life. Now he couldn’t sleep. The old lady in red dress cursed him being lonely and miserable till he finds the true love and make a sacrifice…

Action:

…Jack arrived in the town where lives that girl. He saw a big crowd and understood that is bad idea looking for a girl in this crowd. He understood that all this people are terminators and must be destroyed. And he pulled out two machine guns and started annihilated them. But this girl was not survived…

Romance:

…I saw the body lying by the crowd and turned her face to myself. Her face was covered in blood but her heart was still beating. I still remember the lovely night I spent with her in Buenos Aires. I felt myself so bad knowing that her death will be from my hand soon. So I grab my sword and cut off her head. Her face was still looking at me with love in her beautiful blue eyes.

Poetry: Another station wrote poems, some students for the first time in any language. They were given examples of haikus, short couplets, and free-form poems and a picture. Again, they are included here in their original form with permission.

Sand Castles in the Desert