From July to December, 1999, class 4-6 children from several primary schools in Freetown took part in SELI's Writing Workshop I pilot project. 
Were you in Sierra Leone at that time? Those were the days of the "Intervention" of February, 1998 and the "Invasion" of January, 1999, and the students' dialogue journals and writing drafts were full of their personal contact with these huge events. We focused on personal experience writing, in multiple drafts just as adults do their writing. In these draft records, you can find pieces called "Fire Balls Passing Over the House," "February 13," and "January 6."
The gate from one draft to the next was through peer
conferencing. In their pieces about conflict, the children were writing about astonishing violence. We first had to recognize the authors' turf of knowledge; that they knew what they saw and heard, and that we could help them explain it better by asking questions about it. 
However, stating to everyone what they were going to do in their next draft was a different question altogether--now that they'd explained it to the group, why put it on paper? Publishing was the answer to that! Publishing what everyone looked forward to. What excitement! We had a good-bye party on December 23, 1999 with a hope that we could continue our workshop at some later date.
Were you in Sierra Leone at that time? Those were the days of the "Intervention" of February, 1998 and the "Invasion" of January, 1999, and the students' dialogue journals and writing drafts were full of their personal contact with these huge events. We focused on personal experience writing, in multiple drafts just as adults do their writing. In these draft records, you can find pieces called "Fire Balls Passing Over the House," "February 13," and "January 6."
The gate from one draft to the next was through peer
conferencing. In their pieces about conflict, the children were writing about astonishing violence. We first had to recognize the authors' turf of knowledge; that they knew what they saw and heard, and that we could help them explain it better by asking questions about it. 
However, stating to everyone what they were going to do in their next draft was a different question altogether--now that they'd explained it to the group, why put it on paper? Publishing was the answer to that! Publishing what everyone looked forward to. What excitement! We had a good-bye party on December 23, 1999 with a hope that we could continue our workshop at some later date.
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