Conferencing at LPK Memorial JSS

I enjoyed my visit to the SELI Young Writers club at Lady Patricia Kabba Memorial JSS in Goderich today.

The students all made a great effort to write nonstop for ten minutes on the topic of whether they like or don't like Nigerian movies. Then two volunteers, one for each opinion, read their work aloud. Our emphasis was on content, as always with first drafts. Later, in responding to their journals, I saw that despite all their errors in mechanics and expression, everyone had good reasons to back up whatever they chose to say.

The students all went on to whatever they were doing next: peer editing, self editing, starting a first draft, writing a second draft, teacher editing, and content conferencing.

This content conference group was particularly good. Several of the participants were new members of the group who had drawn up a list of topics to write on, but had not yet done first drafts. They didn't really understand during the first reading during the conference that each one of them was going to have to draw up content questions. So they requested this second reading, and notice how attentive they are to the reader (with her back to us)! Their questions were the type that provoked discussion. They all enjoyed the session, and the authors got help for their second drafts.

Thanks, LPKM JSS Young Writers! And thank you to the MacEwan Global Education Fund, which has been covering SRWP facilitator stipends for the past two years. The project needs your help to continue!