Publishing In Action

 

Just before the break between first and second terms in December, the SELI Young Writers Club at SDA Primary School in Samuel Town on the Freetown Peninsula submitted twenty final drafts for me to look through and type.

I have returned them reminding the facilitators to allow every student with a newly typed final draft the time to "publish" their work by reading it aloud to the club. Here, Kadiatu is doing just that, with her teacher, Ms Princess Coker, in the background. 

I know Kadiatu feels very proud! All the students are writing true personal experience narratives in an additional language—English—which is the only language in which they are gaining literacy. Because the club is a process-writing workshop, they are developing reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in English all at the same time. 

I provided two typed copies of the final draft for Kadiatu. One is in her hands, stapled to the previous 3-5 drafts of the piece, and the other is in the hands of the facilitator who is following along silently while Kadiatu reads aloud in her most expressive voice, in case she needs help. This is about the 6th-8th time Kadiatu has read through her narrative. When she is finished, she will return the stapled drafts to her manila folder, and take the extra typed draft home to show her family. 

I hope they will ask her to read it aloud for them.