SELI Young Writers in Primary School

While most of our SELI Young Writers clubs are located in junior secondary schools, we have been glad to see clubs in a few primary schools as well. The earlier the better, especially because English is a second language for students in Sierra Leone.

SDA Primary School in Samuel Town is one of these schools. The club welcomes members from class three to class six, and has been very productive. 

Here is a piece written this year by Marie Kanu, in class six. I know you’ll be as pleased for her as I was when I read it.

My First Topic

When I wrote my first topic in the Seli River Writing Project, it was not fine because I was not writing fine. I was just writing sm…sm…sm to fill up the paper. 

When I came for the teacher editing step my teacher, Ms Coker, said, “Marie, now read your work.” 

I was not able to read the words. My teacher said, “Marie, because you cannot read your work, I will not be able to edit it. Mind you spell words by their letter sounds, syllables and digraphs. You have just made one set of two letters and filled the paper with sm…sm…sm and so on. Now, take another piece of paper and try to write again what you want to say.”

I took another sheet of paper. I tried to write again and went through the process before coming to teacher editing again. This time, I was able to write better than the first one and I read it to the teacher and we did teacher editing. 

After that, my teacher sang a Krio song about me, saying,

 

“Marie dɔn kɔmɔt pan sm…sm…sm!”

 

She danced with the Krio song. We were all happy and I went to do the process again. I felt good because I was able to write a bit. 

I really appreciate the Seli River Writing Project! I thank God for writing better English now.

Learn English Through Krio

 

 

I hope you can see this photo well, because a very special, unique activity is going on in this SELI Young Writers club in northern Sierra Leone at Dankawalie Secondary School. 

All SELI Young Writers club meetings open with a 10-15 minute mini-lesson that precedes writing.  As one option for this mini-lesson, SELI donates copies of the workbook, Learn English Through Krio (formerly called The SELI Wordbook), in which one page at a time teachers can help students distinguish the form, use and meaning of an English word, from its cognate in Krio. It needs to be said that it is unusual at any level in Sierra Leone schools for teachers to clarify the differences between Krio and English.

The special thing we are seeing in this photo is a DSS club senior-secondary experienced writer using this workbook to conduct a mini-lesson for junior-secondary newcomers to the club. All of these students speak Kuranko as their primary language. They have learned Krio (informally) and English (formally) in school. A fellow student—an older brother, we might call him—can easily remember how confusing it was for him to distinguish Krio from English when he was their age, making him ideal for delivering this mini-lesson. 

Well done, Dankawalie Secondary School!

Thank you!

 In wishing everyone a happy new year, I want especially to thank a very special anonymous donor for supporting SELI’s writing programs last month. Thank you so much for your generosity! That was a boost we needed.  

You see here some of the students in a SELI Young Writers club at the SDA Primary School in Samuel Town, on the rural Freetown Peninsula in Sierra Leone. I have just had a wonderful time typing up forty-two final drafts of the writing pieces these class 5 and 6 students have completed, and they tell me they have more to send me!

I will be returning these final copies along with the 3-4 revised drafts and conferencing notes attached to each one. Each person in the club is trying to complete at least five writing pieces to earn a club booklet of their work (and, as a side benefit, be better prepared for exams and promotions facing them at the end of the school year 👍.) 

I do enjoy reading their work. All of them are putting true personal experiences on paper for the first time. The emotional incidences playing in their heads as they write, matter. What will the effect be on the reader if they put this first, or if they don’t mention that? Every writer reading this knows that such questions don't go away as you advance; they stay with you and make you a better writer. 

For giving these children the chance to learn how to write, we all thank you! 👏