Writing by Hand for Learning and Memory

Does this super-engaged SELI Young Writers club look low-tech to you? Well, you might be surprised to learn that...

"Writing by hand beats typing for learning and memory

Yes, typing is usually much faster than writing by hand. But increasingly studies are finding deep brain benefits when we write out letters and words by hand. For kids, it can improve letter recognition and learning; and when adults take notes by hand it can lead to better conceptual understanding of material.

 

Brain imaging studies suggest it has to do with the fine-tuned coordination required between motor and visual systems, which deeply engages the brain. Some artists even say writing by hand stokes their creativity. So if you're feeling stuck —  try jotting down your idea with pen and paper."

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/12/31/nx-s1-5243328/discoveries-mental-health-brains-neuroscience-2024

Can't Wait to Continue Storytelling

 I'm making plans for library services for the SELI library. 

I journaled starting out not just reading books aloud but doing storytelling as librarian at the American International School of Freetown a few (😆) years ago. I'll definitely work this into my plans at SELI.

Journal, April 1993: 

I'm trying to learn to become a storyteller (without a book).  Two weeks ago in my Library Fun club I told the story of Beowulf—the first epic poem written in English in the 8th century.  We have a good book that simplified it, but it was hard to learn and took 40 minutes to tell, partly because the kids all asked good questions. 

Today is St. Patrick's Day and I told an Irish story about a Brownie.  It took about 15 minutes, and they loved it!  It doesn't seem so hard now that I've done it twice, so I'm looking for another to learn.  I have to like the story and the way it’s written myself, but the idea is that you build their ability to think visually for an extended period of time because  right at the end of telling a long story, I read in a library journal, you can launch into a discussion of the highest theoretical kind--atomic theory or anything--and they will grasp it, because you already have them thinking visually.  I want to try that sometime and see.

Writing Makes Better Readers!

 SELI Young Writers Clubs demonstrate that process writing workshops adapted for English learners develop students’ reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, which gives them the self-confidence to keep learning.

However, it is hard to find it stated in any other context that writing facilitates reading. People see it as the cart coming before the horse. I didn’t see this short article when it came out, so I will quote from it now:

“Gene Ouellette, an associate professor of psychology at Mount Allison University, and Monique Sénéchal, a psychology professor at Carleton University, have done a number of studies on how invented spelling plays into literacy acquisition. “What we’ve found over the years is there seemed to be something with kids who are doing invented spelling on their own that’s really helping them learn how to read,” said Ouellette in an interview. “I’d say it’s like the missing piece” in early literacy instruction.” Loewus, L. (May 5, 2017). “Invented Spelling Leads to Better Reading, Study Says.” Education Week online. 

Some of the reading groups to which SELI offers instructional support, administered a gap-fill or cloze exercise using an early chapter in their next book to get an approximate idea of each person’s reading level (you see two here, one in Lunsar and one in Dankawalie). In cloze exercises every fifth word is omitted, and the candidate supplies it or a reasonable substitute. What a wonderful realm with neither carts nor horses, just reading and writing as one activity!

Developing Children's Literature

I am excited about SELI's coming year. 

The SELI Young Writers Clubs program continues to develop the literacy of upper primary and junior secondary students; for some, improving their performance on public exams and for others, revealing their new selves as authors. Their facilitators report ex-club members asking how to move forward into creative writing. 

A real need exists in Sierra Leone for children's literature—good reading books. They need to be culturally relevant. As an advocate of children's literature and ex-school librarian, I make good use of SELI's children's library (see photo here)

as an inspiration for editing.

Increasingly, people in Sierra Leone are writing for children, but a good many are unable to get their work published because they lack editing support. SELI would like to provide such individualized early-stage writing guidance on drafts that such authors are considering submitting for publication. There would be no cost to the author for this service.  It would be provided by email or WhatsApp, or when available, in person. 

SELI is not a publisher. This editing service is intended to help point the authors' way to preparing a more successful draft (and hopefully then, more successful subsequent drafts) for submission to a children's book publisher. 

So let the new year in!

 

Whose Role Model are You?

 

In choosing what we want to do in life, our first criterion might not be gaining the admiration of those who are younger than we are. Funny, though—it happens. 

Sometimes we just take part in an activity we enjoy. We work hard at it when we see that it benefits us. That's what Damba F. Daramy did. Here she is gaining recognition for working hard at expressing herself in writing in the SELI Young Writers club at Dankawalie Secondary School over a period of two or more years. She is receiving a printed booklet of all the writing she worked so hard to produce.

And by doing so, Damba has become a role model. She has inspired the young newcomer to the school, also captured in this photo, to follow in her footsteps. We look forward to seeing this young girl also before the school assembly in a couple of years, being recognized for her achievement as a writer. And being someone else's role model, too!

Clearly, You Write 2!

 

One of our main goals in the pilot six weeks of Clearly, You Write was to help participants build portfolios. When the chance to submit manuscripts for consideration comes along, we all wish we had more early drafts to polish up. Every one of the participants was full of ideas. We tried writing in genres we were not used to; poets started stories, story-writers tried nonfiction, and so on.

Each of our meetings allowed for active writing time, as you can see in the photo. It was followed by the opportunity to share what we had written with the others for feedback, so authors could walk away from the group prepared to work on their next drafts. 

In our final meeting for this six weeks, we practiced writing conversations arising from a verbal "image" (as the first step in writing a one-act play). In general, I found the variety of all the manuscripts shared in the last half hour of our sessions fascinating, and this session was no different!

We look forward to resuming Clearly, You Write later in the year. Join us! If you or an adult relative likes to write, this is an awesome once-a-week writing-group opportunity!

Clearly, You Write

 

It's a pleasure working with authors again at SELI! 

In our six-seminar workshop (called Clearly, You Write!) we are sharpening written-English skills as well as developing drafts in a number of genres. Today's writing focus was reader's theater. You see here Lilian and Emmanuel bringing a reader's theater script to life before analyzing it and then writing their own to share with the group. I was delighted with their imaginative ideas!

We hope to increase our CYW enrollment this week. I praise all who attended today despite the 48-hour nonstop downpour we've been through.

Damba's First Day

Everyone's first day in a new place stands out in their memories, and is distinctive from everyone else's.

Damba will receive a "My Life" book this term, containing all the experiences she has written about in her SELI Young Writers process-writing club at Dankawalie Secondary School in the past two years. 

One topic she chose to write about was how she came to join the club. I thought you'd like to read what she wrote:

First Day at SELI

 by Damba

 

One day when we were in the assembly, Mr K called the SELI members Abu, Fatmata and Alusine. 

I decided to go with them. When they were writing their experiences, I did not know what to do. I stood by the door and watched them. They were taking paper and pens to write. When Mr K called me, he said, “Why are you standing without writing?”

I said I did not know how to write a story. He said, “Ok, come here. Let me show you how to write a story.” He explained the steps that I must undertake when writing. 

The first story that I wrote about was my aunty’s death in Freetown. 

I liked the story about my aunty. When they came with the typed story, Mr K told me to read it in the assembly. I was afraid. My friends told me not to be afraid when reading it. By the end of my story, I started crying because I lost my aunty whom I loved best.

Since that day, I liked SELI and story writing is my favourite activity. My parents, too, liked the story I wrote of my aunty.

We praise this school for giving students many opportunities to read their own writing aloud to others, such as reading it aloud in assembly and taking it home to share with their parents. 

Bring It On Home

It's not that easy for teachers to bring stories home to children from a written text. Magnificent illustrations help, and How Baboon Got a Shiny Rump certainly has those. Alternate text in a commonly-known language also helps, and the book has that, too. But a really good teacher can mold the text and the songs into just the right form to enter the children's hearts.

Here's storyteller/poet Kewulay Kamara showing us how, using a beautifully illustrated text in English of How Baboon Got a Shiny Rump, with a multi-age group of Kuranko-speaking children.

What's Better than a Book Talk?

Another way I promote all the purposes of SELI is by giving book talks in schools where the students have read my historical novel, The Heritage Keeper. Or, where I aim to interest the students in reading it! The schools must be among the few in town whose literature curriculum is not limited to the books set by the West African Examinations Council. Regrettably, since these are not SELI Young Writers schools, I do not have permission to post photos of the children at these events. 

In mid-February I attended an annual sports competition in the Hill Valley Academy at Mambo where in the past several years I have enjoyed lively discussions about reading, writing, and Sierra Leone history in that school with students who had read the book. It was good for me and lots of fun to see those same students that day in a different context.

I also was privileged to advocate for authorship of historical novels and read part of The Heritage Keeper to the secondary students of the British International School in Freetown during their Literacy Week. I loved the time I spent with them and hope they will enjoy the books and have lots of comments to make the next time I see them!

Today's Reality

 

The most common method of instruction in many Sierra Leone schools being rote learning, SELI's Young Writers clubs continue to help develop the literacy skills of upper primary and junior secondary students. 

To master the Altogether-New task of writing their own thoughts, Young Writers club members work on a minimum of five personal experiences of their own choice through ESL-supported process-writing workshops, however long that takes them. When they have gone through all the stages of the writing process on their first personal experience, they receive a club button to pin on their uniforms and a typed copy of their piece.

Those who finish final drafts of at least five experiences receive copies of them in booklet form, in which pieces appear in their chosen order, with their own dedication and an about-the-author paragraph at the end. 

The tables of contents you see here are from booklets that appeared in May at SDA Primary School, Samuel Town (near Waterloo, Sierra Leone). Twenty-six experiences the authors can later convert to stories that would form the text for a children’s book—how’s that for supporting children’s book publishing in Sierra Leone? 

"The Club Plays a Great Role"

 I am getting messages from schools whose SELI Young Writers process-writing clubs were suspended when COVID-19 hit two years ago, telling me, "We really need this club back!"

When I ask why, they say "It helps the students improve greatly in their essay writing, and that plays a great role in their national exams." Hooray!

Of course, I am glad when school heads recognize the effect of what goes on in SELI Young Writers clubs. What needs to happen now is for school heads and English Language teachers to realize that the improvement they are seeing did not come about specifically because of the SELI Young Writers club, but because the club's writing instruction is centered around process writing. And it's all self-motivated writing. We do no testing at all.

I'm also pleased to hear school heads say that the club strengthens their teachers' written and oral communication skills. All good!

Now all we need is funding to make it happen! Every $10 counts!

"Give at Checkout"

Thank you, thank you all! All you wonderful anonymous donors who have given to the Sentinel English Language Institute to help young students in Sierra Leone to succeed in school and to become writers in the future, by donating $1 every time you make an online purchase through PayPal! 

Every $1 contribution to our educational charity counts! It has made a big difference in what we are able to provide for the writing clubs we support. If you are comfortable doing so, send me an email at jackie@seli.co letting me know that you've helped, so I can thank you (all the "gives at checkout" are anonymous).

If you use PayPal, I encourage you to look for the chance to set the Sentinel English Language Institute as your favorite charity, so that every purchase you make helps another student in Sierra Leone learn to write when it counts!

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.

Library Helpers

 

What do you expect when we're sorting and dusting in the school library for hours on a Saturday?  That we wouldn't open all those wonderful books to see what's inside? No way!

SELI Young Writers are writing again!

Here we are in the library at Dankawalie Secondary School in the northeastern Falaba District of Sierra Leone.

After a year's COVID-19 break, this school's SELI Young Writers club resumed this week, on the first day of the third term, with a full house. In addition, the library where the club meets today is much brighter thanks to Lasiray Energy and Communications which now offers solar power to subscribers throughout Dankawalie town.

Any of these students who attends this student-centered, workshop-like club regularly for 1-2 years will develop five personal experience essays through a number of revisions and editing, and in the process take such strides in their writing, reading, listening and speaking skills in English that their performance on their BECE public examination will be greatly improved.

Many thanks to the school's administration and to the club's facilitators, Mr. B.M. Kargbo and Mr. Kalie Kamara, as well as to the donors who make these clubs possible. 

What Primary School "Young Writers" Write About

Teachers usually prepare upper primary school students in Sierra Leone for the composition component of their Class Six public examination by having them write descriptive essays on topics such as "My Family" and "My Pet."

A few years ago, SELI extended its Young Writers program to rural primary schools. In these ESL process-writing clubs, students in Class 4 to 6 learn to write narrative essays by coming up with a list of their own true personal experience topics, and choosing which one they would like to write on next. They get help with revision by reading their first drafts aloud to their peers and teachers.

A little analysis shows us that the pieces of writing Class 4 to 6 students have produced in Young Writers clubs over the past several years fall into five general content categories, listed here. 

Perceived injustice (theft, abuse, deprivation of food or schooling and false accusation, either of self or elder sibling or parent). Seeking retaliation, recompense, or sympathy by appealing to relatives or neighbours, crying loudly, or running away. Boys choose this topic more often than girls.

Loss (or life-threatening injury or illness) of a family member or close friend. Nearly all of them write about death. They lack the age-appropriate writing skills to describe how it makes them feel (apart from saying, “I cried and cried.”) or what the loss means for them (ways in which this person had provided love, humor, security, tuition, protection against harm, food, shelter, and so on).

Friendship. The friends who are willing to accompany them to carry out an assigned task, and the support a best friend gives when they are in trouble.

Injury, often while carrying out tasks for adults. Includes how to travel to a health centre and pay for medical treatment. They all mention having to miss school but do not describe what that means to them. Their accidents can be categorized in this way:

vehicle (hit by an okada [motorcycle taxi] or car)

domestic (in kitchen, at stream, at market, house fire, severe flogging)

play (while playing football, running)

animal frights or bites (by a snake, dog, scorpion, monkey)

farm (fall from tree, cutlass injury, falling branches, flooding)

Venturing away from home. Whether they will find a friend there, be treated well, and succeed.

holiday period with aunt/uncle

experience at school, farm, beach

travel to another town/city

Being underestimated is a common underlying theme—rarely a writing topic in itself. Understanding the meanings implied in what adults actually say, or not being allowed to explain their observations because they are children. 

Forgiving a remorseful wrongdoer is another common underlying theme. The author will end a story about the pursuit of a thief with the author’s elders forgiving the person and giving their reason. Sometimes when the perpetrator is a schoolmate, the piece ends with the author doing the forgiving with a similar reason.

Perhaps you would agree that in terms of writing, primary schools might be under-challenging their pre-teen students!

"My Life" Books for 2019

In 2019 SELI made twenty-one "My Life" books for Young Writers club members. That is, twenty-one students in the nine clubs completed a minimum of five final drafts of personal experiences, doing all the stages of the writing process within the club meetings: rehearsal, drafting, content conferencing, revising, editing and publishing.

The experiences are published as chapters in the books. The authors also had their photos taken and wrote dedications and "about the author" paragraphs to include. Here are the four members who earned "My Life" books in Heaven Homes Christian Academy in Joe Town, near Waterloo, posing with their teachers, Mr. A.P. Kamara and Mr. A. Kallon, and other members of the club who are on the way to finishing their books this academic year.

 The two members who earned books in R.E.C. Primary School, Bassa Town (near Waterloo) gather with club members and one of their teachers, Ms. M. Kposowa, and their headteacher, Mrs. Yearie Kamara.

At Kabala Secondary School Junior, "My Life" booklets were presented at assembly by the principal, Mr. James S. Conteh.

Graduation Day

It was Friday afternoon on June 7th, 2019, and it was testing day at Dankawalie Secondary School library in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Ten adult mother-tongue-literacy learners had come to demonstrate that they had mastered level 2 of the Institute of Sierra Leone Languages' (TISLL)'s book series in Kuranko literacy.

TISLL's evaluator, Rev. Frederick Jones, was present along with the class teachers, Alusine H. Kamara and Balla Musa Kargbo. The SELI director was also there because SELI initiated the teacher training, has supported the class with materials, and brought the evaluator to the village. This was a big day for all of us.

The certificates were given out by the Regent Paramount Chief by the massive cotton tree at the center of the village. Hawa Kargbo, the only woman in the group, appealed to the women in the audience to consider joining her in the class so they could give each other confidence. This was good evidence to everyone that the "graduates" have no intention of graduating. At TISLL's urging, using their new-found literacy, the class is putting together a book of proverbs and short personal accounts for publication as a reader. Some are interested in going on to learn English.

SELI has initiated and supported this program because languages without a firm literary population tend to die out as cultural change takes place, and people ought to, by right, be given the opportunity to learn to read and write their own languages. The program is going on (another dozen or so adult learners are now working at level 1), but it needs to be funded. If you have an interest in the continuation of the Kuranko literacy class at Dankawalie, please consider making a donation to SELI for that purpose. We need your help! Please contact me at jackie@seli.co .

The Institute for Sierra Leone Languages could also use your support. While we at SELI are very pleased with TISLL's willingness to help with the Dankawalie Kuranko class, Kuranko is not currently one of the languages TISLL works with. For a Kuranko literacy program to be started up at multiple places in the Northern Province that language needs to be funded at TISLL.

My First Day at SELI

The staff and students in one of the rural junior secondary schools where we have an ESL Young Writers club, usually refer to it as "SELI." I am typing their final drafts today, and just had to share one that made me smile!

                                  

                       My First Day at SELI

                               by Alhaji K.

On Monday, 2^nd October, 2018, my friend Yusufu and I were coming to our school. I heard him say, “Today is SELI. I have two final drafts.”

I said, “I, myself, will go to SELI today.” SELI is the writing club of the Sentinel English Language Institute. We went to the library. I sat down and I watched my schoolmates to know how they do it. 

My friend Yusufu came. He said, “Alhaji, go and take some A4 paper.” I went but when I was about to take it, I was afraid because I saw Mr K. and Mr B.M.K. I returned and sat down. I was confused at that time. My friend David was looking at me. He came to me and he said, “Don’t fear anything. Everything here belongs to us, the SELI students.”

I went and took the A4 paper. I first wrote my childhood story. 

At that time I was in JSS II, the first term. From that time I have become one of the regular students of SELI.