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! 👏

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

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. 

Spreading the Word

 As schools with SELI Young Writers clubs begin each new academic year, some are faced with the need to enlist the help of more teachers willing to give of their extracurricular time. The Dankawalie Secondary School club this year welcomed English teacher Mr. Jawara who will be serving as a facilitator along with Mr. Kamara, since Mr. Sesay has left the school.

All organizations but especially schools need effective orientation mechanisms for new staff. New teachers must hit the ground running, and we need them running in the right direction—aligned with the school's (or in this case, club's) set of beliefs and pedagogies. This is particularly important when, as in SELI clubs, the expected outcomes of club attendance depend on following beliefs and pedagogies that differ from traditional rote learning practices.

SELI sees the club facilitators' time spent in the clubs largely as practical training. They become good writing teachers and acquire experience carrying out student-based instruction, which the MBSSE says it supports. For SELI to offer multi-day workshops for new facilitators with follow-up mentoring, which has been our go-to type of orientation, is not always feasible. A major reason is budget constraints, with clubs spread so widely across the country. 

For the very reason that the clubs are examples of student-based instruction, new facilitators learn by simply participating in the meetings. However, this can lead to cutting corners. To prevent that, I am looking into developing an orientation handbook for new club facilitators, or perhaps a recorded video presentation, that I could follow up with periodic in-person or WhatsApp video discussions with each new facilitator. Better yet: how many junior secondary schools, I wonder, would be willing to require all their new staff to participate in an orientation on teaching writing in the classroom?

Training in Partnership

 

Representing SELI in partnership with Transformation Education (TE), I thoroughly enjoyed 4 days in mid-April during which I conducted the writing aspect of two of TE’s early-education literacy teacher trainings. 

The trainings took place in two different schools in Freetown, but the teachers came from a variety of schools that TE supports to develop skills in teaching early reading.

In addition to discussing what happens in the brain when we write and the developmental writing stages of beginning writers, the teachers spent time writing personal experiences in order to learn the writing process first hand. (In the first photo you see participants grouped according to stages in the process—sorry about the panoramic view distortion). 

I think we all could see that an ESL and routine-based process writing class, low-stakes and frequently held, is an essential part of an early literacy program in our setting. Reading and writing activate each other. Learning to write our own thoughts must and can be taught, and doing it builds the same brain paths (although in opposite directions) as does learning to read.

"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!

Read Your Work Aloud in Sussex

Two teachers from Sussex village on the Freetown Peninsula run an after-school SELI Young Writers club whose membership draws on enrollment from several junior secondary schools in the area. 

Moses Gbondo and Ballah Kamara have been running the club for several years at the Abundant Grace International School, which this year has a larger facility—meaning more space to spread out during COVID times. Both teachers are good at monitoring simultaneous conferencing groups where students read their work aloud for peer feedback to improve their second drafts. In the background of the photo, you can see other students drafting or revising their work.

"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!

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. 

In the Time of COVID 2

 This week, I sent this notice to the principals of schools where SELI maintains Young Writers clubs under the Seli River Writing Project:

I am sorry to say that because of the current COVID19 situation, SELI will be suspending Young Writers clubs for the 2020-2021 school year. I have hesitated to take this decision because every year it is the children who are at the highest risk of failing that our clubs embrace.

 

High-risk students benefit greatly from good content conferencing on their true personal experiences, which is best done around a table in groups of 4-6 with a teacher present. Everyone participates: children learn English from reading their work aloud, asking good questions, reflecting and explaining. People at the table talk quietly so the rest of the class can draft and revise.

 

Members also benefit from peer editing, where they sit closely with another member and discuss spelling, punctuation and verb tenses in both of their pieces. In teacher editing, they read their work aloud as they sit next to a teacher. The teacher listens to how the authors read to know whether they understand where sentences end, or whether someone is speaking, and then ask authors what kind of punctuation they need.

 

This proximity that is such a plus in our club meetings becomes a minus when social distancing is the rule. There are other reasons that we need to step away from club meetings during the COVID period. Moving about the room to access shared writing supplies or to go on to the next writing stage, helps club members take ownership over both their writing and their progress, but it, too, obstructs social distancing. Even the fact that we meet before or after school means that our students may not be protected by the same level of COVID precaution that is enforced by the school during its regular school hours. The health and safety of our children is paramount.

 

We fully expect to restart the SELI Young Writers program for the 2021-2022 school year in all interested schools. I urge you, in the meantime, to develop a teachers’ community of process-writing practitioners in your school using your Young Writers club teachers as advisors, so that this valuable method of teaching writing will gain its deserved place in your regular school classrooms. 

In the Time of COVID 1

Twelve members of SELI's Young Writers clubs are about to receive "My Life" booklets like the ones pictured here from a previous year. To state that more clearly, before schools closed on March 31st, 2020, to protect students and staff from the pandemic, twelve club members had completed five final drafts, qualifying them for a printed booklet of their work. 

Some of the recipients are from these schools in the Koinadugu and Falaba Districts: Dankawalie Secondary School, Dankawalie (4); Kabala Secondary School JSS, Kabala (1); and Movement of Faith Secondary School, Yiraia (3). 

Other recipients are from these schools in the Western Rural Area: REC Primary, Bassa Town (1); Heaven Homes, Joe Town (2); and Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, Samuel Town (1). 

We are delighted that Kalie A. Kamara, one of the club facilitators from Dankawaliehas been writing as well, and will also be receiving a booklet. Let's have more facilitators writing!

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!

SELI's Charity GoFundMe Campaign

SELI's Charity GoFundMe campaign in support of the Seli River Writing Project is now online,

and receiving donations. Many thanks to donors who have responded so quickly to help keep us going through this year and the next!

Your contributions, however large or small, are what keep SELI able to support the Young Writers club facilitators with mentoring, refresher courses and training. If you would like to help further, please take a moment to share the link to others who can help.