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.

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.

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. 

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.

"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.

Read All About It!

Young Voices, no. 7.1, is out! Click, and settle down for a good read.

You'll learn all about what students in SELI's Young Writers clubs have written in their twice-weekly writing workshops. The members of our nine writing clubs all have copies, and are reading them, too. This girl is in REC Primary School, Bassa Town (near Waterloo).

Our children are learning to express themselves in English, which is not easy for them. Your comments, or feedback, are welcome.

Democracy in Schools

Here's an entry from my SELI journal from twenty years ago—enjoy!

June 7, 1999  I’m teaching Second Language Methodology to ten teachers from five schools who are teaching, or have been assigned to teach, one of the indigenous languages in Sierra Leone. We start with a short dialog journal session (partners write in indigenous languages). The first session is theory, and then someone (either I or another participant or a video) teaches a lesson using one of the seven teaching methodologies we're focusing on for the 1st, 2nd or 3rd time, which we discuss.  I try to elicit an underlying concept the methodology illustrates and add it to my display board, heading for ten underlying concepts of effective second-language classrooms. We end with a writing workshop, writing our personal experiences in English.

I was nervous about today. Our topic was democracy in schools/classrooms. However, because it's important for this topic to be a discussion, drawing out the points was essential. I asked three participants to present what they thought about democracy in schools, and then asked for class reactions.  There was a great debate—more than once someone brought up that if a taxi driver drove badly in the street and you protested, he’d shout, “This is democracy!” at you. 

When it seemed everyone was agreeing that character education destroys African cultural values, and that democracy is too much freedom for overcrowded classrooms where order requires respect, I pointed out that we had already gained consensus on the concepts on the display board. And that they actually describe a democratic classroom. I reminded them that some types of learning can take place in autocratic classrooms, but not second language learning. I was delighted that someone mentioned that maybe democracy should not just be everybody-do-what-you-want, but consists of both rights and responsibilities. I presented the 7th grade class constitution in ASCD’s book, Democratic Schools[1], emphasizing that students and teachers drew it up together.  

Just last week Fourah Bay College students stormed and damaged the college principal's house in a protest over water and transport. The college closed and the principal is bringing charges against those he could identify.  One of our class participants was attacked similarly a few years ago as matron of one of the FBC hostels. She still lectures there and has been firmly against a student project underway to draw up a student rights document. She said that after our discussion today she sees the value in it but it should be a negotiated rights/responsibilities document, co-constructed by students, lecturers, and administration. Hooray!

I had a chance at the end to tie in a handout about the inequality inherent in ability grouping in schools—how it predestines one for success or failure. We take it for granted that all class six students whose mark in the public exit exam falls below a threshold, end up in the less-than-best secondary schools. And that in most secondary schools, the best students are put in JSS 1A and the worst in 1E. Can teachers do anything about that? We used another handout from Democratic Schoolsabout teachers not giving up when things are hard to fight against.

Then came a TTTV video demonstrating the problem posing method in an ESL classroom—a perfect sequel.  We evaluated the video lesson by sharing our ideas on how it was the same as, and different from, one of our class participants’ problem posing class last week. Excellent discussion. They were impressed at how the emotional impact of the "code" stimulated the students in the video to express personal opinions even though they struggled to come up with the language they needed to do it.  There was a good discussion about how and when the two teachers brought in the elements of the problem posing method.

Then in the writing workshop, we had time for two author sharings (members of the class reading aloud pieces of writing they had drafted). The first wrote about a childhood experience, how she had once told on some students who cheated in school, and although she was right, she lost all her friends.  Another told about a recent PTA meeting he attended as a parent which in his view was unusually successful because of the unifying of Sierra Leone cultures the invasion of Freetown in January had brought about.  The question was asked: did we really need a rebel invasion to teach Sierra Leoneans they need to unite?  

We ended by agreeing that both these pieces of writing were closely related to our lesson on democracy. What a class we had today!

---

[1]Apple, M. & Beane, J. (1955). Democratic Schools.  Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

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.

Teachers Who Write

The Sentinel English Language Institute conducts professional development through its Leading Young Writers program, which trains teachers to be Young Writers club facilitators. Half our time together is spent writing in a workshop setting. The teachers enjoy sharing and perfecting their work as much as the students do.

We encourage teachers to continue writing after they return to their schools in our belief that doing so makes them better club facilitators. A few do continue. They share their work in club content conferencing groups and send it to me for teacher editing and/or typing along with the children's. I show them children's books I have published and we talk about ways available to us to publish in Sierra Leone. And how writing is a way of life for people who realize they are writers.

We were all saddened this week to hear of the death of Paul M. Conteh at UMC Heritage High School just outside Kabala in northern Sierra Leone. As one of these teacher/writers, he had been producing regularly since he began the Leading Young Writers program; I had just returned three pieces he had submitted to me. His colleagues, friends and family but especially the students who wrote with him will miss him greatly.

By way of contrast, today I received a text from a young urban police officer who was also for a number of years a Young Writers facilitator in the Northern Province. When I asked him how his new job was going, he replied, "I really thank you for encouraging me to write. It's just a continuation here." What a beautiful testimony to the view that by becoming an active writer one gains access to ongoing worldwide conversations, from anywhere.

Keep Those Kids Talking!

We made contact with seven SELI Young Writers clubs on our trip following the Seli River to Koinadugu and Karene Districts last week. All the facilitators were present in our training in May, 2018 and three of the clubs (in Lunsar, Yiraia and Gbenikoro) are new this year.

One common thread wound through all our discussions: facilitators can't minimize content conferences. If we're going to make second language learning happen, we have to keep those kids negotiating issues orally! We checked first that the topics they are choosing to write from are their own true personal experiences. Once that was settled, we put all our gusto into widening the space and time given to reading work aloud to peers, into listening to those stories read aloud and asking good content questions about them, into listening to the reply and amending the question, and so on.

I am finding that facilitators in established clubs may not even be aware that content conferencing has been a make-or-break factor in their success. We found one club's formerly lively content conferences have devolved into one-on-ones with a teacher, and students now refer to them as "correcting" sessions. Small wonder that the meeting lacked the vibrancy and productivity we have seen there before.

Another place in the writing process where students MUST talk is during teacher editing. If they are not reading their work aloud as you point out errors, how can you distinguish between students who left out full stops or commas because they have no sentence sense, and those who expressively pause or drop their voices where the punctuation should be, and simply need to be reminded?  How can you make paragraphing come from their own instincts if they are not switching gears orally as they read?

We did see inspiring work being done, and we're glad now that WhatsApp helps us keep in contact even with schools located out of mobile coverage areas.

The Difference a Little Teaching Makes

MITESOL, the Michigan chapter of TESOL International Association, puts out a periodic online newsletter called MITESOL Messages. 

The latest issue (August 15, 2018) carries a description of the Seli River Writing Project in an article called “Grappling with Text,” Scroll down to the section “Updates From the Field."

Let us know what you think!

"My Life" Booklets 2018

It's time to say, "Well done!" All the students in the Seli River Writing Project's Young Writers clubs who have completed five final drafts by June 2018 have received personal booklets called "My Life" containing their writing.

Here we see students who received these booklets in Joe Town (near Waterloo), in Dankawalie (near Kabala), in Sussex, and in Lumpa (near Waterloo).

I love that although every part of everyone's book is uniquely theirs—from the photo to the dedication, the table of contents, the text, and the about-the-author page—the whole club already knows and has played a role in everyone else's stories.

Everyone wrote about their personal experiences, and brought their first drafts to the group for oral feedback to help them revise what they had written. They returned to their friends later for peer editing. For this reason, the students in these photos are aware that their accomplishments are not totally individual: they achieved what they did with the help of their fellow students as much as that of their facilitators. While such cooperation to achieve a task is common here in Sierra Leone, it is rare in formal school settings. Instruction in Sierra Leone is generally still very competitive.

This year, we gave out thirty-three "My Life" booklets, which is a record for SELI Young Writers clubs.

The facilitators shared the photos you see here on our WhatsApp forum, but those of our facilitators who do not have smart phones cannot access WhatsApp. The schools whose clubs received "My Life" booklets were Dankawalie Secondary School (Falaba District), REC Bassa Town, Abundant Grace Int'l. School (Sussex), New Apostolic/Wenner Kuhhnle (5:5), Heaven Homes (Joe Town) and the Seventh Day Adventist Primary school (Samuel Town). All but the first are in the Western Rural Area.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Young Voices 6.2

Enjoy reading the latest issue (6.2) of the newsletter of SELI's Young Writers clubs, Young Voices. All the children write about their true personal experiences, so you get an idea of what their lives are like as you read. All live in rural areas, some close to the capital city and some very far from it.

We welcome your comments!

Leading Young Writers Workshop 6

This is us, LYW6, all seventeen of us. We have spent the last three days together at SELI in Tengbeh Town, in Freetown, working on what process writing is, and how to use it in after-school SELI Young Writers clubs as well as in writing classes. You see us gathered here just before certificates were awarded.

There are teachers here sent by nine schools included in the Seli River Writing Project—schools located in Joe Town near Waterloo, Goderich, Lunsar, Kabala, Gbenikoro, Yiraia and Dankawalie.

For some, this was a refresher course; for others, it was a training for club facilitators needed to replace teachers who have moved on. And for three schools, it was an initial training to open a new club. It was marvelous having the experienced facilitators present! They shared their knowledge and learned new tricks.

We spent the three days working on writing theory, how to run clubs, English grammar and usage, and the elements of process writing that can be introduced one-by-one into writing classes without much fuss.

Part of each day was conducted like a process writing workshop, so the teachers could experience themselves what they would be asking their students to do. For our mini lessons each day, we used The SELI Wordbook. In the photo, you see a content conferencing group, listening to one person read his personal experience aloud as the others write questions they plan to ask him when he is finished.

Thank you to the SELI donors who made this training workshop possible, and to this wonderful group of teachers and their schools for appreciating the importance of writing!

Photos from Kabala

Usually, the photos I have of our SELI Young Writers clubs are the ones I've taken when I visit the school. Sometimes we get photos from the facilitators themselves, instead. Take a look!

These were just sent by Alieu S. Kanu from one of their Kabala Junior Secondary School meetings last week. This young boy is revising his draft after getting feedback in a content conference, and the girl in front of him is reading the latest issue of the Young Voices newsletter in which selected pieces of writing appear from all the schools where we have clubs.

The second photo shows a content conference. Usually, each author reads his or her work aloud for the others to listen to and comment on. This author must have had trouble getting everyone to understand what he was reading, so he is showing the text as he reads.

These students go home after school to eat and do some chores, and then return for the club meeting (no longer in their school uniforms). I love everyone's total absorption in writing, and the dreamy atmosphere of these photos, showing everyone in a cloud of learning! 

Teacher Editing, Part 2

Teacher editing happens in our ESL Young Writers writing workshops just before students prepare the final draft of their personal experience pieces. It is the last of several interventions we make in the students’ writing process. The first intervention is during rehearsal and the second is when students take their finished first drafts to a content conferencing group.

In content conferencing, authors read their work aloud for peer response. Listeners ask questions to resolve any confusion they sense and help authors realize changes that would make their second drafts more effective and clearer. To put everyone on the same playing field of ideas and organization, no one is allowed to comment about anyone’s English at this stage. There’s a real stigma in Sierra Leone about making mistakes in English, and we don’t tolerate such ridicule in our clubs.

It is the group’s responsibility help authors tell their stories clearly. A facilitator should be present in every content conference to make sure the students are asking “why” and “how” or “I didn’t understand” questions for discussion, rather than flinging out gotchas (What is your father’s name? How many doctors were in the hospital? What time was it?) Once the student discussion has petered out, the facilitator can ask any important questions that the students may not have thought of. The whole interactive process is an extremely important part of the language learning that goes on in the club.

I am coming around to the point made in Part 1, that facilitators feel too much pressure during teacher editing just before the final draft. In trying to edit both storytelling and written devices, they actually pay more attention to mechanical errors such as punctuation and capitalization. Therefore, I think we will move in our Young Writers clubs toward editing grammatical storytelling devices in our content conferences. Facilitators can raise one or two of the following discourse-level language points they hear a need for, and specify the place in the story where they heard this problem(s). The whole group would benefit from a discussion of these factors that affect their oral delivery:

o   Avoid repeating a noun you have recently mentioned—use a pronoun instead.

o   First use indefinite articles (some, a, a lot of) to refer to an unknown object or person; then use a definite article (the) to refer to it.

o   Use sequence-signaling words like later, ago, and before, as well as time expressions like at night and the next morning to make chronology clear.

o   Tell your story in the past tense, primarily.

o   Distinguish the meanings of but, so and and.

o   If you want to use a person’s name in the story, introduce it the first time that person is mentioned and then continue to use the name from then on.

Note that the list contains only discourse-level grammar strategies. They are the glue—the cohesion and coherence—that makes content and organization hang together.  That’s why they belong in a content conference.

Following the content conference, students go on to revision, or writing a second draft that incorporates their changes. Every second draft should go back to the group for a second content conference, to check that the revision happened. Only those Young Writers who have made good strides with revision should move on to self-, peer-, and then an easier teacher editing.

Teacher Editing, Part I

I think teacher editing is the hardest part of ESL writing-workshop facilitating for traditionally-trained teachers to learn. 

Teacher editing in Young Writers clubs centers not on everything the teacher knows, but on the student’s voice. Ideally during teacher editing, students read aloud to the teacher, who helps them listen to themselves. The photo here from REC Primary in Bassa Town, shows what this looks like. I love watching children's growing awareness of their oral pauses and stops and shouts, and the satisfaction they get from punctuating these. Often, I’ll call an author back to a word that she has just corrected as she read aloud without noticing that the written form didn’t match what she said.

Yet what we see more often is students emerging from teacher editing sessions with whole sentences—even whole series of sentences—heavily crossed out and replaced by the teachers’ “improved” versions. This bothers me because I see a frustration in those teachers’ bold stripes drawn across the paper that I don’t feel when I’m doing teacher editing, but it bothers me more because of the effect it has on the students:

• It dampens their spirits—the last thing at-risk students need.
• It stifles their voices. Many of our club members come to us barely literate, but when they are asked to relate their true personal experiences, a voice comes to the fore. One of our most deep-seated instincts is to tell others about something that has happened to us. That instinct must have enhanced early communities’ chances of survival, but we tap into it in our clubs in order to help students connect that narrative voice to writing. It is our job to keep that exposed instinct safe.
• It can lower the quality of the children’s writing. Teacher language generally stomps in with social proprieties and with categories that sweep details under the carpet, both of which distance us from the scenes the children are painting.
• It has no instructional value. You don’t acquire language by copying someone else’s sentences into a final draft. Teacher language carries complex sentences and vocabulary that are not yet part of the students’ proficiency. True, they are sometimes acquired on the writing edge in the club, but they are more the domain of the language arts class.

The point of the writing club is for the students to learn to record their low-intermediate ESL oral voices on paper so well that anyone who reads their work aloud can reiterate their storytelling. That means they must learn to use storytelling devices such as sequence signaling and the appropriate verb tenses; along with written devices such as paragraphing, inverted commas, and exclamation marks. People want to read their experiences because they have so much to say. The literacy and literary skills we are teaching them will be with them for life. They will transfer to any other language in which they become literate. On top of all this, do the students have to talk like teachers, too?