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.

All the Ways Children Learn

There is a library in a village community school two hours from Kabala in northern Sierra Leone where twice a week the Sentinel English Language Institute's Young Writers club meets. It is a setting where writing and reading happen throughout the week—a place where children learn—and it very much needed a new floor.

Just a few weeks ago, thanks to donations of money and time from friends and family, SELI made  half of this happen, and Dankawalie Secondary School's library now has a new floor. What astounded us was the other half of this effort: the perseverance and coordination of the community volunteers, who included both teachers and students. We were also delighted that some students took working with the tilers and masons as a learning project. DSS is trying to increase the variety of vocational opportunities it offers, and this was certainly one of them.

We witnessed another type of learning in Dankawalie when one evening after dark a group of much smaller children came to the house to ask our host, Kewulay Kamara, (who had come from NY to see how developments were going on at the school) if he would listen to them tell stories. He told them that it was too dark, but that they could do it the next night if during the day "tomorrow," or "sina," each one of them would bring firewood so there'd be a fire to see by.

 Here's how he told them, and as he improvised we all learned how poems can come to be.

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.

Writing: Your Own Words, or Someone Else's?

I spent time in the Young Writers content conferencing group at the R.E.C. Primary School in Bassa Town yesterday with Class 4, 5 and 6 boys and girls. You see here one of the facilitators enthusiastically introducing me to the new students.

Halfway through I glanced up at the chalkboard. It laid out in detail one of their lessons that day on how to write a composition. The lesson included copying (to memorize) a sample essay on one of the descriptive topics likely to appear on their public exam at the end of Class 6. Is it ironic or illogical or disjointed or what, that we carried on as if the two writing activities were completely unrelated? The question is, what constitutes writing? Is it writing your own words, or someone else's?

The success of a Young Writers club can be attributed to the staff: the teachers and headmistress who encourage and guide the students—and in this school even sometimes hand out sweets—until they finish their first final drafts, earning "I Am an Author" buttons to wear on their uniforms. We find that often those accomplishments give students the confidence they need to continue writing until they build their My Life booklets all by themselves.

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!

The SELI Wordbook

We've come up with something new and exciting, that will soon be heading for our writing clubs.

The SELI Wordbook is a consumable, 26-page workbook produced by the Sentinel English Language Institute (SELI). It was written for Sierra Leoneans who are comfortable speaking Krio. It presents the sixty English words that have been found to most frequently beset junior secondary students when writing about topics of their choice, and it pairs these words with their borrowings in Krio. Students learn to articulate the differences in meaning and use, between the English and Krio word in each pair, and to improve their English use of these sixty common words.

The book is being sold for Le 10,000 (less than $2.) The minimal profit accrues to SELI, which is a nonprofit educational organization. Included are suggestions for teaching the book in class in ten-minute mini-lessons. This would be its ideal use; however, the book is also suitable for independent study. SELI hopes that use of The SELI Wordbook may contribute toward a more widespread awareness in Sierra Leone that the way a language is taught to native speakers differs from the methods used by teachers who effectively enable its acquisition by speakers of other languages.