New content for new laptops

THE Bocas Lit Fest and the Scotiabank Foundation are partnering to supply secondary schools with digital content for laptops donated by corporate TT and citizens.

The Write Away! Young Adult Literature project is giving all schools access to five virtual creative writing workshops via the Ministry of Education’s School Learning Management System. Led by award-winning author Lisa Allen-Agostini, the workshops break down the essentials of creative writing.

The workshops are designed to keep students and teachers motivated and engaged in online learning this term. They also give students access to culturally-relevant books of all genres, and cover everything, from character building to planning the plot and scene setting, using engaging, short videos with illustrations from Caribbean literature and popular young adult fiction like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, said a media release.

Curriculum co-ordinator of the Ministry of Education’s English Unit at the Curriculum Planning and Development Division Marla Morton-Gittens said, “The project is aligned to the secondary school English Language Arts curriculum and will stimulate keen interest in student writing. Certainly, the possibility of writing under the guidance of an award-winning author will energise students to produce their best writing.”

The best writing from students in the Write Away! project will be published next year in an e-book, launching the next generation of writers-to-watch from TT, the release said.

Chairperson of the Scotiabank TT Foundation Roxane De Freitas said,“Our priority at this time is ensuring that no student is left behind in this new digital learning space. We are pleased that our sponsorship of the Write Away! Young Adult Literature Project will provide secondary school students with a platform to foster a love of creative writing and reading. The skills and mentorship they will gain through this initiative will help them not only with their studies but will benefit them in the future.”

Bocas Lit Fest founder and director Marina Salandy-Brown said, “What makes Write Away! unique is that it covers all the bases with beautiful videos, prize-winning books with stories full of Caribbean characters, and a complete teachers’ package designed to support online teaching and learning.”

In addition to the virtual package that all schools can access, nine secondary schools in the Write Away! project receive books for their school libraries to facilitate book clubs and reading groups, and guided writing support for students from the Bocas Lit Fest and Allen-Agostini. They are Arima Central Secondary, Belmont Secondary, Fyzabad Secondary, Marabella North Secondary, Pleasantville Secondary, San Juan North Secondary, St James Secondary, Tableland Secondary and Waterloo Secondary.