Six Words and a Whole Lot of Learning

This activity makes a great end-of-the-year or graduation writing activity. 

My 8th-grade students learned more about writing from six-word memoirs than they did from the five-paragraph essays and research papers they wrote. Well, almost.

Here's what I mean. Take a minute and write a six-word memoir about your day today. I'll wait.

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Critical Thinking, Writing, Revising, & More Thinking

You probably navigated your way through these steps:

Step 1: Thought about your day.
Step 2. Thought about the most important parts of your day. What stood out?
Step 3. Jotted down ideas.
Step 4. Summarized those ideas.
Step 5. Wrote a few phrases or sentences.
Step 6. Chose a phrase and revised it to 6 words.
Step 7. Played with the word order and word choice. Looked up words to take the place of multiple words. Added adjectives or adverbs.

If you worked through those steps, chances are you could feel your brain cells working. You had to synthesize the information from your day and phrase it in a logical way. It took some critical thinking.

Don't get me wrong. Five-paragraph essays and research papers are extremely important. I'm not suggesting replace those with six-word phrases, but . . .

Sometimes the most learning takes place in small chunks. From the perspective of a student, a six-word memoir is a lot more manageable than a five-paragraph essay. Students can focus on syntax and word choice. As they revise to hit the six-word count, it also helps improve their vocabulary.

Once students write a few six-word memoirs, they get the hang of it, and it gets easier. It's something you can work in often—before, during, and after the major writing assignments. It's a fun break. My reluctant readers and writers loved them!

Consider the possibilities (and they're not just for English class):

• Exit Tickets
• Bulletin Boards
• Response to Reading
• Summarizing a history lesson
• Summarizing a science or math concept
• "Getting to Know You" Ice Breaker at the beginning of the school year
• Introducing yourself to your students and parents at "Meet the Teacher" Night
• Grandparents' Day Tribute
• End-of-the-Year Activity
• Final Exam Question

For just about anything you teach, you can use Six-word memoirs.

Here are some memoirs I wrote to introduce myself to my students and to show them various patterns for six words.

• Born in Maryland. Live in Tennessee.
• Twelve years teaching junior high English.
• Junior high: New adventures every day.
• Daughter. Sister. Wife. Mother. Teacher. Friend.
• Learned about memoirs from a colleague.

Background

Six-word memoirs are the brainchild of Larry Smith of Smith magazine, an online storytelling website he founded in 2006.

In 2008, Smith released a book of six-word memoirs called Not Quite What I was Planning, which was featured on NPR. A book for and by teens called "I Can't Keep My Own Secrets," soon followed. (The link is at the right.)

According to Smith, the inspiration for six-word memoirs comes from Ernest Hemingway who was once asked to tell his life story in six words. He replied, "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn."

Teaching Tips

I first taught six-word memoirs when my students read Melba Pattillo Beals' memoir, Warriors Don't Cry. I used the activity to introduce the concept of memoir.

Afterwards, my students used their memoirs to introduce themselves to students in a class in another state. I had connected with another 8th grade English teacher through Edmodo, and we collaborated on several activities together.

The memoirs turned out so well, we used them for Parent Tributes and Grandparents Day.

I suggest you start small. Try it out. Start with exit tickets, then maybe a bulletin board.

I created a packet of resources I developed during eight years of teaching Six-word Memoirs.

Over time, I developed ways to encourage students to think deeply and symbolically about the important people in their lives. Some of their memoirs about their parents—and especially their grandparents—were very poignant.

The memoirs became more poetic each year.

This packet includes all the graphic organizers I used for students of different abilities. I also included a student sample of the thinking process.

Six Word Memoirs for the Classroom