I bought sentence strips and wrote out each six-word memoir (including my own because I also promised to do the writing they do). I promised the stories we wrote were for an actual audience. I didn't just put in a grade and hand it back though. In the end, students turned in their paper with the one they wanted to be published/graded circled. Then we would revise before "submitting". I advised them to write 3-5 six-word memoirs since we were going to pass them around to help us decide on a "publishable" one. You have to be Ok with it being published anonymously (don't write anything you don't want read).Has to tell a story, not just be a statement about what you like.Sluiter, are we going to read and talk more, or do we get to try it ourselves?"īefore letting them loose to write their own, we came up with some guidelines together: Of course, I had planned on the students writing their own, but I didn't anticipate that they would come to class asking to do it. The next day we picked up where we left off. I've never had such deep conversation about a text that early in the school year with middle school students. I meant for this to take only part of a class period, but the conversations we had about each memoir were rich and thought-provoking, so I let the students go a bit since it became clear that my role was just to put a new one on the board and call on people. After discussing this one, I put up a few more I found on the six-word memoir site. This, by the way, is where my 8th graders not having any idea who Ernest Hemingway is comes in handy. I told them not to say anything, but to think for two minutes about what story from a life this might be telling. Then I put Ernest Hemingway's famous six-words on the screen: Baby Shoes for Sale: Never Worn. It's more of a snapshot you post on Instagram rather than a panoramic view of your whole life. From this, I told them that a memoir tells a story from a life. We settled on this description of a biography/autobiography: it tells the story of a life. I wrote all these ideas down and asked if they knew what biographies and autobiographies are. After two minutes, I let them start giving me ideas, and they came up with a lot: memories, memories of war (creative!), something to do with remembering, memories of someone who died, something French, a book of things remembered. I had students take two minutes to think about what this word might mean. I started by putting the word "memoir" on my screen. This year, I was reminded of six-word memoirs and decided to use them as a way to dip our toe into writing our own stories. I love starting the school year with personal narratives, but in the past I have struggled to really engage my students in the writing process right out of the gate from summer break. That is all I did to piece together something that I thought would work well with my 8th graders. If you search Pinterest, you'll find dozens of ways to use six-word memoirs with kids of all ages. A simple Google search will bring up Smith magazine and their six-word memoir site that all began in 2006. Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts.Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |