Six Words Goes Back to School
Six Words Goes Back to School!
Nothing in my fifteen-year journey with Six-Word Memoirs has brought me more joy than how teachers have introduced and amplified the six-word format to help their students break through writing blocks and connect with one another by sharing their own Six-Word Memoirs. Now, we’ve created a way for any classroom to make their own Six-Word Memoir book. Making a book to celebrate students’ individual identities and a classroom’s collective spirit is, for starters, a blast. And Six-Word Memoirs is also a teaching tool that:
• Guides students to get to the point or “heart” of an idea
• Focuses on purposeful and precise writing
• Showcases student perspectives in a creative, innovative, and meaningful way
• Amplifies social and emotional learning
• Is a fun, “gamified” way to unlock creativity, personal narrative, and brainstorm story ideas.
• Satisfies Common Core State/ELA standards in the content area of Writing (Opinion, Narrative, Publishing) and more.
See how thousands of teachers have introduced Six-Word Memoirs in their classrooms on the Six In Schools blog. And scroll down this newsletter to find out how you can make your own Six-Word Memoir Classroom Book this fall — and in all the seasons that follow.
Here’s how it works:
• Teachers order a free classroom kit (or kits for multiple classrooms)
• In that kit is a simple teacher’s guide to introduce the six-word format to students and lead them through the book-making process
• Teachers receive a free book
• Parents order classroom books
• Schools receive money for each book ordered
• Students are proud and published authors
Get Your Free Classroom Kit
Classroom of the Month: "Pandemic 2020: Caught in the Middle” at Ashe County, NC Middle School
Julie Taylor, the curriculum director at Ashe County Schools in Warrensville, NC, devised a multimedia project titled Pandemic 2020: Caught in the Middle. “As I thought of ways to help students express how they felt during the pandemic, I knew Six-Word Memoirs would provide a cathartic means of expression for our middle school students," says Taylor. Now Taylor is among our first group of pioneering teachers creating their own Six-Word Memoir Classroom Books. And soon, they’ll be ready for parents, grandparents, and anyone else who wants to celebrate their proud and newly published authors! (If you’d like to make your own Classroom Book, sign up to receive your free classroom kit on the Six In Schools program site.)
Read more about Taylor's work on our Six in Schools blog and see how other teachers across the world are using the form to instruct and engage their students.
Six-Word Search: “Teachers”
For the sheer number of tasks teachers manage to check off every week, they deserve all of the credit, and then some. As teachers return to schools and pumpkin spice lattes return to the menu, we searched the Six-Word Memoirs site for warm words by, for, and about teachers:
Short Cut: Six-Word Reviews
From Substack: The recipe for life does not consist of impossibly rare and
un-procurable ingredients. Rather, it can be found in the nooks and crannies of everyday existence. Rob Walker acknowledges this in The Art of Noticing where he uses a micro-lens to view the human condition and examine topics of curiosity and the creative process. He’s supported by observations by fellow writers and public figures. His weekly Dictionary of Missing Words and Icebreaker of the Week also encourage participation in original and attentive thought.
Six-Word Memoirs intern Ayusha Mahajan’s Six-Word Review: “Walker’s creative walkabouts inspire world-dissecting introspection.”
From the World: Broadway delighted fans as productions announced their return to the theaters in early September. Among them, Hadestown will return to deliver a stunning and emotional performance, armed with only a seven-man orchestra on the stage alongside its colorful cast. The musical, with the help of the narrator Mr Hermes and his old-fashioned microphone, immerses the audience in a tragedy of kings and queens, gods and men, in the pursuit of the muses. Listen to its Original Broadway Cast Recording on Spotify.
Six-Word Memoir's Danielle Shum's Six-Word Review: “Hauntingly elegant, Hadestown chronicles orphic myths.”