Starting Hard Conversations With a Few Well-Chosen Words
In a year like none other, Six-Word Memoirs were one way to help kids — and all of us — make sense of the world.
Featured in Edutopia: Six Words as a Tool for Classroom Conversations
In my decade of living and breathing The Six-Word Memoir Project, I have had the pleasure of witnessing teachers embrace and adapt the six word form to help their students foster self-expression and writing confidence, and their classrooms build community and get hard discussions started.
The 2021-22 school year was one that was full of many hard conversations, among teachers, among students, among parents. The Six-Word Memoir format has proven to be a helpful way to guide students into hard conversations, a topic I addressed in an article just published on George Lucas's educational platform Edutopia. “Teachers know that students arrive at the classroom as members of a complicated, ever-changing world and that they need to process this world and their place in it,” I wrote. “One way to make these conversations easier is by breaking down big ideas into small, digestible chunks.”
The 2021-22 school year was a lot of things: intense and complex, but also uniquely special and unforgettable. From my professional vantage point of having the honor of working with so many of you, as well as my personal lens as the father of a fifth grader, my hope is that the Six-Word Memoir form continues to meet teachers where they are both inside and outside of the classroom.
Six in Schools: A Year to Remember
This last year was also a time when Six-Word Memoirs transformed itself from being a company that did a number of things to one whose team now wakes up each day with a profound mission: to inspire and empower students to find their writing voice. We call our work with schools — wait for it — Six in Schools and we’ve had the please meet thousands of students in 2021-2022 both virtually (via the magic of Zoom) and in-person (via the miracle of masks).
A few classroom stories from a long highlight reel:
• Jennifer Eisen, a New York City educator who works with students experiencing hearing loss, gravitated towards the six word format to help her students narrate their individual stories related to hearing. Students from age eight to eighteen reveal strength and vulnerability in Six-Word Memoirs such as, "My hearing doesn’t affect my dreams," "My hearing aids are my superpower," "Don’t stare, just ask, it’s okay."
illustrated Six-Word Memoir by one of Jennifer Eisen’s students.
• At Redwood Day School, a K-8 school in Oakland, CA, the eighth graders ran the show: setting up an outdoor stage, introducing me, making sure each student had a pen and paper to write their Six-Word Memoirs, and helping facilitate a "Six-Word Slam" for the ages. That morning on the lawn, they shared stories about their life during the pandemic with honesty ("Skipped the homework, no one noticed"), humor ("Mask on, Zoom on, PJs on"), and all of the above ("Hand sanitizer scarred me for life").
Student at Redwood Day School working on their Six-Word Memoir.
• Andrea Franks, a 4th/5th-grade teacher at New York City’s John Melser Charrette School (PS3), has been teaching Six-Word Memoirs for years and has created monthly six word prompts as part of her curriculum, displaying students’ responses on topics ranging from "six words on social justice" to "six words on love." Franks not only made a classroom book with her 4th/5th graders, but also spearheaded a pre-K-5 all-school project in which each class was represented by two illustrated Six-Word Memoirs.
A class memoirs from John Melser Charrette School (PS3) in NYC.
Need some fresh inspiration for your classroom in the fall? We have the perfect ice-breaker for your new semester! Find out more on Six in Schools, our platform with tons of classroom success stories and free tools to teach and even create your own Six-Word Memoir classroom book.
Classroom of the Month: 8th Graders Are Published Authors!
At Kennedy Middle School in Redwood City, CA, 8th grade students in English teacher Cynthia Wilson’s classes excitedly shared their Six-Word Memoir classroom books. Wilson noted that her students would sign each other’s books just like a yearbook, placing their names next to their memoirs. “I think publishing their memoirs is very powerful, especially this year because so many of their memoirs were about their experiences during the pandemic. The book will be something they look back on in the future to remember this time of their life.” Read all about these proud and published authors on the Six-Word Memoirs school blog.
SixContest: Summer Memories
Whether you’re gorging on funnel cake at a state fair or gasping at the price of gas before your road trip with The Boss or Cardi B blasting from your speakers, summer means something different to everyone. For SixContest #145, we want to share your summer stories in six words.
Do memories of summer take you back to fireflies and swing sets or dysfunctional family vacations and sun burns (“Sun burns have never felt better.” — GirlOfWords)? Do you have a favorite childhood spot you return to as an adult (“Building sandcastles and dreaming of you.” — maryjane31) or somewhere you go only in your thoughts when summer arrives (“Vinyl furniture. No air-conditioning. Human puddles.” — enginethatcould)? Share your stories of sun-drenched kisses, gnarly waves, summer jobs, or that one time at summer camp that you just can’t forget.
Tell us your #SummerInSix in the comments on Substack or on the Six-Word Memoir site. One short-form scribe will win the Six Word book of their choice.
Craft of Writing Tip #10: Meet Your Character(s)
A story is only as strong as its characters and as compelling as its plot lines. While a full-length character study with no story arc or plot can be dull to some, so can a dramatically rich piece without the support of one or more characters to root for. When we look at major historical events such as Muhammad Ali’s victory against Sonny Liston in 1964 or news stories such as “Struggling mother of five wins lottery,” we’re not thinking so much about the events as we’re thinking about their effect on our “heroes.” With enough world building, description, conflict, and flaws, characters can become a part of a reader’s family. But that requires the writer to get to know their characters before their readers do.
To get to know your characters, note specific details about the people populating your story, such as facial expressions, mannerisms, tics, and speech. And don’t be afraid to comment on those unique characteristics that make your characters who they are. Here are some Six-Word Memoirs with lots of character. —Ayusha Mahajan, Six-Word Memoir intern
“She makes Honest Abe whistle Dixie.” —Oh_Skinny
“Mom's botulism paranoia legacy: apple-stuffed turkey.” —JanAlexander
“She wears the years like silken-threads.” —AnnaMac
"Brother says Hello. Hooray, speech therapy!" —enginethatcould