This week, my students are working on six-word memoirs and flash fiction as an introduction to our short story unit. With an essential question of “What makes a story a story?” we are delving into deep discussions of Hemingway’s baby shoes and other impactful short works. After working with some of the memoirs inТ I Can’t Keep My Own SecretsТ and discussing both what is said and left unsaid in six-word memoirs, students were asked to compose their own!

First, students composed a draft in their journal for our class. They were asked to think it over last night, and continue modifying the draft as needed. Today, students were asked to write their stories – on their desks! 🙂 Using dry-erase markers, students graffitied the desks with their own memoirs. Subsequently, classmates were invited to comment on the stories using another color marker. While some were silly or simple, others were deep and inspiring. Six-word memoirs were discussed at length in our Pages summer workshop, and I’m so glad I made this a part of our unit! Students really worked hard to come up with meaningful memoirs, and really got a kick out of writing on their desks 🙂

Some of the class favorites can be seen below – I’m hoping that some of the students will also follow up and submit them online at www.sixwordmemoirs.com/teens!

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