I know I am never alone They tell me you’d be proud. Kids played with words, drew, and then handed them in. These memoirs allowed campers to reflect on their grief, memories, and feelings in a way that didn’t feel too big or overwhelming, though the thoughts contained in those 6 words are so incredibly impactful. I told the kids that they would be displayed so to put their names on the back for privacy unless they wanted it to be known that they made it.
One side was for them to illustrate either as a collage or as an abstract image of of their words. I printed one out and drew a line down the middle, then made enough copies with directions on this handout.
#Six word memoir free
Then they illustrated them using these free blank face printables. A few spelling errors were missed, which happens. When they felt satisfied with their chosen words, they had someone spell check their final sentence. Then the kids brainstormed for a bit it their writers’ notebooks, playing around with sentences, words, and punctuation. Then we discussed the perimeters of the challenge: Exactly 6 words, it cannot be a list of adjectives, should reveal some part of your life that you feel comfortable with. I introduced them by showing them examples of other 6-word memoirs, some serious, some not so much. In SIX WORDS, summarize some aspect of who you are or an event that has changed your life. They are exactly what they sound like 6 word stories about our lives. Six-word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith Paperback, 225 pages purchase Excerpt: 'Not Quite What I Was Planning' Edited by Smith magazine After Harvard. A great place to read more about them can be found here. This ingenious little foray into writing has a long history. Now we inch closer to writing personal essays on topics centered on our own lives and so we used the 6-word memoirs. All this work is centered in learning who each other are and developing a feeling of safety and community as we grow into this year together. We have written directions, we have discussed the rules of writing, we have read great writing, and we have set up our writing circles. We continue to work on developing our writing communities, slowly settling into what it means to write together, to be writers, and to feel free to write.