Six Word Memoir Puzzle Pieces
So how do six words have to do with writing? I like to see it as a jumping off point. When Texas switched from TAKS to STAAR, writing teachers nearly fainted when we saw the reduction of 2 pages of writing down to 26 lines! The cry of "How can they expect us have the kids elaborate in only 26 lines?" was heard loud and clear. In fact, I think I may have whined the loudest. Once the cry died down and our heads cleared, we saw the light! We simply had no room for fluff. Every word had to count. That is where the memoirs come in. Only six words to tell your life story...it's harder than you think! The bonus..kids always want to tell you about themselves!
For starters, we watched several of the Youtube VIDEOS and read a few of the BOOKS, just to introduce the concept. Then we let the magic happen!
This the procedure I used in my classroom:
1. Brainstorm in any fashion you wish, but ask the students, "What is uniquely YOU?" We don't need to know you're a "girl" or a "boy". That's pretty obvious.
2. Narrow all of your brainstorming to the top 3 things that truly make you an individual. Please be sure you are modeling here! It is very difficult for young minds to determine the strength of their own ideas. They pick things because they feel they might be "easy" rather than basing decisions on validity and possibility.
3. Writing a six word memoir is truly about experimentation. I tell my students that this step is just trial and error. For the three ideas circled, try to create as many memoirs as you can. I usually give them over night for this step.
****TIPS****
* Do not limit your word count at first. Can only think of an 8 word phrase? Write it down. You can play with word count later.
* Don't commit yourself to using the actual word you brainstormed. There are many ways to say the same thing.
*Write down all that come to your mind. Avoid limiting yourself. That will come later.
4. Once you have all possibilities written down, pick 2 or 3 of your favorites. It helps if you write these on a fresh piece of paper. I like to model this step and show my students how I can take each of my ideas and change word choices, remove unnecessary words, use contractions, and manipulate structure to create a final product. For example, I was trying to say that I was unusual. My initial idea was, " I never knew there was a normal". I was able to eliminate the "I", as it was not needed. I thought the use of the word "normal" was mundane. After discussing this with my students, someone mentioned the idea that being "unusual" meant that you thought "outside of the box". This led to my final product of "Never knew there was a box".
5. From there, you can use this how you wish. I steered it towards how to support a main idea in a paragraph. In addition to the puzzle piece, my students were required to produce a well-written paragraph explaining their meaning. They used the 6 words as their thesis. You can also stop at the memoir itself.
6. The final step is the puzzle piece itself. I simply made a 14" x 14" puzzle piece template on a piece of foam board and cut it out with an X-Acto knife. The students traced this on their own piece of poster board. The requirements were to prominently place their memoir on the piece and decorate their piece to best represent them. These make great classroom decorations, and the students feel ownership over the room! Just a fun way to start the year!
Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely
TEKS: 4.15.B develop drafts by categorizing ideas and organizing them into paragraphs
4.17.A write about important personal experiences
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