Friday, January 21, 2011

Six-Word Memoirs

This year I'm again using a studio approach to memoir, giving my students lots of opportunities to collect material through writing exercises and other short assignments. For example, yesterday we had a guest poet who did "I Remember" list poems with the kids, and today they composed six six-word memoirs each and posted them to our class's online discussion board. Here are some of my favorites:

The teacher never saw it coming.
That baseball bat was my favorite.
Never let Mom cut your hair.
Who stays frozen in freeze tag?
Bad things happen on slippery floors.
Geese hate sharing with each other.
Your parents are not good dancers.
Stay away from my pet monkey.
The foam cubes smelled like feet.
Bike + speed bump = crash.
Long car rides are worth it.
Jellyfish are like sneaky little spies.
My first yellow card was stupid.
The medal gleamed in the sun.
The diving board was my nemesis.
I will avenge my squished rabbit!
My name means victory in Arabic.
Ignore the question, "How many fingers?"
We got away from the police.

The final product will be a Tom Romano inspired multi-genre piece that incorporates the best of what each student has. They will take vignettes, maps, comics, poetry, and even a six-worder or two, and weave them into and around a more traditional narrative memoir. Constructing a multigenre piece requires the higher order thinking skills of analysis and synthesis, and also provides kids ways to organize and express their ideas using multiple intelligences.

That's the concept, anyway. This part is new to me, so I'll be interested to see how it all turns out.

So, here is my own half-dozen six-word memoirs:

Those tadpoles never had a chance.
Every beach house needs a kite.
Round one goes to the dog.
Watch out! Bigwheels don't have brakes.
Broken thermometers taste like sharp mercury.
He can't cross the street alone.

4 comments:

  1. don't crash into each other - AHHHHHHHHHH
    I could've turned into the driveway
    no thanks to no thankyou helpings
    lisa ann wilhann 105 milbrooke drive
    stag beetle on my finger - AHHHHHHHHHHHH
    my dod the no is pink

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  2. so funny I laughed out loud
    keep the puppies in the yard
    now go apologize to the Huddlestons
    Smokey ate all the Halloween candy
    yes, tie the chicken legs together
    Dusty's dress made her arms swell
    His fraternity brothers suggested shorter hair
    Tarta Babba is the best cake
    the duck ate the green cookie
    yeah, I love you too Grandma

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  3. Great mini-memoirs, you guys!

    There sure is a lot of screaming in yours, Cour.

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  4. sorry, I can't resist two more.

    Gray Tiger broke into our house; and

    Lunch was "Food in the Middle."

    ReplyDelete