Not quite what I was planning.

1. Not quite what I was planning. Six-Word Memoirs

2. Ever heard (or thought)? • From Teachers: • Tired of lazy students and smart-mouths? • Mimeographs and ditto sheets aren’t working. • Dreams about TAKS writing plague me! • Admin. is breathing down my back. • How many days till summer vacation? • From Students: • This assignment is so very boring. • Miss, what is the length requirement? • I didn’t know about the homework. • They are dead white guys, so… • I have nothing to write about.

3. The Research Critical Thinking Text Structures Revision Motivation Authenticity

4. The Research – authenticity • Write Beside Them, Penny Kittle p. 102“Why narrative?  We are a people of story.  From the cavemen to families gathered around the fire at night, we've told stories. What is true about narrative is the student is the authority on the topic.  Authority empowers voice.” 

5. Ernest Hemingway "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

6. Rationale Wyrdsmiths – A Weblog for the Twin Cities Area Speculative Fiction Writer’s Group @Blogspot • posted by Sean M. Murphy… “It does what a good story must--connects to the reader's own sense of common humanity and relies upon that sensibility to fill in the background of the story.” • Kelly Swails Said… “Sometimes I try to make things too complex and remembering Hemingway’s six words reminds me that the reader and I are crafting this story together; I don’t have to shoulder the whole load.”

7. Zak Nelson “I still make coffee for two."

8. Types • State of Being and Personal Reflection • Ancestral Origins • Family Connections • Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, Age, and Gender • Professions • School Affiliations • Popular Culture Labels

9. Student Samples – Personal Reflection • No one can stop my dreams. • Too many people stop to think. • It is his loss, not mine. • Broken in a million little pieces. • Dead. Gunshot echoing throughout the air. • Life’s purpose: serve people, not self.

10. Student Samples - Historical Context • Persevered through daily harassment by students. • Oldest one here. I WILL graduate. • May 1958, Green graduated all alone. • I came. I graduated. I conquered! • They say we have opportunity; really? • “All men… equal,” ring a bell? • Kept my cool, just to graduate. • Mobbed, spit on, and cursed…integration.

11. Student Samples - Historical Context • It’s like forcing two magnets together. • “Martha Washington” tricked the news media! • Thrugood Marshall, “He was my hero.” • Congressional Gold Medal made it worthwhile. • I wanna make Rosa Parks proud. • Don’t underestimate young. They may surprise. • Crowds still make my skin crawl. • Prominently featured in Barack Obama’s inauguration.

12. Student Samples - Historical Context • Racial profiling prevention, that’s my job. • We’re free? Doesn’t feel like it. • Little Rock. That’s what they threw. • Terrence Roberts. Sorry, Doctor Terrence Roberts. • I’m too fast for the bullies! • I changed history today, did you? • Anticipation to make friends. Didn’t happen. • Golden Rule, it didn’t exist yet.

13. The Challenge Everyone has a story, what’s yours?

14. Lesson Ideas • Get your students to expand a six-word memoir into a longer story. • Have students to write their own six-word memoirs. • Take a selection of memoirs and jumble up the words. Students have to put words in correct order. • Write memoirs from the perspective of other people or things. • Use the memoirs for grammar discussions and or opportunities to play with punctuation.

15. Publications

16. Reading TEKS – grade 6 (3) The student will make inferences and draw conclusions about theme and genre in different cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts (A)  infer the implicit theme of a work of fiction, distinguishing theme from the topic; (C)  compare and contrast the historical and cultural settings of two literary works. (6)  The student will make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction (A)  summarize the elements of plot development (C)  describe different forms of point-of-view

17. Writing TEKS – grade 6 (14)  Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. Students are expected to: (15)  Writing/Literary Texts. Students write literary texts to express their ideas and feelings about real or imagined people, events, and ideas. Students are expected to: (16)  Writing. Students write about their own experiences. Students are expected to write a personal narrative that has a clearly defined focus and communicates the importance of or reasons for actions and/or consequences.

18. Social Studies TEKS – grade 6 (2)  The student understands the contributions of individuals and groups from various cultures (21)  The student applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information (22)  The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms. (D)  create written and visual material (E)  use standard grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation.

19. Heather Cato – 6 places to find me • Email • heather.cato@gcisd.net • Web Site • www.endlessquestions.com • Blog • www.hcato.edublogs.com • Wiki • http://lab12.wikispaces.com • Ning • www.ning.com/heathercato • Twitter • www.twitter.com/heathercato