Your Turn Lesson & Six Word Memoir

This week, I have narrowed down my own writing while thinking of new ways to teach this type of writing to my students, both current and future. After students learn to narrow down writing topics, it's important for them to learn how to look critically at narratives and discover ways to expand their stories. Chapter 5 of Mentor Texts by Dorfman & Cappelli includes many techniques for teachers and students to use for this purpose.

Here is one of the lessons my writing partner and I created using the book Happy Like Soccer by Maribeth Boelts, illustrated by Lauren Castillo: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m0p7AbkdSEhDEZbP-SOWf2utIFyV2cRpVOIfAszRrMs/edit?usp=sharing

One technique I used and explored myself this week is called a 6-Word Memoir, adapted from the article "Every Word is on Trial" by Saunders & Smith. Even though this sounds like something that is easy, I found that it is much harder than it looks. Thinking critically about your life in six words is challenging! But I think this is a great way to help students learn how to analyze their writing and use words with purpose.

Here is mine!