6 word memoir assignment high school

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How to Use 6-Word Memoirs in the Classroom

Activities in which students have six words to collect their thoughts can help build community and get classroom discussions started.

I launched the Six-Word Memoir project in 2006 with a question on what was then a strange new platform called Twitter: “Can you describe your life in six words?” While I suspected that the constraint of six words would fuel creativity, it wasn’t until I was invited to my nephew’s third-grade classroom to talk about six-word storytelling that I got my first glimpse of the format’s powerful possibilities in school. That morning, a few dozen elementary students shared stories of identity (“Born to be a spy, unnoticeable”), self-worth (“I live bigger than your labels”), agency (“Brainy, talkative, will never be quiet”), and more.

Since then, Six-Word Memoirs has become a valuable tool in many teachers’ toolboxes because it takes away the pressure of a whole blank page while helping kids focus on what’s important in writing: honest and specific storytelling. And what’s important in any young life: an understanding that no one knows or can tell your story better than you.

The six-word form is simple and adaptable and provides a great entry point for almost any subject, grade level, and topic. Below, I share six steps that apply to any Six-Word Memoirs lesson, followed by three classroom lessons.

Teaching Six-Word Memoirs

1. Introduce the Six-Word Memoir concept as a way students can describe their life using just two rules: one, they must use six words exactly, and two, they should be words that the students believe to be true and are exclusively their own.

2. Pick a topic or prompt. “How would you describe your life in six words?” is a great first prompt for any grade level.

3. Show examples of Six-Word Memoirs so students can see a variety of ways to think about the topic.

4. Give them time—either 10–15 minutes in class or as a homework assignment—to write their six words, and have each student read theirs aloud. Remember to share your own.

5. Leave time for discussion, either in small groups or with the whole class. Ask:

• How are your experiences and perspectives similar to or different from those of your classmates?
• What are you noticing about your favorite Six-Word Memoirs? Are they funny, inspiring, surprising, or something else?
• What common themes do you see in these memoirs?

6. If possible, display student work.

Six-Word Exercises

1. Playing the “how well do you know your classmates?” game: Two key values of Six-Word Memoirs are that anyone can do it and everyone plays by the same rules. Taylor Swift gets six words (“My diary is read by everyone”), Nora Z., an 11-year-old from Indiana, gets six words (“Mom just revoked my creative license”), and the creator of the Six-Word Memoir Project gets six words (“Big hair, big heart, big hurry”).

Have your students write their six words and then read a memoir aloud and ask the class to guess whose it is. It’s fun and a good way for the class to connect. When students hear, “Life is better with headphones on,” there are sure to be a lot of mental “likes” and classmates saying, “Yeah, me too.” Hearing, “Three schools, three years, what next?” is relatable for anyone who’s been the new kid.

2. Engaging more deeply with curriculum: Once the ice is broken, the six-word format offers a chance to go deeper. You may be looking for a reflection activity for the 100th day of school, an innovative way to explore Black History Month, or an entry point to the study of history, literature, or current events.

Almost every grade studies nonfiction, and if your students are learning about historical figures, you can invite them to write a Six-Word Memoir from a historical person’s point of view. Writing only six words helps students get to the essence of the figure they’re studying and helps them identify with someone who otherwise may seem larger than life. After reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, for example, students at South Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, put themselves in the shoes of the narrator, writing, “Rain fell hard; Momma never flinched,” “Dad, put down the bottle, please?” and more.

If your classroom explores current events—transitions in our global economy, emerging political movements, debates about climate or technological advancements—ask your students to write six-word predictions about where they see these trends heading. This exercise helps students get started thinking critically about the issue or trend, and can be used to generate conversation or catalyze independent reflection.

3. Introducing difficult conversations: Teachers know that students arrive at the classroom as members of a complicated, ever-changing world and that they need to process this world and their place in it. One way to make these conversations easier is by breaking down big ideas into small, digestible chunks.

Andrea Franks, a fourth-/fifth-grade teacher in New York City, asks her students to reflect on social justice using just six words. Students have written, “Freedom for all, freedom for everyone,” “Small acts can make big differences,” “Dark skin, light skin, all equal,” and “Ready or not, time for change.” Franks then asks her students to think about how these memoirs reflect what they’re learning about civil rights and which historical figures might approve of these messages: Ruby Bridges? Diane Nash? Martin Luther King Jr?  Students then engage in deeper conversations, connecting their own experiences to the experiences of those who fought for all marginalized people.

Many students have struggled during the pandemic, and many educators tell me they have utilized the six-word format to help their students process this shared experience. Hundreds of these were compiled in a book I edited, A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year: Hundreds of Stories on the Pandemic by Students, Teachers, and Parents . Memoirs like “Graduated fourth grade from my bedroom” (Leo F., fourth grade), “Hey Siri, give me social interaction” (Nate M., sixth grade), and “For sale: prom dress, never worn” (Caroline R., 12th grade) helped students express their emotions and gave the adults in their lives a window into their interior world.

Exploring the Power of Language with Six-Word Memoirs

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What do the words we write really have to say about us? In this lesson, students examine the power of word choice as they write six-word memoirs of their lives. After manipulating the language of their memoir with an interactive tool, students reflect on synonymous words that they have explored and choose the best one to use to tell the story of their lives.

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From Theory to Practice

In "Register and Charge: Using Synonym Maps to Explore Connotation," Darren Crovitz and Jessica A. Miller argue that students' typical understanding of the word synonym as meaning "'a word that means the same as another word'" is "at best an oversimplification and at worst a way to end thinking about what words actually signify" (49). They advocate for investigations into language and word groups to allow students to discover that "the subtlety of just how and to what extent [words are] similar makes all the difference when it comes to choosing the best word for a given purpose" (49). This lesson encourages students to explore the subtleties of shifting connotation and meaning affected by word choice.

Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 9. Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Word Matrix student interactive
• Video: Six Word Memoirs by Teens
• Video: Six-Word Memoirs, the book
• Video: “Six Tips for Writing Six-Word Memoirs”
• Computers with Internet access
• Choosing the Best Word: Six-Word Memoirs

This site includes six-word memoirs written by a variety of authors on life stories.  Also included are videos about the memoirs and information about Six-Word Memoir books.

On this site, students can explore memoirs and join thousands of storytellers to have a chance to be in a future book of Six-Word Memoirs.

This wiki includes six-word memoir films created by students, for students.

Preparation

• Locate one or more copies of the Six-Word Memoir books . Familiarize yourself with the content within the book(s). You may wish to choose a few memoirs to share with and/or point out to the students.
• Six Word Memoirs by Teens
• Six-Word Memoirs, the book
• “Six Tips for Writing Six-Word Memoirs”
• Test the Word Matrix student interactive. You will need computers with internet access for each student to use this interactive.  If computer accessibility is a problem, print out paper copies of the interactive and make enough copies for each student.
• Photocopy the Choosing the Best Word: Six-Word Memoirs handout for students.
• Familiarize yourself with the ideas of synonyms, connotation, register, and sound/rhythm. Additional teacher information on synonyms and language can be found in a variety of articles from English Journal , Vol. 97, No. 4, March 2008 , with the issue theme “Teaching Spelling and Vocabulary in High School.”

Student Objectives

Students will:

• define synonym and consider the implications of multiple word meanings for authors attempting to choose the most effective word in a given situation.
• investigate the similarities and differences within word groups on the basis of connotation and register.
• create, reflect on, and revise a memoir, taking into account word choice and message.

Session One

• Begin a class discussion with students about memoirs and their “life stories.”  What do students consider to be their “life story”? Would they need to write a novel to explain everything, or could they tell about one event that helped shape them as a person? Explain to students that they are going to be writing memoirs of their lives, but there’s a catch—they only have six words to portray themselves however they wish and to get a message across.
• Introduce the idea of six-word memoirs by projecting  Six Word Memoirs by Teens or  Six-Word Memoirs, the book . You may also wish to have some Six-Word Memoir books available for students to peruse after the video to see more examples.
• After reading/seeing some six-word memoirs, what surprises you about this form?
• What’s the difference between a story and a memoir?  Why do we tell stories?  Who knows your story best?
• How is it both possible and impossible to distill the essence of who you are into six words?  Which author do you think does the best job of it and why?
• Again, explain the parameters of the assignment: students must write a personal memoir in only six words. To give students a bit more information about what’s required, show students the “Six Tips for Writing Six-Word Memoirs” video. Allow for students’ questions and then ask that students spend some time brainstorming and writing down different possibilities for their own six-word memoir. Eventually, ask students to choose one memoir that they deem their “favorite” and they would like to use for the remainder of this lesson.
• Ask students to write down a definition of the word synonym and provide several examples.
• Arrange students in small groups to share their definitions and examples. As they share, ask them to look for similarities and differences in their definitions and examples. Have groups share their findings with the entire class and create a class definition of the word synonym , to be written on the board or chart paper.
• Facilitate a discussion on how a poet or author might choose the "best word" for their piece of writing when there may be several words in the English language that express the same, or nearly the same, idea or concept.
• Connotation: the emotional or personal associations the word carries, beyond its literal definition.
• Register: the level of formality or informality associated with the word.
• Sound and rhythm: the way words sound and scan contribute to their appropriateness.
• Remind students to keep the memoir that they chose to use for the remainder of this lesson. If they wish, they may continue brainstorming and working on their memoir outside of class, as long as they bring their chosen memoir to the next session.

Session Two

• Note to the Instructor : Synonyms can be any part of speech (e.g. nouns , verbs , adjectives , adverbs or prepositions ), as long as both members of the pair are the same part of speech.
• Give students a few minutes to make their list of synonymous words (they may use a thesaurus if necessary) and think about how they actually differ in regard to connotation and register. Ask students to share examples and explain the differences they see.
• Inform students that they will be using an online tool to explore the ideas of synonyms, connotation, and register further by arranging words that have the same meaning as their focus word but vary according to connotation and/or register.
• Direct students to the Word Matrix tool online and ask them to select the option to organize words by connotation and register. Students will need to create a new concept that includes their focus words and the synonymous words in their list. You may wish to model this process before having students work independently.
• After creating their concepts, each student should arrange their words according to relative charge in connotation and formality of register. Point out that there are not right or wrong answers to this activity. More important than where the students end up putting words is the explanations they write about what the words mean and how they relate to each other. They should indicate their thinking by double-clicking each word and writing a brief justification for its placement.
• Explain to students that they can access online resources and get more information about connotation and register by clicking on the orange question mark within the tool. They should use the back navigation within the tool (not the back arrow in the browser) to get back to their work within the matrix .
• Have students print their completed matrices . Review them before the next session to gauge student understanding of connotation and register.
• Ask students to rewrite their six-word memoir by substituting each synonym in the place of the focus word that they originally chose. Thus, they should have multiple examples of the same six-word memoir with a different synonym replacing the focus word in each example. Students should complete this activity before the next session.

Session Three

• Ask students to take out their list of memoirs within which they substituted different synonyms for their focus word. Have them take a moment to review the different memoirs and how they changed the meaning of the memoir.
• Have students take out their  Choosing the Best Word: Six-Word Memoirs handout, on which they originally wrote their focus word and their synonyms. Ask them to reflect on how their word choice affected the meaning of their different memoirs. They should write about their thoughts and the memoir they prefer (with reasoning) on the handout under the Reflection Question.
• After all students have completed the handout, have students take turns sharing their experience. They should share their original memoir, what their synonyms were, and the final memoir they decided on (along with their reasoning). Allow for other students to ask questions about the students’ word choice if they so choose.
• create a class book of memoirs;
• produce a video of your students’ memoirs, much like the videos they watched at the beginning of the session; or
• have students submit their own six-word memoir at www.SMITHteens.com .
• Allow students time to study their classmates’ memoirs and ask questions to get to know each other better and build a stronger classroom community!
• Make six-word memoirs a part of your classroom routine. Do warm-ups or exit slips that ask students to write six-word memoirs. You’ll be amazed at how much you’ll learn about students based on their memoirs!
• Present other short form writing choices for students to experiment with such as Haiku . Have them follow the same steps of substituting different synonyms into their writing to focus on word choice.
• Expand on the idea of a six-word memoir while still focusing on word choice and story elements. Have students increase the length of their memoir.
• Connect six-word memoirs to a literature activity by having students write literary characters’ six-word memoirs.
• Have students produce a video of their memoirs to post to You Tube or another video site.  Use the video as an electronic scrapbook of the students in each class.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Provide formative feedback through the completed matrices , synonym lists, and any other student work prior to the project.
• Evaluate students’ understanding of the project and completion of all of the steps during and after their oral presentation of their findings.
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Explore the similarities and differences among words typically considered synonyms with this tool that allows middle- and secondary-level students organize groups of words by connotation on one axis and by register on another.

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6 Word Memoir: Teaching Ideas for ELA

• May 17, 2021

There seems to be some controversy about whether the six word memoir genre did or didn’t originate with Ernest Hemingway writing, “For sale, baby shoes, never worn.” But whether he did or he didn’t, there’s no question that it’s a unique creative genre worth exploring with students. There are so many ways to experiment with six word memoirs in class, so today I’m going to give you a whirlwind tour of ideas.

#1 Personal Memoirs

Six word memoirs can be a great way for students to experiment with writing without a lot of pressure. You can use them to get to know your students better at the beginning of the year, or to reflect on the school year at the end. Or you can use them during a narrative writing unit, first asking them to craft a narrative about a moment or event in their lives, then inviting them to transform it into a six word story. You can even use it in combination with multimedia, asking them to create a layered six word memoir, with a one-pager style reflection of who they are in the background, and then their six key words laid out boldly on top. You may be surprised by how much you learn about your students through identity memoir, moment memoirs, or layered memoirs like these.

#2 Character Memoirs

Another great option, once you’ve introduced the concept of a six word memoir, is to have students write them for characters. Start by guiding them to think about their chosen character. How would they describe that character? What story does the character tell about themselves? What secret stories do they feel the character keeps buried? How can they combine everything they know into one vivid line?

#3 Research Memoirs

If you’re trying to create some context for a book or a unit, and you’d like students to spend a day researching information on a person before reporting back to the class, a six word memoir can provide a great final product. Let students know how many sources you’d like them to dive into and give them some guiding questions for their research. Then have them take what they learned and put it into a six word memoir. Save some time at the end for each student to briefly report back, or do a gallery walk with the memoirs displayed with the research questions, side by side.

#4 Community Memoirs

Once your students have written their own six word memoirs and perhaps experimented with character or research memoirs as well, this project is a great way to connect your classroom to your community. Set up a table at lunch or in the library to invite faculty, staff, administrators, and students to contribute six word memoirs to a community wall reflecting the diverse beauty of experiences at your school. Or set up at a local farmer’s market, community event, or public library. Display student work as examples, and provide templates and colored markers or pencils for the guest writers.

OK, ready to get started? You can grab the beautiful templates shown in this post right here on Google Drive , or you can find my complete six word memoir unit on TPT right here. (If you’re a member of The Lighthouse , this unit will be part of your June materials!).

I’ll help you find the creative ELA strategies that will light up your classroom. Get ready for joyful teaching!

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I usually use 6-word memoirs during the first week of school, but I didn’t this year. And, I now know why. I love the blend of writing and art that our templates provide. I am officially 8 days into my 19th year in the classroom, and after using 6-word memoirs for several years in a row (always with great success), I felt “6-word weary.” Thanks so much for, Betsy, for continuing to push us forward, providing fresh takes and new twists on familiar ideas like this.

Cassie, I’m so glad you’re going to try this twist and that it’s providing a refresh for an old trick. Thank you for your kind words!

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How to Teach Writing and Build Community with Six-Word Memoir

Icebreakers and community building activities can be fun… so fun, in fact, that it can be easy to get carried away. If you’re like me, there’s been more than a few years you’ve made it to week 3 only to realize your way behind on your pacing guide. 

One of my favorite ways to build community without getting behind in content is to teach the Six-Word Memoir. 

What is the Six-Word Memoir? 

Simply put, Six-Word Memoir is telling your life story (or more realistically, part of it) in just six words. 

According to Larry Smith, the founder of the Six-Word Memoir project , the idea was inspired by an old legend about Earnest Hemingway: According to legend, Hemingway was challenged to write a complete story in just six words. He wrote “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn” and won the bet. 

In 2006, writer Larry Smith posted a challenge on his website and with a simple tweet: “Can you describe your life in six words?” Thousands responded and the Six-Word Memoir project was born. Since then, millions of people have shared their story in six words and Larry has published ten books of Six Word Memoirs, including Six Words Fresh off the Boat (immigration stories),   I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets (teen stories) , and A Terrible Horrible, No Good Year: Stories of the Pandemic by Teachers, Students, and Parents.

For teachers, the Six-Word Memoir has become a favorite back-to-school activity, allowing classes to build community, teachers to dive into content sooner, students to express themselves and get to know each other better, and parents to see a really cool sample of student work on Back to School Night.  

Why Six Word Memoir is Helpful for Teachers

Community building.

Unlike typical icebreakers like name games and speed dating (which, by the way, I absolutely love), the Six-Word Memoir is a getting-to-know-you activity that invites community building and sharing on a much deeper level with out forcing students to get too personal, since students choose the story they want to tell. 

Teaching Content

Nearly every grade-level has a Common Core State Standard asking students to analyze an author’s word choice and structure, making Six-Word Memoirs a perfect way to introduce diction and syntax. 

I love to talk about the author’s choice of that word versus all the others he or she could have used. We also discuss how authors structure sentences in order to fit into the constraints of having just six words. For example, what kind of message is communicated when the subject is moved to the end of the sentence? Or in some cases, left entirely out of the sentence?  

Strengthening Analysis Skills

Throughout the activity, you’ll be showing and discussing examples of other Six-Word Memoirs, inviting the opportunity to set norms and practice appropriate discussion etiquette. 

Students can identify larger themes behind the memoir and identify literary devices, voice, tone, and other literary elements at play in the memoir. 

Building Writing Skills 

Students get to move from the sidelines to the court as they put their analysis into practice and begin writing their own Six-Word Memoir. 

Students think through themes and larger, complex stories, and wrestle with how to curate that story into just six words. 

Because students have just six words to use, they have the space, time, and incentive to put an exceptional amount of care into their writing. Introduce the Six-Word Memoir and watch your students pour over those 6 words for an amazingly long time. 

Introducing the Writing Process

Six-Word Memoir is a perfect writing assignment for the beginning of the year because it’s short enough to teach or review the entire writing process without stealing days and weeks of instructional minutes. 

Collecting Writing Samples

Many teachers experience pressure to collect data on students or give feedback to parents or other teachers within the first few weeks of school. This can be next to impossible for us English teachers with our 200 plus students and the nature of reading, evaluating, and giving feedback on writing. 

With Six-Word Memoirs, teachers can quickly gain a basic sense of student writing ability. I recommend asking students to end with a reflection or a single paragraph analyzing their own memoir. This gives you more to work with should you need it and allows you to see two types of writing: narrative and analytical. 

Why Students Love Six-Word Memoir

Students love Six-Word Memoir activity because it’s highly engaging and a little addictive. Six-Word Memoir are so short and simple that it can actually be quite hard to stop reading them once you get going. 

Writing Six-Word Memoirs is also oddly addictive. They’re just easy enough that you feel satisfied easily, yet we all have such multifaceted lives that we find we have more stories we want to tell or other ways we want to tell them. 

Six-Word Memoirs allow us to give just enough detail that they can be incredibly personal, but they also prevent us from getting too much in the details. Plus, students love the level of choice involved: they can tell a surface-level story about going to Disneyland with their dad or a more personal story about losing their dog, their parents’ divorce, or being bullied in 3rd grade. It’s their choice.

Students also have a ton of choice when it comes to tone. Some Six-Word Memoirs will make you cry; some will make you laugh; and others will inspire you to close the laptop and get out there to make the world a better place. 

Finally, students love seeing memoirs from their favorite celebrities, their teachers, and their classmates as a wonderful way to get to know each other in ways they never have before – even if they’ve been in school together since first grade. 

How to Teach Six-Word Memoir

1. introduce memoir.

Start by introducing the genre of memoir. I like to describe it as “fictionalized autobiography” – meaning that the essence is true, but every tiny detail may not be factual the way it needs to be in a biography.

This description also invites the conversation about the role characterization and literary devices play in writing memoir. 

2. Analyze Examples of Six-Word Memoirs 

Next, you’ll want to gather a few really great examples of memoirs for students to look at and discuss. If you plan to use the Six-Word Memoir activity to teach diction and syntax, choose examples that align with that goal. 

Some questions you might pose to the class are: What story does the memoir tell? HOW does it tell the story effectively? …Or ineffectively, of course?

I also like to include 1 or 2 Six-Word Memoirs that I feel demonstrate weaker writing or that don’t meet my expectations. 

3. Introduce the Writing Process: Brainstorm Topics & Invite Revision

Encourage students to brainstorm several ideas for topics before committing to just one. It might also be useful to have some prompts and suggestions in mind for students who feel stuck. Many times, students get the idea that memoir is for writing about traumatic, heroic, or otherwise exceptional experiences, and therefore, they can’t possibly fit in. 

Help them break this assumption by encouraging them to write about common topics like first love, simple everyday moments with pets, special days with family, birthdays, moving, moments of confusion or fear like being lost as a child, etc. 

As students write, encourage them to ask themselves how hard each word is “working” in the memoir – is it earning its keep? 

Another suggestion is to ask them to write the memoir in 3 different ways before committing to one. Again, the Six-Word Memoir is wonderful for teaching the writing process because it’s so short – we’d never ask students to write an essay in 3 different ways, yet a Six-Word Memoir is short enough to help students see the myriad ways an idea can be expressed. 

4. Give Space and Time

Six-Word Memoirs are so short that it can be tempting to rush it along, but this is an activity worth spending the time on – after all, you’re killing two birds with one stone by building community and teaching content, right? 

Allow students the time they need to get their Six-Word Memoir exactly as they’d like. This activity is an awesome one for introducing after you’ve set up your independent reading routine so that those students who finish early have something to do while others are still working. 

5. Provide Opportunities for Sharing

When it comes to building community with Six-Word Memoir, the magic really happens in the sharing. 

There are lots of ways to invite sharing. 

Teachers can go traditional or old school with quick presentations: Students can share their memoir with the class and share anything else they’d like about the story or their writing process. I like to have students sit in a large circle for this one in order to make it feel less intimidating at the start of the year.

Alternatively, teachers can invite sharing through a silent gallery walk: Students set their memoir on their desk and then move around the room as they read each memoir. I love to give students post-it notes as they walk around, so they can leave compliments or questions for the author. 

I always wrap up with an overall discussion – takeaways about shared experiences in the classroom, what they learned about each other, a reflection on the writing process or their experience with writing a Six-Word Memoir.

Join the Conversation

Have you tried Six-Word Memoir yet? Tell us all about it in the comments!

Looking for ready-made materials for teaching Six-Word Memoir? 

Check out Jen’s Six-Word Memoir activity , which has ready-to-go materials for teaching Six-Word Memoir, including defining the memoir genre, introducing diction and syntax, sample Six-Word Memoirs for discussion (with sample analysis!), prompts to get students going, and materials for guiding students through the writing process. 

Note: Six-Word Memoir is a registered Trademark. The Six-Word Memoir format is used with permission of Larry Smith, founder of The Six-Word Memoir Project. For more information about Six-Word Memoirs and how to create your own classroom book, see  www.sixinschools.com .

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Illustrated Six-Word Memoirs by Students from Grade School to Grad School

By maria popova.

In the introduction, Smith speaks to the liberating quality of constraints :

As an autobiographical challenge, the six-word limitation forces us to pinpoint who we are and what matters most — at least in the moment. The constraint fuels rather than limits our creativity.

The micro-memoirs are divided into four sections — grade school, high school, college, and graduate school — and touch, with equal parts wit and disarming candor, on everything from teenagers’ internal clocks to the escapism of Alice in Wonderland .

Things Don’t Have To Be Complicated comes on the heels of TED’s The Science of Optimism: Why We’re Hard-Wired for Hope and offers an inadvertent yin to its yang.

— Published January 9, 2013 — https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/01/09/six-word-memoirs-students/ —

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6 Word Memoirs

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Six Word Memoirs: Words Are Magic. Start with Story.

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Words are magic. Start with story

First days of school can be tricky. There are routines to learn, relationships to build, and foundational skills to review. Students also need to prime their brains for learning. During my first decade of teaching middle school English , I tried something different nearly every first day of school and was still never satisfied. And then, I discovered the power of beginning with Six Word Memoirs. 

“ For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn ” is perhaps the most legendary six-word memoir. Though often attributed to Ernest Hemingway—along with a tale that he wrote the six-word memoir as part of a high-stakes bet—experts say the link to him is highly unlikely. And yet, the famous six words that tell a story of grief and loss have become well known. Perhaps the original six-word memoir, it is a perfect example of how just a few words can pack a punch. In just six words, readers learn much more about a life story than one might expect could be possible.

Because it’s helpful to students writing as soon as possible in the new school year, and because six-word memoirs provide a great lens to better understand student personalities and passions, six word memoirs became the first assignment I’d give students — and myself — each fall. Students would start to flex their writing muscles, and in the process, we’d learn more about each other. 

Writing Six-Words Memoirs

There are many approaches to having students write six-word memoirs, but here is one that worked for me as a middle school teacher.

1. Analyze examples

Examine several six-word memoirs written by other young writers. As you introduce these examples, use the opportunity to discuss the layered meaning behind the memoirs and what the six words revealed about the author.  

• This life is sweeter than fiction.
• Brand new shoes, same old life.
• Should shoot for moon. Stargazing instead.
• Sarcasm really grinds my gears. Seriously. 
• Don’t tell me I’m not important.

2. Model vulnerability

Next, teachers can share a six-word memoir of their own. One of mine is:  “ Words are magic. Start with story, ” a memoir that allows me to reveal my values as well as preface how I believe we’d be accomplishing much during the year thanks to the power of reading and writing stories— including growing empathy, increasing understanding, and gaining insight. In his book, Arabian Nights , author Tahir Shah writes, “Stories are a communal currency of humanity.” (Seven words, but still powerful!) 

3. Brainstorm and draft

Writing requires thinking – and limiting students to six words will require them to do some brainstorming. What topic will they focus on? What are the key words they most want to include? How can those six words be linked together to do more than just make a statement, but to tell a story about them or their life? 

This can be done in many ways. I’d ask my students to fold a piece of paper into a nameplate and write their six-word memoir and their name. Then, I’d take a picture of each student, which I’d use to memorize their names. Students can also share their memoirs with each other to begin to weave the important fabric of classroom culture.

Other ideas for six word memoirs :

Rather than just writing their own memoirs, six-word memoirs can be used in a variety of different ways. Throughout the year, students could also write six-word memoirs for characters in books or stories to show their understanding of characterization and theme. When reading nonfiction, students could craft a six-word synopsis as a way to practice their summarization skills.  Returning to six word memoirs at the end of a school year could also be a way for students to reflect on their growth as people and as writers. 

Six words can tell a story.

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Literacy Consultant, Writer

Dana VanderLugt is a literacy consultant from Michigan. Her novel, Enemies in the Orchard: A World War 2 Novel in Verse, releases on September 12, 2023. She can be found at www.danavanderlugt.com.

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Video: “Six Tips for Writing Six-Word Memoirs”

Defining your life in exactly six words can be the easiest thing in the world, or a seemingly impossible challenge. We’ve had bestselling memoirists take months to come up with a Six-Word Memoir they were happy with (seriously, one high-lit, household name sent in updates about his progress every couple months), while some of our SMITH Teeners zip out dozens at a time (and hundreds each day). All the while, teachers regularly ask us for our tips (note to teachers: contact us if you’d like our free Six-Word Memoir lesson plan), and someone from Yahoo! Answers recently asked the world, “Can anyone tell me how to write a Six-Word Memoir?” This short video—cribbed from Rachel Fershleiser’s “Six Tips” document—is the wonderful work of frequent Howcast.com animator Ben Oviatt , with an assist by SMITH’s own Lisa Qiu. Click, watch—and share your own Six-Word Memoir .

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