Entry 11: Biographical Writing

 After presenting this week on Biographical writing, one of the assignments/activities that I absolutely loved to share with the class was the 6 Word Memoir Assignment. When I was searching for articles to talk about in our presentation, this article really spoke to me and I thought that everyone should know about it, because I genuinely think that you can do this assignment at any grade level. One of the first quotes from this article, "Every word is on trial: Six-word memoirs in the classroom," that initially drew my attention to this writing activity was, "For this, she turned to writing six-word memoirs with students to promote writing for the sake of expression, to reinforce the tenets of the writing process, and to engage students in the authentic use of technology in her 5th grade classroom” (Saunders & Smith, 2014, p. 600). I think too often in classrooms, especially in the later grades, students are always asked to write formal assignments on novels, plays, poetry, or whatever they are reading in the classroom and rarely get to write an assignment that allows them to write for the sake of expression or just pure enjoyment. It's not that writing formally is a bad thing, but I think students - and this is something that I would like to try in my classroom in the future - need to have writing assignments that are just for fun. I think this assignment would be beneficial after reading a memoir so students have a chance to share their own stories and hopefully have connection they can share amongst the class.

Here is a link to a website where many people have shared their own 6 Word Memoirs for all to see. There are handfuls of topics that people have written about and a wide range of stories to share. 6 Word Memoir Website

Additionally, as we were reading Tompkins, the biggest piece that we took away is the idea of people and people's experiences when she writes, "First and foremost, writers provide true accounts of people’s lives. They present personal information accurately so that readers can gain insight into their subjects’ personalities" (Tompkins, 2014, p. 230). When we consider in the classroom what stories we share and who exactly gets to share their stories in the classroom, I think this is an excellent way once again to introduce 6 Word Memoirs into the classroom. When I eventually introduce this writing assignment into the classroom, I want to emphasize on the fact that we all have stories to tell and our stories should all be valued and understood in the classroom setting. Through the true accounts of our student's lives, hopefully their classmates will understand each other's personalities and value what each of their classmates have to say.