Doctor
600
TE ACHING TIP
E V ERY WORD
IS ON T R I AL
Six-Word Memoirs in the Classroom
Jane M. Saunders ■ Emily E. Smith
“I
just don’t know what I want to say,”
Robert, a student writer, complains in frustration as he takes his seat.
“I haven’t done anything interesting my whole life, and now I need to write a memoir about it?” Prominent researchers and educators of writing (Buckner, 2005; Burke, 2003; Calkins, 1994;
Fletcher, 2001) acknowledge the challenge of engaging students in the writing process for the sake of expression and communication without limiting them to stale prompts or promoting written work through wheedling, begging, or bribery.
Like Robert, many students grapple with how to begin writing because they have seen few opportunities to write for purposes other than in preparation for standardized tests. Given that there are increasing venues to make writing public that extend beyond the school day, like ever-burgeoning online sources and social media sites, it seems necessary that we reaffirm our commitment to helping students find their voices through writing for different purposes and for a diverse readership that will no doubt redouble at the same rate as our technological advances in coming years.
Concerned that many of her students were wary of writing because earlier experiences focused on dull topics that were then put away into a folder upon completion, never to be seen again, fifthgrade teacher and graduate student Emily Smith sought a more engaging way to introduce writing in her language arts class. For this, she turned to writing six-word memoirs with students to
R T
The Reading Teacher
Vol. 67
Issue 8
pp. 600–605
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 fifth-grade literacy classroom, culminating in published work on the class blog.
What follows is an introduction to
TE ACHING TIP
E V ERY WORD
IS ON T R I AL
Six-Word Memoirs in the Classroom
Jane M. Saunders ■ Emily E. Smith
“I
just don’t know what I want to say,”
Robert, a student writer, complains in frustration as he takes his seat.
“I haven’t done anything interesting my whole life, and now I need to write a memoir about it?” Prominent researchers and educators of writing (Buckner, 2005; Burke, 2003; Calkins, 1994;
Fletcher, 2001) acknowledge the challenge of engaging students in the writing process for the sake of expression and communication without limiting them to stale prompts or promoting written work through wheedling, begging, or bribery.
Like Robert, many students grapple with how to begin writing because they have seen few opportunities to write for purposes other than in preparation for standardized tests. Given that there are increasing venues to make writing public that extend beyond the school day, like ever-burgeoning online sources and social media sites, it seems necessary that we reaffirm our commitment to helping students find their voices through writing for different purposes and for a diverse readership that will no doubt redouble at the same rate as our technological advances in coming years.
Concerned that many of her students were wary of writing because earlier experiences focused on dull topics that were then put away into a folder upon completion, never to be seen again, fifthgrade teacher and graduate student Emily Smith sought a more engaging way to introduce writing in her language arts class. For this, she turned to writing six-word memoirs with students to
R T
The Reading Teacher
Vol. 67
Issue 8
pp. 600–605
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 fifth-grade literacy classroom, culminating in published work on the class blog.
What follows is an introduction to