Real Classroom Success 🥳
Join thousands of teachers using Six-Word Memoirs in their classrooms!
“I’ve used Six-Word Memoirs in my class for many years and the limitation of six words forces students to break big ideas down to smaller bites, think deeper about their stories, and unlock personal expression. In my classroom, I’ve seen kids work through writer's block; in just thirty minutes they feel like they have accomplished something.”
TERRY ASHKINOS, 7TH & 8TH GRADE TEAM LEAD
CHILDREN'S DAY SCHOOL
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
“The six-word approach was a way for my students to express themselves without writing a long narrative, one that may not speak to the reader as strongly as their Six-Word Memoir. Above all, they thought hard about their word choice, punctuation, and how they could illustrate the emotion/tone they wanted to express.”
Ginger Giessler, High School teacher & coach
New Tech Academy
Fort Wayne, IN
Happy teachers speak volumes!
Share your classroom experience below. 🤗
"I’ve long been enamored with the Six-Word Memoir project. I’ve read all the books, written a pile of my own Six-Word Memoirs, and sometimes do my best reflecting in six-word increments. Six-Word Memoirs are a masterful way to tell a story and was the perfect way to have our students be part of an all-school writing project. As a staff, we believed a single writing project was a wonderful way to capture the voices, stories, and reflections of all our students. When we compiled all the student writing, we had 700 student stories told — in just 4,200 words — and every child could quickly and easily read the stories of their friends and peers. I'm not sure how we could have accomplished such an admirable feat without the gift of Six-Word Memoirs."
Jennifer Schwanke, Deputy Superintendent
AUTHOR OF "YOU'RE THE PRINCIPAL! NOW WHAT?"
Dublin City Schools
“The day I taught Six-Word Memoirs was the day my students came alive. The creative constraint of six words helped them discover the essence of themselves and the heart of their writing.”
Candra McKenzie,
HallPassBreak PODCAST Host & High School Teacher
New YORK CITY, NY
“Six-Word Memoirs bring out the best in my students. They are able to showcase their creativity and personal experience in a humorous, fun-loving way, but may also choose to display deeper, more complex emotions if they so choose.”
Sarah Nguyen, 6th grade English teacher
High Point Academy
Pasadena, Ca
“We often think of creativity as being open, free of rules with room to explore. But one thing that struck me when writing Six-Word Memoirs is that having strict parameters can sometimes lead to even more creative thinking!”
Paul Ackers, English teacher
Year 3 Brookes Moscow International School
Moscow, Russia
“Six-Word Memoirs is the perfect site to be ‘published’ while being creative.”
Hannia Dergongan Marohombsar, Year 8 and Year 10 First Language English teacher
National High Jakarta School of Piaget Academy
Jakarta, Indonesia
"The Six-Word Memoir is the perfect instrument for students to exercise their self-awareness in meaningful ways. Having this type of personal success on the first assignment of the school year sets the tone of the year on a positive and productive path."
Elizabeth Kennedy, 7th grade Academic Enrichment instructor
Riverwatch Middle School
Suwanee, GA
“My students feel liberated by having to only produce six words in a concise, poetic format. This is especially important to dyslexic students as they have experienced angst and ridicule surrounding written expression and quantity has been an encumbrance.”
Kat DeWees, teacher
Rawson Saunders School for Dyslexic Students
Austin, TX
“Six-Word Memoirs has just taught me that if you sit long enough with a kid and you ask the right questions and you challenge them in the right ways, you will hear a story that you probably never would have imagined."
Tabitha Cooper,
Senior English teacher
Metamora High School
Metamora, IL
“Many students in our class shared deeply personal experiences in their Six-Word Memoirs, and sharing them helped to bring our class closer together and build a team spirit.”
Leah Ruediger, teacher
NYC’s P.S. 86
The Bronxa, NY
“Six-Word Memoirs taught us a lot about our students and also taught the kids that efficiency of language can be a powerful way to make a point or share something poignant about themselves.”
JENNY PLATOW, TEACHER
ESSEX STREET ACADEMY
NEW YORK CITY, NY
