# data[].attributes.body
Original Blog Post

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Can you sum up anything in 6 words? Coonley students were asked to do just that! Chicago Public Schools has a lonnnnnng end-of-year with students in classes through June 19th. As a challenge for the month of June grades 1-7 were asked to write 6 Word Memoirs based on the following prompts:

Tell something you like about Coonley

What activity did you really enjoy this school year?

Write about yourself

Give advice to others

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Can you sum up anything in 6 words? Coonley students were asked to do just that! Chicago Public Schools has a lonnnnnng end-of-year with s...

# data[].attributes.body
At Coonley Elementary School, students (grades 1-7) were given the task of completing a six-word memoir that described their school year.

Students were given four prompts to choose from when writing their end-of-the-year memoirs.

A beautiful PowerPoint of 470 slides was composed with the students' work.

# data[].attributes.body
When being asked to create the memoir, students needed to think back on all of the lessons, events, field trips, memories that they've encountered and gathered throughout the year.
Students were actively looking back on those memories and working to create a six-word story in a creative format.
By having students work in this way, the teachers applied active learning into their classrooms, which allowed students to actively think and work together.

# data[].attributes.body
While working on this activity students can:
-build their writing voice by working on tone and word choice/vocabulary
-provide an active voice in their writing
-be conscientious of their word selection and avoid repetition

# data[].attributes.body
This short article describes an experience a teacher had using six-word stories by describing what is happening in a picture. This is a wonderful way of teaching descriptive words!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Recently, I participated in a fabulous digital storytelling workshop through TESOL Electronic Village Online. One of the activities that caught my eye during the workshop was Six Word Stories. The process is simple: Students choose a picture and tell a story in six words.

I had so much fun doing the activity myself I decided to use it with both my young learners and my more mature learners. It worked beautifully! Six words doesn't intimidate anyone, so even my weakest writers enjoyed thinking of their stories. Six words also creates an effective framework for activating some micro-grammar awareness-especially word order in sentences, and the need for pesky little words in English (like BE verbs and articles).

I did a Creative Commons search on Flickr to find funny photos for the project, and collected them in galleries. (Click on "dogs" and "class" in my galleries if you'd like to see all of the photos we used.) Then, I printed the photos so students could work with them more easily (especially since one of the places I teach doesn't have Internet access). Students chose the photos that appealed to them, and worked on creating their stories.

Here's one of the pictures my young learners chose, and how their story developed:

Student 1: Horse angry.
Me: What kind of word goes in front of "horse?"
Student 1: A? The?
Me: A horse? The horse? Which one sounds right?
Student 2: The horse. (pointing to the horse in the picture).
Me: Right. It's a specific horse.
Student 1: The horse angry.
Me: What's missing? (pointing to the space between "horse" and "angry")
Student 3: Is.
Me: Yes.
Student 1: The horse is angry.
Me: Not six words.
Student: 2: The horse is very angry.
Me: Still not six words.
(group pause)
Student 3: The horse is very, very angry.

The process was similar with my mature learners (the baby of the class is 50), but they worked in pairs and then as a group so they could pool their grammar knowledge and help each other. Their life experience led to some very different stories. This was their favorite story:

I would trade my husband for him.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Six Word Stories (by Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto) - Teaching Village

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Recently, I participated in a fabulous digital storytelling workshop through TESOL Electronic Village Online. One of the activities that caught my eye during the workshop was Six Word Stories. The process is simple: Students choose a picture and tell a story in six words.

# data[].attributes.body
Perhaps this activity could show growth and improvement in students' writing and vocabulary by having a student write a six-word memoir/story about how they feel at the beginning of the school year vs the memoir they write at the end of the year.