Dear SMITH:
I asked some of my teen patrons as AISD to try the six-word memoir. AISD (American International School/Dhaka) is one of the top international schools with a population of 700 students (Pre-K-12). Our vision is to prepare students to become stewards of a just and sustainable world.
- Judyth Lessee, MS/HS Librarian, AIS/Dhaka, Bangladesh
Here’s what [...]

Summer has a smell, feel, and taste which are all too delicious for an eight-year-old to savor in silence. Ms. Buttiglieri and Ms. Wenning’s third-grade class at Bradford Elementary in Montclair, NJ was bursting at the seams, half-crazed—they needed an outlet that didn’t involve screaming. Paige Kennedy-Piehl stepped in a la Mary Poppins style and [...]

“Too young. Too unaware. Quiet acceptance,” is one six-word memoir from one of Jill Keenan’s students at P.S. 128 high school in Westfield, MA. “My students are awesome,” boasts Keenan, who is clearly doing something right to have such a lovely writer in her classroom. In that spirit, she created a SMITH profile for the [...]

We’ve recently added a “backstory” feature to the Six-Word Memoir project (like a backstory that just came in about turning 50. At Falmouth High School in Falmouth, MA, Christopher Lippa’s students have had the backstory bug for months. “I had about 70 kids write six-word memoirs for this assignment,” the English teacher wrote in to [...]

For the last four days, I have done nothing but email teens who are finalists for our upcoming teens-only six-word memoir book. It’s hundreds and hundreds of stories, plus some pictures, some advice, some tough questions, and some secret-sharing of my own. Today, I got a reply informing me that a memoir Larry and I [...]

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: nothing brings us more pride and joy when a teacher tells us how a class has taken six words and run with them. Jane Ware teaches second grade in San Ramon, CA and writes: “My second grade class has been writing their 6-Word Memoirs each week and [...]

Since we launched the six-word memoir challenge on SMITH in late 2006, amazing things have happened that, literally, were not quite what we were planning, from a reverend in North Carolina who preached six-word prayers to a midwestern book blogger who created a six-word memoir “meme” that still races across hundreds of thousands of personal [...]

The most exciting part of this whole crazy ride has been hearing back from you guys about how you like to six. We’ve heard about everything from eulogies to spinning classes. A big theme has been using the six-word concept in schools—literally from kindergarten to grad school. Here are some great student sixers:
Contributor Pam Vissing’s [...]