Six-Word Memoirs: Life Stories Distilled : NPR

http://www.sixwordmemoirs.com/

http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/archival/documents/sixwords/

Once asked to write a full story in six words, legend has it that novelist Ernest Hemingway responded: "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn."

In this spirit of simple yet profound brevity, the online magazine Smith asked readers to write the story of their own lives in a single sentence. The result is Not Quite What I Was Planning, a collection of six-word memoirs by famous and not-so-famous writers, artists and musicians. Their stories are sometimes sad, often funny — and always concise.

The book is full of well-known names — from writer Dave Eggers (Fifteen years since last professional haircut), to singer Aimee Mann (Couldn't cope so I wrote songs), to comedian Stephen Colbert (Well, I thought it was funny).

The collection has plenty of six-word insights from everyday folks as well: Love me or leave me alone was scrawled on a hand dryer in a public bathroom; I still make coffee for two was penned by a 27-year-old who had just been dumped.

Larry Smith, founding editor of Smith magazine, and Rachel Fershleiser, Smith's memoir editor, talk about the experience of capturing real-life stories in six words — no more, no less.Fershleiser's six-word memoir? Bespectacled, besneakered, read and ran around. And Smith's: Big hair, big heart, big hurry.

Six-Word Memoirs: Life Stories Distilled : NPR:



'via Blog this'

Poetry Outloud

Thanks Mrs. Whittington - blog post adapted from http://whittenglish9.blogspot.com/search/label/PoetryOutLoud

Your assignment is to memorize/present a poem as part of our class poetry slam.

If you would like to compete in the Poetry Out Loud National Competition, your poem must be from the anthology list and must be memorized.

If you do not want to compete beyond the classroom, the poem does not have to be from the anthology, but it must be approved by your teacher and must be a minimum of 10 lines. Presentation does not have to be completely memorized. 

Links:
Poetry Out Loud Poem Options (Required for National Competition)
Can We AutoCorrect Humanity?
Why I Hate School But Love Education
On Girls Lending Pens

Button Poetry is a great resource for ideas on spoken word poetry


Important Dates:
- Starting today - choose a poem to memorize
- Rehearse your memorized poem in class in small groups for the next week.
- Perform poem in class 12/2-12/5


How you will be Graded(in competition):

Socratic Seminar - Identity

Considering the pieces we read in the first quarter, how do the texts we have discussed, or that you have explored on your own, help you to answer the driving questions of the unit?

What role do other people play in constructing your identity?

How do our successes/failures shape our identity?

How does your identity change over time?

-ALSO-

Be able to make connections from the stories you have read, consider:

🌍      -text to world
👍👍 -text to self
📖      - text to text


Always use evidence from the book/text to prove your point – and cite the page number!

Be a good participant by sticking to the Excellent criteria of the rubric below.

We will arrange into three groups and each group will have about 25 minutes to discuss the driving questions with their group.  The Inner Circle will be discussing while the Outer Circle will be evaluating.