Six Word Story

Lesson Plan/Workshop Session Overview

Introduction to Elements of a “Good” Story

• Brief introduction of self and teaching partner, personal interest in stories

• Pair/Share discussion: Think about a favorite story (can be a short story, book,
movie, story from family member, etc.). What makes it such a “good” story?
What do you think are elements of a good story?
• Pair/Share format: The teacher poses the questions to students and they share with
the person sitting next to them. I would recommend that they write out a list.
Give them about three minutes or so, then bring them all back together as a class
and ask each group to share one or two of their responses.

Video Clips

• If there is time and the technology, students can view one video clip from the
following PBS website:

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2002/borders/stories/index.html

Here is the PBS lesson for the video clips. All of them are about “border” kids – their
realities of living near the border and their hopes for their futures/college.

(*Note: The below is a direct excerpt from the PBS website.)

Reflect upon what was viewed; summarize web cast.

In Gilbert's story what do you see as context? What's the environment that surrounds
him? Are there images, symbols, or landscapes that may help you understand Gilbert's
story? Gilbert explores issues of self-identity. Do you think about your own identity? Do
you talk about this issue with your friends, parents, or others?

In Cecilia's story, what economic, social, or cultural issues help explain her life? Why
is Cecilia's mother organizing a benefit carne guisada plate sale, for what purpose?

In Kate's story, how do you see her story as a person taking shape? Like Gilbert and
Cecilia, Kate is also from the border. But she also has a much different story to tell about
the path her life has taken to get to the border. How do you see her story as similar? How
do you see her story as different from the others?

What do you see as the beginning to Kate's, Gilbert's and Cecilia's story? What do you
see as the climax of each story? Or, can you anticipate or predict what the climax may
be? What do you see as an ending to each of the stories, if an ending can be predicted?
Poetry as Story

• Video is one storytelling format – poetry can be another. I have taught this poem
(see below) a number of times, and it is a good example of a very short story.
• Have a student read this poem aloud. Brainstorm with students what they think
the story being told is. Teacher can do a Pair/Share activity or have a whole class
discussion.
• How is this story different than the video clip? Is it possible to tell a story using
so few words?

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

Transition to Own Story

• What is your (student) story? If you had to tell your own story in four small
poetic stanzas, as above, what would you say?
• Students can brainstorm possible story ideas – what makes them who they are,
what story about their lives or experiences they would want to share with the
world. I would give them about 10 minutes to write out some rough ideas. After
10 minutes or so, they could try writing their own story using the same format as
Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem.
• Ask for volunteers to share their work with the class.

6 Word Narrative
• Introduce the idea of an even shorter story – the six word narrative.
• Hemingway’s story - For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
• What is the story being told here?
• Have students review their brainstorms/drafts and see if they can narrow their
 pieces down to six words (or have them write a new story or stories). What
would they want to say in six words? You might want to share Haiku with them
or talk about the significance of each word – that each one must reveal a part of
the story.

Contest challenge: In addition to posting their stories on PNN, students should

consider entering the Six Word Story contest. Not Quite What I Was Planning is a
collection of six-word memoirs (see description below). Currently, they are
accepting submissions for their next publication. Perhaps students could vote on
each the favorite story from each class after they write them and post them to
PNN.

Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure
collects almost 1,000 six-word memoirs, including additions from many celebrities
including Stephen Colbert, Jane Goodall, Dave Eggers, and more.

Surprisingly addictive, Not Quite is both a moving peek at the minutia of humanity
and the most literary toilet reading you’ll ever find.

• http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/

Closure
• One idea is to have students reflect on the process –what did they learn about
storytelling? What was the process of writing their own story like? They could
describe why they wrote what they did – it would be great to do this as a video
reflection activity, especially if the students can use the iSight cameras.