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By: Maryann Yin,
on 7/18/2011
Blog:
Galley Cat (Mediabistro)
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Six-Word Memoir,
audience,
summer camp,
Smith Magazine,
Ann Leary,
Ava Crawford,
Deborah Copaken Kogan,
Gerald Hayes,
Joe Iconis,
Josh Wolk,
story slam,
Susan Blackwell,
Contests,
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On Monday July 25th, Smith Magazine will sponsor the summer edition of the Six-Word Memoir Slam. The theme for this event will be: “I’m Only Popular at Summer Camp: Six-Word Memoirs on Camp, Summer Stock, and the Family Vacation.”
Share your six-word memoir at this link for a chance to be part of the literary lineup at the reading. The slam will include author Ann Leary, actress Susan Blackwell, writer Joe Iconis, novelist Deborah Copaken Kogan, NYMag.com editor Josh Wolk, comedian Gerald Hayes, teen scribe Ava Crawford.
Here’s more about the memoir slam: “The night starts at 6 p.m. with a Happy Hour at the 92YTribeca’s amazing bar, where you can meet other six-lovers over drink specials. At 7pm, the show begins: six performers, six minutes each to tell their story. The evening ends with an audience participation Six-World Slam: you’re invited to share your own six words on this hot, fun, miraculous and messy thing called summer.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Let’s hear it for the past two weeks’ TeachingAuthors’ Back-to-School Getting-to-Know-You Writing Workouts
– as well as –
for the teachers readying their students’ Contest-qualifying Six Word Memoirs.
Note: In case you’ve forgotten the Contest details, deadline and prizes – a FREE (!) SKYPED Author Visit from a TeachingAuthor or a Basket of TeachingAuthor books, click here for the reminder.
We’re all in our places, yes?
With bright shiny faces?
Good morning to you! – writers of all ages, teachers, librarians, homeschooling parents.
Now it’s time to get growing…..
The Once-a-Day Way.
It turns out, the sky’s the limit when it comes to the learning available for email delivery on a daily basis, once a day.
For instance, each day my Email Box delivers:
• a new word – (today’s word for Sept. 27 – when I’m writing this post, is
fatwa) - courtesy of A.Word.A.Day.(
http://www.wordsmith.org/);
• a new writing excerpt – (“The Return of Odysseus” by George Bilger) - courtesy of NPR’s
The Writer’s Almanac;
• news of a writer or two’s Birthday -( Scottish writer Irvine Welsh and Louis Auchincloss ) - again thanks to The Writer’s Almanac;
• even a song – (“Older” by Band of Horses) – courtesy of
NPR Song of the Day.
I’m also learning to speak Brazilian Portuguese one day at a time –“
Que luvas lindas voce tem?/What beautiful gloves you have!” – courtesy of
Brazilian Portuguese Word of the Day.Whatever it is you have a hankering to learn, whatever you think might start your day off swell -
a joke,
a riddle,
a Bible verse,
a Birthday or Anniversary,
an inspiring thought,
a quotation,
a folksong,
2 Comments on Getting-to-Grow-You... The Once-a-Day Way, last added: 9/30/2010
Happy Poetry Friday! But first, Campers, make sure to enter our latest contest for classroom teachers/librarians/homeschooling groups! The prize? Win either a 30-minute Skype visit from a TeachingAuthor or a set of six autographed books—one from each TeachingAuthor!
Our current topic is getting-to-know-you exercises as this new school year begins. (Wait...school's started already?!?)
Writing Workout: Back-to-School/Getting-To-Know-You Exercise
My niece, writer
Julia Halprin Jackson, sent me a prompt which fits our topic.
Julia said Smith Magazine suggests writing about “a single moment which changed...(your) life in a profound way. Your “Moment” could be a decision you made, something you saw, a letter or email sent or received, a literal or mental discovery. The Moment can be serious or funny, dark or light.”
What an interesting way to get to know your students!
Okay, so here's the step-by-step:
1.
Brainstorming. First, share a few of the pivotal moments in your own life. To get your juices flowing, here are three of my Moments:
- I remember when my father tried to pull a waterlily out of Ellis Lake so we could plant it at home...but try as he might, he couldn't break its strong root. That was the moment I realized my father was human.
- I remember being on the phone with Shelley, my best friend; I remember the moment she stopped being my best friend.
- And I remember when Great Aunt Genia was astonished I didn't know how to wash the spaghetti sauce stain from my shirt. At that moment I realized I was capable of doing more than my mother asked me to do.
2.
Brainstorm as a group, list possible pivotal moments on the board.
3.
Have each student make his or her own list of pivotal moments
. 4. Have them
select the one they'd like to write about.5.
Write a poem, a story or an essay about that moment.I ended up with several versions of one pivotal moment in my life: a
Long version, a
Tanka (syllable count: 5/7/5/7/7), and a
Six-Word version.
So, Campers, let me know: do any of these work? Which do you like best?
LONG VERSION This is the first one I wrote. You know that Mark Twain quote: "I didn't have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long letter instead." So true! I always need to tell the whole dang story first. This is a simple poetic form called an
Envelope Poem<
By:
Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 9/8/2010
Blog:
Teaching Authors
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Book Giveaway,
Teachers,
Six-Word Memoir,
Add a tag
Whether your school year started weeks ago or only yesterday (as in the Chicago Public School system), we thought this would be a good time to kick off a series of posts featuring back-to-school getting-to-know-you writing activities especially for teachers, librarians, and homeschooling parents. And, as an added incentive to try our
Writing Workouts with your students, we're offering a special giveaway contest
exclusively for teachers, librarians, and homeschooling groups. (If you're not qualified to enter yourself, please tell all the teachers, librarians, and homeschoolers you know about this great opportunity!)
The prize? Your choice of:
A) a 30-minute Skype author visit from one of the TeachingAuthors OR
B) a prize package containing six autographed TeachingAuthor books.
Not sure you
want to host a Skype author visit for your book club or classroom? Then read teacher and author Kate Messner's blog post,
Virtual Author Visits: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, & the Awesome or check out
Skype an Author Network.
What do you have to do to win? Below, you'll find a
Writing Workout on using six-word memoirs as a getting-to-know-you activity. To enter our contest, you need to try the
Workout with your students some time in the next few weeks. Then come back and post a comment about the experience to this blog entry by
11 pm (CST) Monday, Oct. 4, 2010. Be sure to also read through to the end of this post for complete entry rules and instructions on how to qualify for a second, bonus entry. (If you've never posted a comment to a blog before and need some help, you can
email me via my website.)
About the activity: I first wrote about using six-word memoirs in the classroom
a year ago. It's an activity students enjoy that can be adapted for all ages. I tried it over the summer with my writing camp students, and they had so much fun, they didn't want to stop--they wrote one memoir after another! I hope you'll give the following lesson a try and then enter our contest. And if you're not a teacher or librarian, why not write some six-word memoirs for yourself? You can visit the
Six-Word Memoirs website for inspiration. The site even provides a box where you can type in your memoir and the computer automatically counts your words!
Writing WorkoutGetting to Know Me Back-to-School Activity:Writing Six-Word Memoirs
I lack April Halprin Wayland’s artistic skills and techy equipment, so please read my TeachingAuthors’ 2010 Writer’s Resolution below as if blinking marquis-worthy neon lights (maybe ruby red and silver?) showcase the six thoughtfully-chosen words.
“Start each day with - my - stories!”
That’s what I used to do, way back when, when writing and only writing claimed my day and heart.
I lived and breathed my characters’ stories; their words and actions consumed my waking moments.
And sleeping moments, too, actually.
I’d trained my brain to work the nightshift, assigning it a problem to solve the second sleep befell me.
More times than not, I awoke with the solution. I was off and running, soon lost in my story.
A lover of quest stories, I shouldn’t have been surprised when my writer’s journey brought me something even better than the published children's books I’d sought: namely, teaching and coaching.
Helping others find and tell their stories utilized and maximized all I had become.
How could I not embrace both treasures with heart and soul?
Except that, with but 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, four weeks in a month, twelve months in a year, my stories soon sat (way too) comfortably off in a corner of my writing room, watching me start my day with another.
They sought my attention, those stories of mine – waving, humming, calling my name.
But oh, how delicious my students’ and clients’ successes!
Not until this past year, writing and publishing S is for Story: A Writer’s Alphabet, was I able to admit: I miss my writing!
Happily I realized, none too late, that feeding and satisfying the Writer in me first, helps me better feed and nurture my students and clients.
A Win-Win solution, thanks to the light of a brand new year.
In the beginning is your end, of course; in the end is your beginning. Or as Richard Peck advises, “Your first page holds the last; your last page the first.”
What better way to remain resolute, to ensure I honor my six-word intention, than to creatively visualize my resolution’s results?
The December 24, 2009 edition of the Chicago Tribune invited readers to sum up their year in a single 140-characters-or-less Tweet.
I invited myself to do the same, for 2010, assuming I’d honored my opening resolution.
Once again, please read the thoughtfully-chosen words below as if showcased in blinking marquis-worthy neon lights (maybe royal blue and gold?).
“Wrote and sold pb bio, board book,
re-visioned Mg novel, grew writer/teacher/
librarian workshops, helped countless
writers find and tell their stories.”
Hurrah! Hurrah!
And, Happy New Year!
Esther Hershenhorn
P.S.
Don't forget to post your six-word resolution and win a copy of April Halprin Wayland’s award-winning picture book New Year at the Pier.
(1) Provide your email address or a link to your own blog in your comment so that we can contact you.
(U.S. residents only, please.)
We Five Teaching Authors hereby decree: this Fourth Thursday in November is
Grazie-to-Marti Day!
Our holiday cornucopia runneth over with thanks, for all you do, all year long.
Masterful motherly magnanimous Google Software Manipulator.
Answers questions, coordinates schedules, organizes everything.
Runs our little blog beautifully, generously.
Totally Together Teacher: tireless, thoughtful, thorough.
Incredibly intelligent, involved, insightful imaginative Idea-maker.
You are a true Wizard, working behind the scenes to create our TeachingAuthors.com Magic – adjusting, aligning, announcing, connecting, labeling, tweaking, scheduling, bundling.
2 Comments on It's Grazie-to-Marti Day!, last added: 12/23/2009
This is the second in our series of six posts featuring back-to-school Writing Workouts especially for teachers and homeschoolers. But all you writers out there, don't touch that dial--today's Writing Workout is for you, too.On Monday, Mary Ann shared an alternative to the all-too-familiar "What I did over my summer vacation" assignment. Today, I'd like to suggest a writing activity that will not
Oh, I'm running over to sign up for The Writer's Almanac right now! I love that feature on NPR and I'm always bummed when I miss it. Now I won't have to be sad! : )
And you'll be happy to read on the website, Megan, that you can receive The Writer's Almanac as a pod post too!