A six word memoir is a good activity shared by the Creative Language Class blog that could be used to review stories, chapters, books…anything. Visit their blog post on 6-Word Memoirs to read a complete description, but here it is in a nutshell:
CC 2012 Prairie Kittin Flickr.com
Students read a text
Students randomly select or are assigned a character.
Students write a six word (EXACTLY six words) sentence from that character’s perspective, recounting something about him or herself, something that s/he did, or summarizing the essence of his/her being.
Students share the memoirs with the class, and possibly on Twitter with the hashtag #6words. One way to share the ideas would be to have each student write his/her memoir on a poster around the room, unlabeled, and have classmates guess which character ‘wrote’ the memoir. You could also do it with simultaneous presentation format in order to turn it into a communicative activity.
The girls over on the blog used a photo/tech extension with the activity, but there is no need to do that if you want to keep it simple–you could always have students draw a sketch or not have any visual at all. If there is a visual element, you could easily turn it into a matching activity–match the memoir with the picture.
I just tried this one out today. Instead of having students write just one six-word memoir, I had them write one for each of the characters in the chapter. It was interesting listening to them negotiate the content they wanted to share along with the words they could use in the target language. I’ll be using this one again!
Martina, it’s a year later and I’m just now seeing your comment! I used/am using this with a German III class as a comprehension activity to accompany one of the chapters in the German reader called Die Reise. We’ll see what the students come up with today! Last year I just had them do text. This year, I might have them add images.
I just tried this one out today. Instead of having students write just one six-word memoir, I had them write one for each of the characters in the chapter. It was interesting listening to them negotiate the content they wanted to share along with the words they could use in the target language. I’ll be using this one again!
Which level did you use it with?
Martina, it’s a year later and I’m just now seeing your comment! I used/am using this with a German III class as a comprehension activity to accompany one of the chapters in the German reader called Die Reise. We’ll see what the students come up with today! Last year I just had them do text. This year, I might have them add images.