The Power of the Six Word Story

In my previous post I highlighted the activities that I introduce to "front-load" the launch of a 10+ week unit using the first season of "Lost".

The Six Word Story Lesson is not my idea originally. Like most great ideas I have, I adapted it after attending a free workshop presented by my Board called "LitCon".  I would love to give credit to the presenter, but I have lost the original slideshow and can not remember her name.

This is an activity I would encourage all teachers - Grade 4 and up - to introduce to their students at the start of the year. There are so many positives to this exercise because it seems deceptively easy at first. Share an idea using only 6 words. Students love the idea that they "won't have to write much" but; they quickly realize that, "a parsimonious narrative cleverly taxes intellect."

The creator is forced to tinker with language and explore the thesaurus in an effort to maximize the impact of 6 words. To make things a little easier, I introduce the activity using a Collaborative Google Slide. This serves a few purposes...

• It allows students to use backgrounds, fonts, images and gifs to help support their story.
• It lets them see what their friends are doing in order to help inspire them.
• It allows them to share skills (like using .png images or uploading a .gif) without the necessity of a lesson on each.
• It provides me with a way to give feedback during the activity - by using the comment feature on the side.

I have presented this lesson about ten times and the following slide always generates an interesting phenomenon.

Some of the students will sigh sadly and even utter an "oh no."

Immediately, an other group will say ..."What?"

"The baby...died." 

"No it didn't. They just didn't use the shoes and they are selling them."  

I love this moment because I always get to say... "You can have either story. That's up to you. But, let's look at the punctuation and see if it adds to the tone of this text." 

This is a great opportunity to talk about the power of punctuation. It is a way of showing the impact the colon, comma, quotation marks and period have in this sentence. I have joked that many new writer's use of punctuation looks as if they have sprinkled pepper on their page. This is a great activity to help them see the impact it can have.

We will revisit this activity later in this unit. However, if it was introduced in September, it could be used throughout the year.

1. To demonstrate understanding of a new math concept or as an exit ticket in math class.
2. To summarize a chapter from their independent reading or from the class read aloud.
3. To share their feelings at the end of a gym class, a school assembly, their weekend or to recap the school week.
4. To pose a question about a topic in Science or Social Studies.

Have you got any ideas? Share them with me and I'll gladly add them to this list and give you credit. If you happen to know who presented this at TVDSB LitCon 2017, I'd love to give her credit.