Collective Feedback: 6-Word Memoirs

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COLLECTIVE FEEDBACK: 6-WORD MEMOIRS

As much as my current English unit is about the connection between the author’s experience and literate work, I am slowly interjecting a discussion of design elements and how we in the 21st century make meaning through varied modalities.

In class today, I shared three student examples from last Friday’s 6-Word Memoir assignment. Actually, I invited students to my tumblr page to view the work and read my reflection on it.

The students then offered collective feedback on what elements were successfully completed in each example.

The notes in the margin are mine; the words provided are theirs.

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I was even able to get some audio using my Audioboo app to record the discussion on this first image.

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The take-aways I have from this discussion are several. First, through little front-loading on my part, my students are surprisingly able to identify what they like in a visual presentation, though they might not be applying it to their own work. Second, they highlight simplicity, both in the short format of the writing AND in the visual, as evidence of success. Third, all three of these examples make statements that are “relatable;” it’s back to the Frost adage “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” And finally, all three examples successfully combine modalities to make a point. It is not JUST the visual nor is it JUST the words that make the memoir “stick,” but the combination of both working together for greatest effect.


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