Many
people have argued for and against the five paragraph essay and always support their
claims with seemingly valid reasons. Tracy Novick, a high school English
teacher, argued that if the five paragraph essay were “taught with creativity
and variety, it gives students a useful tool with which to face business
meetings, testimonies before public officials, and letters to the editor” (p.
12). On the contrary, Kimberly Wesley argued that “Teachers of the five
paragraph theme, like the representatives of patriarchal society, have become complacent
in their acceptance of a tool that purports to nurture but, in fact, stunts the
growth of human minds” (p. 57). While some believe that the five paragraph essay
offers a solid form for students to use when they are learning to support
arguments with evidence, others believe that it creates strict boundaries which
can stunt the students’ creativity.
With
the realization that I, in all of my schooling, have never learned the five
paragraph essay in such a strict way, I must think about how I will teach my
own students how to write an essay. I agree with Tracy Novick that it is a
useful tool for students to learn because of what it teaches them. The five
paragraph essay teaches students to organize their thoughts and to support
their claims with evidence. These are valuable things that all students will
need to know in order to succeed both in high school and beyond. Can these
things only be taught by teaching the five paragraph essay? No.
Because
the positive aspects of the five paragraph essay can be taught in different
ways and even in different modalities outside of letters and words on paper, I
don’t see the five paragraph essay as an essential part of my classroom when I
am a teacher. I never learned it while I was growing up and I aced many writing
intensive classes throughout my high school and college career. Furthermore,
with the many new digital and multimodal avenues that students will be expected
to know, it is important to think of writing instruction beyond the transmittal
of ideas from pen to paper.
No
longer can we teach our students to replicate the form of a five paragraph
essay to best demonstrate their knowledge of writing, instead we must teach
them to consider how to best represent their message based on several considerations.
Andrews and Smith recommend a new model for writing development which considers
“the rhetorical context, framing, multimodal choice, composition and
development” (p. 131). In this way, a writer must contemplate who the audience
will be and which multimodal form will best represent his or her idea or
message. With the advent of new ways to transmit information in a digital age,
it is important for students to be prepared to tackle these new forms of
communication. They will still need to know how to support their arguments with
evidence, but they will also need to know which of the many different multimodal
options available will be the most effective way to communicate to their
intended audience.
References
Andrews,
R., & Smith, A. (2011). Developing writers: Teaching and learning in the
digital age.
New York, NY: Open University Press.
Novick, T. A. (2001). Praise for the five paragraph essay. The English Journal, 90(3), 12.
Additional Resources
A brief overview of the five paragraph essay. This site also includes many different examples of types of essays.
An explanation of multimodal composition along with some reasons for why teachers are incorporating it into their writing instruction.
A few ideas with descriptions for multimodal assignments that have been used in a high school in Massachusetts.
Sarah, I completely agree with your blog post, as I found myself writing my blog about the same topic. I agree with both Wesley and Novick, and enjoyed how you counteracted their statements against each other. Wesley says that having a five paragraph essay has too many constraints in the classroom. This makes sense. How do we teach students to be creative when there are constraints? However, like you said in your post, Novick realizes the importance of first teaching students the idea of a five paragraph essay, so they understand and comprehend the correct way to write a paper. Without the five paragraph essay as a starting guideline, some students might not learn to write proper papers. After the five paragraph essay is mastered, then it's our responsibility as English teachers to teach the students to go out of their comfort zone (ie the five paragraph essay), and create a long, coherent piece. Lastly, I was hoping your blog post would have been five paragraphs...work on that next time. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think is the best way to address the standard (patriarchal?) expectations of those who will be assessing your students? Is the 5P a useful tool to teach students how to confront these challenges?
ReplyDelete