California state standards only say that students should write a "multi-paragraph" essay in the different genres. We had a meeting last week with teachers from other schools in our district, and discovered that among all 3 elementary schools, we're requiring 3 different things from our students. One school requires 6th graders to write only 3 paragraph essays, one school requires 4 paragraphs, and my school has always been 5 paragraph. The 7th grade teachers at our junior high say that they start the year off teaching the BASICS on how to write "a paragraph", and that the 7th graders are expected to write 5 paragraphs at the END of 7th grade.
Are we expecting too much by having them write 5 paragraphs in 6th grade? What do you do?
My vote is for 5. My 6th graders just finished a 6 paragraph, because it was about a novel: intro, setting, main character, plot, theme, conclusion. This worked well because we have been doing a lot of short answer or one paragraph responses to literary elements in novels, so it was a natural progression. Next we will do a 5 paragraph persuasive essay. Some students will want to write more, which is great. Maybe some students need to work up to this with shorter essays, but my strong feeling is a 5 paragraph piece by the end of 6th grade should be the expectation. It will be interesting to hear what other PTers think about this issue.
Last edited by MiddlingAZ; 11-03-2009 at 04:46 PM..
it needs to be as long as it needs to be. This drives everyone (including me) crazy when they get that for an answer, but it's the best answer I have. If I tell them it has to be a set number of paragraphs, then that's exactly what I get. It seems to limit their thinking. Also, some writers tend to be succinct; others tend to be wordier. So I tell them it needs to be as long as it needs to be. I think I end up getting longer pieces that way, between 3 and 10 paragraphs.
No, 5 paragraphs is not too much for sixth grade. I think they should be doing that by fourth grade.
Exactly what maryteach said. I started the year reviewing a good paragraph, and we are learning how to connect paragraphs. Then multi-paragraph essays will be "as long as they need to be." Of course, they have specific info that needs to be included in the essay, but if they can make it fit logically into 4 or it requires 7, that's okay.
I don't like the "5-paragraph essay" format that the workbook teaches - intro, 3 topic paragraphs, conclusion. I think it's formulaic. It does not help the struggling writers learn to think creatively, and it hinders the stronger writers.
(It's the same for "how long does a paragraph have to be?" It drives me crazy when the students say "Can it be 4 sentences? Miss X said we have to do 5. It can't be 3! etc." A paragraph is as long as a paragraph needs to be.)
I'll add 5 paragraphs is definitely not too much. I try to not push formulas at them but at times I do encourage them to write 5 or more paragraphs. 7th grade needs to not go all the way back to "how to write a paragraph" My goodness they've been writing a paragraph since 1st grade! It's time to move on!
Five paragraphs is not too much to expect out of sixth graderes.
I start with the premise that they need to know the basic structure of the five paragraph essay to be able to handle most of their future writing assignments. Once they have that mastered, or at least handled on a regular basis, then we move on to being more creative and letting the story or essay flow depending on what they have to say. But they need the structure to get started.
I work in a lower socio-economic area with a significant EL populatioin and for my students, if I don't give them a formula to follow, they have no idea how to create an appropriate writing assignment. And if I don't push them toward a certain number of sentences and paragraphs, they will give me the least amount possible.
I vary the amount of writing sometimes just so I can keep up. It's a survival technique. We write more for different purposes, like a research report. We bust out sections, not paragraphs, often creating pages and pages of fabulous writing.
For Compare and Contrast I like to do 4 paragraphs. We practice one paragraph of compare and another of contrast with an intro and a conclusion.
If it is practicing great description we might just do a paragraph. If it is possible to create great writing in a paragraph, I'm all for it.
I'd like to let students choose the amount and I do, however, many will only create a minimum. For those students, I provide guidance. Some of my students this year started off thinking that a sentence is a paragraph. Topic sentence was the intro. Minimal body writing was a paragraph and the concluding sentence was a paragraph. They were shocked when I made them put it all together and create a 6-8 sentence paragraph. Many kids need guidance.
In my state, an essay is part of our 6th grade GLE's, so we have to teach how to write a five paragraph essay. It is not too much for them, but they do need some direction to stick to the topic. I teach the students to state the topic in the first paragraph and make it the introduction, then have three paragraphs addressing the points, and the last paragraph is the ending. As long as there is a topic kids care about, they don't have any trouble whipping out five paragraphs. It's finding those topics that they will want to write about that is hard. I look for contests that we can enter. Nothing gets students in the writing mood more than the chance to win a prize.
I teach writing in South Dakota and my students are about to embark on an 3-5 PAGE writing activity. This will probably end up consisting of like 6-8 paragraphs. I think that's reasonable, my kids are fantastic writers and have a great imagination.
I am going to do introductions or "Building Blocks" into several different things to help them jump start their eassy. Pretty easy way to do it.
Are different states tested in 6th grade writing? We are NOT but I feel like my kids have mastered all of our state standards, which are not very extensive, to be totally honest.
Also, to comment, our state only requires three paragraphs in descriptive and expository, nothing else. For some reason, persuasive writing is few and far between, which confuses me a LOT.
11-03-2009, 09:37 AM
Many kids need guidance.
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