Introduction
- Attention grabber
- Details – Background/ points you’re going to make
- Thesis/Hypothesis
Paragraph 1
- Topic sentence
- Information to support the topic sentence/Statements
- Concluding statement/Transition sentence
Paragraph 2
- Topic sentence
- Information to support the topic sentence/Statements
- Concluding statement/Transition sentence
Paragraph 3
- Topic sentence
- Information to support the topic sentence/Statements
- Concluding statement/Transition sentence
Conclusion
- Summary
- Restate thesis
- I used it in high school. The senior exit is a research paper, which we did as a five-paragraph essay so the paper was organized and they know what we are talking about.
- It is a challenging writing level because it pushes students to think through before writing something down. Writing something with five paragraphs is not easy. Most people can think of ideas, but not express themselves on paper.
- Teachers use it to teach you organization in your paper. A lot of times you are al over the place. But it teaches you to break down what you’re talking about and make it more structure.
- They use it because they have to. They may have their own way of thinking about what is a good way to structure it to write something, but they have to teach the uniform of writing to pass the writing test.
- The five-paragraph essay is the generic outline to give you structure. The five-paragraph essay would just keep it to five paragraphs. If you have a longer paper due, five paragraphs won’t work but it gives you a general guide to use – introduction, conclusion and the good stuff in the middle.
- It lets teachers know what to look for. They can look through it easily and make sure you can follow direction.
- It’s a guideline to follow when we write. We aren’t going to use all the information we gather. If we don’t have a guideline, we will include things we don’t need to include and not stay on topic. If you grab a reader’s attention, they will keep reading the paper.
- You will use the same structure but you use more than five paragraphs. So teachers use it to teach you the basic structure, but then you can deviate from it.
- There isn’t a limit you can use in a paper. There is a limit in a five paragraph essay is.
- If you have a ten-page paper, you aren’t going to use the five-paragraph structure because you aren’t going to use only five paragraphs for ten pages.
- A paragraph is a thought. Once you’re done with the thought, you move to a new paragraph.
- The five-paragraph essay is used when the teacher has certain values. If they let you use more or less than five, they have different values.
- The reading for the weekend says that in college you are free to write, but in high school the system says you have to worry about the five-paragraph essay.
- What teachers say:
- “The five paragraph essay will help you with your research.”
- “We have to teach it so you have to follow it.”
- Was it irrelevant to learn?
- No, it’s a tool to help. It’s a crutch.
- It’s a good opening to organizing your essay, but you’re not always going to follow the same guidelines depending on how many pages you have to write or what your topic is. It is a good structure to start with and then you can expand it more.
- It’s like the ABCs to write.
- It is irrelevant because if you can teach someone what you need to put in the introduction, the body and the conclusion, they are automatically going to go to the five paragraphs. Then, when they get to college they’re going to have to learn how to write all over again on their own because they won’t be able to use five paragraphs for ten pages.
- They should take the five paragraphs out of it and just focus on how to write the essay and how to stay on topic.
- We get caught up in the five paragraphs.
- In itself, as an introductory tool, you can use that and then they hopefully teach you other ways to write and other forms. In its essence, it works, but you’re writing has to evolve from that point.
- You could teach the basic structure- introduction, body and conclusion and just how to stay on topic.
- In high school, teachers want to teach you on thing and then move to the next thing. So you learn the five paragraphs and then move to something else.
- Teachers give us the tools, but it is our responsibility to find other ways it works for us. We have to be critical thinkers.
- Teachers should teach critically. They need to get away from NCLB. They need the fundamentals of the subject and then the students can excel.
- Is the five-paragraph essay ineffective as far as critical thinking?
- If you use it as a cookie cutter, then yes.
- If you use it every single time, yes.
- It can still be an effective structure. I hook the reader at the beginning. Throughout the paper, I allude back to the hook. Then I hit the reader with the hook again at the very end.
- You can’t plug and chug. You have to think about what you’re writing.
- Discussion allows us to be critical thinkers. When we get to writing, we should be ready to because of the discussion. Megan isn’t telling us what to write.
We completed independent writing about the questions on slide 28 of the PowerPoint. We concluded with the following discussion:
- What I was taught is that you put your thoughts on paper and then you organize it from there. You stick to the subject, start with the introduction, and stick to your topic from there.
- I group my topics based on what I want to talk about.
- We all feel comfortable starting at the beginning. I start with a topic sentence and the reasons I can support the idea or give examples. I know I need to be coherent and relevant to what I am writing. You know someone knows what he is doing if his writing is coherent.
- It varies based on the subject matter. Different subjects will require different organizations. There isn’t a standard process you can always use.
- It’s times when I am not even thinking about writing that I think of good things to write. It’s not a check list you have to go through every time. If you know your topic, marinate on it. Think about how you can introduce it. Research it if you don’t know much about it so you can sound credible. But you don’t sit down and think about how you are going to organize it. Even within the writing, things come to you. It’s not always going to be this structure.
- I organize according to the level of important. I let it flow like a good conversation. The conversation is different according to your audience. What is the main concern for me might not be the same concern for someone else. I organize it based on who I am writing for.
- You start a new paragraph when you go into a new subtopic. If we are talking about computers, you move to a new paragraph when you start talking about the mouse instead of talking about the monitor.
- I use an outline to organize the information I already gathered. That’s how I know when I need a new paragraph.
- Once you have a topic, then you have a subtopic. When you say something different, you know it is time to start with a new paragraph; it’s a new subtopic. If you are talking about a desk, you will start by talking about the desk as a whole. Then you can move to the tabletop of the desk and then move to the legs. Each new detail is a new paragraph.
- If you are talking about a phone on the table and then talking about the table, it is two topics.
- I get everything down that I have about a topic. Then I transition between paragraphs.
- When I was a young writer, I would drag on and write too much. I have enough in the paragraph but I know I have more I can say about it. You need to be to the point, back the statement and then move on.
- I view each paragraph as a point I want to make. Once I’ve completed that full thought, it offers a natural transition into the next point because it’s the next logical step.
- Once you meet the requirements, you know you are done. You might decide based on how many sentences the teacher says you have to have.
- The original process is important. If it isn’t interesting to you, it’s not going to be interesting to the reader. You have to think of yourself as a reader of your paper.
- You are writing for your audience. It might be boring to me but interesting to my audience.
Homework:
The following readings can be found in Models for Writers:
- Read "Simplicity" on pages 176-179.
- Read "Map Your Organization" on pages 17-18.
- Read "Thesis" on pages 81-83.
*Note: The homework is different than what is listed in the daily syllabus. I changed the homework based on what we accomplished in class.
No comments:
Post a Comment