The five paragraph essay: a dreaded but inevitable piece of writing for many high school students. Despite ever-shifting state and national standards, the prevalence of the five paragraph essay (FPE) in high school English classes has endured. However, it seems as though the FPE leaves many students unprepared for writing beyond high school. As Patricia A Dunn writes in her blog, Teachers, Profs, Parents: Writers Who Care, many college writing instructors indicate that students enter their classrooms solely prepared to write expository essays. These students simply lack the skills to express themselves through narrative.
This issue is briefly taken on by Dawn Latta Kirby in her book, Inside Out: Strategies for Teaching Writing. Here, Kirby indicates that there has been far too great an emphasis on the FPE. To teachers who protest that testing standards require mastery of the FPE, Kirby indicates that test scores are not the sole judge of good writing, nor should they be the sole aim of our instruction (131). Kirby encourages her readers to “engage in conversation with . . . colleagues to learn what you and they really think about FPEs” (131), and so that is exactly what I will do.
I agree with
much of what Kirby writes (I was especially on board for the third chapter of Inside Out, which discusses building
community within your classroom and developing a welcoming environment. Not surprising, considering how obsessed I am
with this website that lets you design your own classroom posters!), and I do
think that writing in schools can often become too formulaic. However, I think she comes down a little too
hard on the FPE. While Kirby
acknowledges that FPEs are a building block for basic writing (131-132), she
dismisses it as writing that stymies creative thought and even seems to
attribute the prevalence of plagiarism to the constrictive, high stakes nature
associated with the FPE (132).
In my
opinion, the five paragraph essay is a critical writing form for students to
know. The FPE exam is not exclusive to
English class alone, and knowing how to quickly formulate a thesis and
supporting points is a crucial step for students who are limited to a 50 minute
exam time in, for instance, their social studies class. Would I love for all of my future colleagues
to abandon high stakes testing and formulaic essay prompts? Sure!
Making a portfolio or engaging in some other performance of knowledge is
a much better demonstration of mastery than a pressure cooker exam. However, the reality is that many high school
teachers, college professors, and various exams (the GRE, LSAT, and MTLE to
name a few) require quick writing that they expect to be at least organized and
coherent if not in the FPE form exactly.
To not equip our students for this does them a disservice.
I agree with
Kirby, however, that only teaching
the FPE and teaching it rigidly also does our students a disservice. Instead, I would advocate that students can
use the FPE creatively. Injecting humor,
description, and narrative into a FPE can enhance and improve student writing. The ideal FPE draws on both the formulaic and
the creative: transition words help keep the reader on track while vivid
imagery helps keep the reader engaged.
Organization and formula do not necessarily preclude creativity. The two worlds can work together.
It seems as
though the FPE is here to stay, so I think that it would behoove us to focus at
least some of our energy on learning not just how to teach the FPE, but how to
teach it well so that student
thinking doesn’t die along with their interest in writing.
What are
your thoughts on the FPE?
Hi Holly! I really like Recite. I was playing around with it while I was writing my blog post for this week.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I see some value in the FPE, because it does convey some integral information for students to understand. Though writing shouldn't be too formulaic, it should also not provide any structure for students. Unless students find themselves in a technical writing position at some point in their career, their writing formulas won't be monitored as tightly as some teachers monitor the FPE form. I think this is something that teachers need to constantly check and balance: how important is this form? What is the purpose of it? If students are learning specifically to test (I used to teach ACT writing preparation, and I taught the FPE tightly at that time), then I understand the necessity of drilling the form to death...
But I also see the controversy of the FPE. Regardless, it looks like it's here to stay.
Hi Holly! Thanks for your post on the FPE; I think this is an important issue to discuss as we learn to teach writing in our classrooms. Personally, I am decidedly not a fan of the FPE; I find it far too constrictive for students, and I think those students also have a hard time expanding beyond that formula. Instead, I think it might be more beneficial to teach students the components of effective introductions, thesis statements, body paragraphs, and conclusions. This way, they know what pieces a good thesis statement has (or any of the others) and they know how to assemble those pieces quickly. That way, the focus is less on length and more about what makes an essay work well. I think that recognizing these positive traits would be beneficial in situations where they have to put together a fast essay as well as when they are given more time at home. I do, however, like your idea of injecting a little personal flair into the FPE--when I was taught this form, I remember that I had little chance to inject some creativity into writing, and I think allowing students to do this will help them enjoy writing more. Thanks for a great post!
ReplyDeleteNice write up! Would you like to follow each other? Please let me know if you're interested. Latest post on my blog is A Cultural Tango
ReplyDeleteLouisa Moje
http://lapassionvoutee.blogspot.com/