Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay 1st Edition

It was so refreshing to read this book and to find that there are other teachers like myself who question the value of teaching the five paragraph theme. The authors offer several engaging alternatives to the frequently taught five paragraph essay.I think they are right to point out that the five paragraph format doesn't exist outside of school and has minimal value in the real world of written expression.As a result of reading this book, I have experimented with new and creative approaches to both informal and formal journaling that serve as a springboard to higher stakes writing that students can actually embrace as their own.Highly recommended!

This is a must read for all English/Language Arts teachers. I totally agree with the authors of this book and I have been teaching high school English for eleven years now. The concept of set formatted essays is gone. It is time for the students to decide how to format their ideas when writing an essay.

I have taught for thirty years and these women are so correct. The five paragraph essay should never have become the "formula" for teaching writing. It is right up there with all concluding sentences starting with "In conclusion..". So sad. I am looking forward to starting the new school year with this book at my right hand.

I was hoping for a book that would actually help me teach students to break out of the stifling effects of the 5 paragraph essay...this book fell far short of this. Instead it was written only for writing about literature and included graphic organizer ideas that are being taught regardless of use of 5 paragraph essay. Book fell far short of expectations.

Good stuff.

Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay is divided up into seven chapters, as well as having 60 pages in the appendix that give examples lessons, provide graphic organizers and outline processes for various learning strategies. These chapters are Combating Formulaic Writing (1), Establishing a Routine of Thoughtful Reading and Writing (2), Reading like a Writer (3), Writing and Discussion in Support of Thinking (4), Writing to Explore (5), Writing as an Authority (6), and Writing with Mentors (7). Now, the writers never explicitly tell the reader how essay writing should be taught; instead, through the sequence of the chapters, the writers model the teaching strategies that are necessary to equip the students with the skills they would need to construct a well thought essay.I did not know that there was a resistance to the 5-paragraph form, let alone an entire book about it! The book is very concerned with student engagement, as well as guiding students towards an appreciation of literature. The chapters instruct the reader on designing lesson plans that will lead students to forming their own arguments about the text. This book inspired me and I plan on revisiting this text again and again through out my teaching career. The only reason that I did not give the book a 5 is because there was not a section of the book dedicated to essay prompts. Indeed, there are countless examples of essay topics and different styles of essays, but it seems to me that the authors believe that as students read they should come up with a question about the text and then try to answer this problem in an essay. I think that this idea is great but it also intimidates me. Will every student be able to do this? Does that mean I'll have 70 - 100 different essay topics? It will definitely make the grading more interesting!

Helpful

I use this book constantly in my classroom, and I give it to all those teachers around me who are still stuck on the 5 paragraph essay. I love the push for real-world writing in the classroom--getting kids to invest in what they write.

Certainly confirms what I already knew about essay writing. Helpful for teaching new writing methods.

Easy read. Useful information.