5-paragraph essay format for kids

Like many moms, you face new challenges as the high school years approach. Biology, chemistry, art, and geometry practically feel like a cakewalk compared with how to teach the five-paragraph essay in your homeschool! One thing is certain. Regardless of how we get through the high school years, our homeschool teens need to master the basics of five-paragraph essay writing. I get it. Sometimes we need to pause and rewind.

5 Paragraph Essay Writing- EASIEST way to teach kids to organize their writing

Writing essays is a skill that will serve kids well throughout their lives. Knowing how to present facts and opinions in an interesting, understandable way is valuable regardless of whether they attend college or go directly into the workforce.

This fill-in-the-blank style of writing has one main goal - training students to write essays that are easy to grade in the classroom and on standardized tests.

As a homeschooling parent, you can help your children learn to produce informational writing that is meaningful and alive. In the real world, people write essays to inform, persuade, and entertain. For beginning writers, this formula can be a good starting place. The Five Paragraph Essay can help young students get beyond the one-paragraph page, and encourage them to come up with multiple facts or arguments.

But beyond fifth grade or so, the Five Paragraph Essay becomes an obstacle to quality writing. Instead of learning to develop and vary their arguments, students remain stuck in the same old formula. The SAT essay format is even worse. It values speed over accuracy and depth of thought.

Students are conditioned to turn out a large number of words quickly, rather than to take the time to present their arguments well. So to get a top score of six, a test taker would have to write six paragraphs, not five.

Don't feel you need to assign your children school-type writing projects. Real-life writing is often more valuable and more meaningful to them.

Suggestions include:. This hyperlinked guide by writer Tom Johnson is a particularly easy-to-follow explanation of essay-writing techniques for tweens and teens.

Purdue OWL. Purdue University's Online Writing Lab contains sections on the writing process, how to understand an assignment, grammar, language mechanics, visual presentation and more. The Five Paragraph Essay has its place, but students need to using it as a stepping stone, not the final result of their writing instruction. Share Flipboard Email. Kathy Ceceri. Education Expert. Kathy Ceceri is a writer, educator, and homeschooling advocate with over 20 years of experience and numerous published books focusing on the importance of STEAM education.

The structure of the Five Paragraph Essay consists of:. An introductory paragraph that states the point to be made. Three paragraphs of exposition that each lay out one point of the argument. A conclusion that sums up the essay's content. Keep a journal. Many kids enjoy keeping a journal or notebook to capture their thoughts. It can be something to share with you some teachers use journals to communicate with their students; you can do the same or a private record.

Either way provides useful writing practice. Start a blog. Even reluctant writers can become enthusiastic when writing has a purpose.

Writing for an audience provides purpose. There are many options for starting a free blog and privacy features offer parents and students control over who reads the content. Write a review. Unlike most school-type reports, reviews have to be written with the audience in mind, and they have to be entertaining. They also help kids learn to express opinions and present valid arguments to the reader. Do a research paper.

Give your kids' essay-writing a purpose by integrating it into a history project or science topic. Let them choose an area that interests them and explore it in depth. Writing research papers also gives students practice in critical thinking and evaluating and crediting source material.

If you need some guidance, there are some fantastic online resources for writing essays. Research Paper Handbook. A handy textbook by James D. Lester Sr. Lester Jr. Updated Kris Bales.

Teaching kids to write five-paragraph essays, an essential high school skill. Free printable template. Prepare for standardized tests by mastering essay writing. The five paragraph essay is the most common structure for writing essays. high school students can help children prepare for state and college-entrance standardized writing tests.

And extremely intuitive. In fact, I'd say that so far, this may be the best 5 paragraph essay resource I've used yet. I would buy this again in a heartbeat. It is awesome. It helped the students that still did not know how to organize their essays and gave them something to refer to when they started to wander in their writing.

When it comes to writing essays in college, we all need a place to start.

Writing essays is a skill that will serve kids well throughout their lives. Knowing how to present facts and opinions in an interesting, understandable way is valuable regardless of whether they attend college or go directly into the workforce.

Five-Paragraph Essays

You will be amazed at how eagerly your students will take to this five paragraph essay lesson. I guarantee that they will beg to write a little show and tell never hurts either! Organizing thoughts in expository writing sometimes referred to as "explanatory writing" is difficult for children. Often they do not even understand that there is a different way to read these types of texts, let alone write them. The five paragraph essay is a tool to aid beginning writers who are learning how to use transitions, opening, and closing paragraphs.

Structuring the Five-Paragraph Essay: Examples of Five-Paragraph Essays

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As the parent, you play an important part in how well your child learns. One of the most significant subjects to focus on is writing.

This is the format that is most commonly used and also looked for during testing and also writing samples for applications—I have been asked throughout all of my high school career to use this format and this is what led to high SAT scores and a high acceptance rate to colleges. But first, what is the 5-paragraph essay? It follows the same basic structure and is largely used for critical, analytical, and argumentative writing. The first paragraph works as an introductory paragraph that leads into a topic and is always ended by a thesis statement.

Down With the Five Paragraph Essay!

Introduction: Introductory Paragraph See, first, Writing Introductory Paragraphs for different ways of getting your reader involved in your essay. The introductory paragraph should also include the thesis statement, a kind of mini-outline for the paper: it tells the reader what the essay is about. The last sentence of this paragraph must also contain a transitional "hook" which moves the reader to the first paragraph of the body of the paper. The first paragraph of the body should contain the strongest argument, most significant example, cleverest illustration, or an obvious beginning point. The first sentence of this paragraph should include the "reverse hook" which ties in with the transitional hook at the end of the introductory paragraph. The topic for this paragraph should be in the first or second sentence. This topic should relate to the thesis statement in the introductory paragraph. The last sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional hook to tie into the second paragraph of the body. The second paragraph of the body should contain the second strongest argument, second most significant example, second cleverest illustration, or an obvious follow up the first paragraph in the body. The first sentence of this paragraph should include the reverse hook which ties in with the transitional hook at the end of the first paragraph of the body. The last sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional hook to tie into the third paragraph of the body. The third paragraph of the body should contain the weakest argument, weakest example, weakest illustration, or an obvious follow up to the second paragraph in the body. The first sentence of this paragraph should include the reverse hook which ties in with the transitional hook at the end of the second paragraph. The last sentence in this paragraph should include a transitional concluding hook that signals the reader that this is the final major point being made in this paper.

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