Why I Still Believe in the Five Paragraph Essay

Make a claim.  Give three reasons that support that claim.  Give details that explain why the reason supports the claim.  It’s so simple, but it can be tricky for middle schoolers to write an organized essay.  With the age of AI, I have seen many educators online talk about how it is time to retire the good old five paragraph essay.  I’ve heard that writing essays won’t be a skill kids need in the digital age.  I’ve heard that it's not how writing is done in the real world, so it doesn’t really prepare them.  I’ve also heard that they’re taking so long to write and don't know how to write using a paper and pencil, so it's not worth it any more.  Despite all of this, I’m not ready to give up the 5 paragraph essay in my middle school social studies class just yet.

Even if students aren’t writing five paragraph essays in their jobs twenty years from now, it doesn’t mean that the skills that they are developing while writing are worthless. 

Here are the skills that students practice when they write an essay in my class:

1. Develop an opinion based on what they have learned in order to write a thesis.

2. Research information and decide if the source is reliable.

3. Write coherently about that topic and make sure it links back to their thesis.

4. Organize their thoughts in a way that makes sense.  

5. Decide what information is necessary and what is extraneous.

6. Understand and apply rules about grammar, spelling, and capitalization.

   
   

7. Go back and fix their work and keep making improvements to make it better.

These may sound simple, but they are all important skills.  Writing isn’t just about putting words on a page.  It uses critical thinking, reasoning, organizational, and problem solving skills.

Writing an essay is one of the most rigorous tasks that I give my students, but I often have students come back after they’ve graduated and tell me how well-prepared they felt for writing in high school.

I have students handwrite nearly everything in the planning stage and then they eventually type their final draft.

Essay writing isn’t easy for Middle Schoolers, so I use all kinds of resources to help simplify the process and really lay it out for the kids.

1. Brainstorming Graphic Organizer

   • Before students write, they need to have a long list of ideas about what they can write about.  I usually give students a graphic organizer that helps break down the prompt and let students use their resources to make lists.  This helps them realize what they know a lot about and what they might feel comfortable writing about.

     
     

2. Thesis Creation

   • The thesis is the most important sentence of the entire essay.  I teach how to write a thesis statement very explicitly and students can’t move on until I’ve approved theirs.

     
     

3. Essay Map

   • Next, students use their thesis to plan out their three paragraphs.  This essay map helps encourage them to include specific information to explain each main ideas.

     
     

4. How to Write an Introduction

   • Kids often get stuck on how to write an introduction, so using a template helps make it easier for them.  It reminds them of what they need to tell the reader before they write the rest of the essay.

     
     

5. Body Paragraph Templates

   • Before I used these templates, my students’ writing was all over the place.  They weren’t sure what to include in each paragraph.  For students just starting out, these templates are really helpful, but they are a scaffold that can be taken away when students become more confident.

     
     

6. How to Write a Conclusion

   • I find that kids have the hardest time with the conclusion.  It can be so difficult to write about what you just wrote about without just repeating yourself.  Giving them some questions to guide them helps a lot.

Some essay writing tips:

• Post reminders about common mistakes.  This helps me not have to repeat myself over and over.

  

• Have students write during class and give feedback as they go.  As I walk around, I read what students are writing and give feedback in real time.  This makes it so that by the time I have a stack of final drafts to read, there are less mistakes and I’m already very familiar with their essay.

• Set a timer for power writing sessions.  Have kids make a goal of how many sentences they will write and then set a timer and see if they meet their goal.  

If you have been looking for resources to help your students’ social studies writing more successful, you can find all of these editable resources in my TpT shop.