Reply to Should a 7-year-old be able to write a five-paragraph essay?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t teach in FCPS, I am in different district, but I think that it’s important to note that most standards and curriculum in the primary grades are teaching other structures before they teach essays.

5 paragraphs is a lot for early 2nd, but even the kids who can do that are writing multi paragraph stories, or reports, or letters, or how to pieces before they get to essays.  When they do persuasive speech, maybe late in 2nd or in 3rd the first pieces are often single paragraphs, and aimed at specific readers, like a paragraph convincing the principal to make recess longer.  It’s introducing some of the components of an essay, but it’s not exactly an essay yet.

I say this to respond to your question of whether 2nd grade teachers teach structure.  They do in most districts.  But teaching structure doesn’t mean teaching essay structure.[/quote]

My 3rd grader, who is a strong writer for the grade (in the most advanced writing group, has been singled out by the teacher as an example for others) just started learning about persuasive writing this fall. They are writing one and two-sentence opinions at this point. They *read* a lot of persuasive essays (as well as speeches), but they are clearly building up from the basics right now. I think the plan is for them to be able to write a persuasive paragraph with a topic sentence, three supporting details, and a conclusion, by the end of the year. I think given that many kids were still working on reading fluency in 2nd, this is ambitious.

My kid would happily write four or five paragraphs, but it would not be a structured essay, as she has not been taught how to do that yet. She writes short stories and she journals. TBH I'm a little worried right now because she's always been a kid who loves writing and does it on her own with no encouragement, and this push into persuasive writing has not been particularly fun for her (she finds both the reading and many of the subjects they are asked to write on dry). I worry she's losing her love of writing and wonder if this could have waited until 4th because 3rd graders are still very focused on narrative writing and fiction. I think it would be better to encourage them to write more free-form narrative this year just to get them writing and having fun, and then start bringing in more rigid forms later in elementary.[/quote]

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