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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My DS is in 2nd grade at a well-regarded DCPS school. He’s doing fine overall, but [b]when I asked him to write about what he did last weekend, he gave me six short sentences with almost no detail.[/b] I tried to walk him through writing an intro and some supporting ideas, and he got frustrated and said, “I don’t want to do paragraphs.”
I know writing develops at different speeds, but is it unreasonable to expect basic essay structure by this age? I’m not pushing for college-level writing, but I don’t want him to fall behind either. Do teachers focus more on structure later?[/quote]

Um, what?  You are asking your kid to write you essays about his weekend for funsies?  This sounds like an inventive punishment not reasonable parenting.

6 sentences in response to a parent prompt is already over the top.  Expecting five paragraphs is, frankly, insane.  Calm down.[/quote]

I am wondering if OP knows what an essay is.  Writing a 5 paragraph chronological narrative of the weekend might be realistic for some third and many fourth graders and an occasional younger kid.  But a five paragraph persuasive essay where you use events from the weekend as evidence to support an argument?  That’s high school.  [/quote]

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