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]We talked to a tutoring agency who told us that the some privates teach 5 paragraph essay formats at the end of 3rd grade. Public schools (we are public) are a year behind. The tutoring agency's syllabus starts with a descriptive paragraph but with many details and iterations, then a persuasive argument that is 3 paragraphs long, then a 5 paragraph essay.[/quote]

IMO, this is too early and doesn’t make them better writers.  What makes great writers is focusing on reading high quality literature and copy work from high quality literature; studying and imitating the writing of great writers. Eventually kids gain enough mental tools to begin writing their own words into paragraphs.  But I would focus on the former until grade 4-5 at least [/quote]

I am a writer and agree. There is no benefit to being taught essay structure that early. Learning the structure of an essay is actually quite easy. What is hard, and what children in 2nd/3rd grade should still be working on, is understanding the components of an argument, and the difference between evidentiary facts and persuasive argument. Until kids clearly understand that and can apply that knowledge in multiple contexts, what is the point in telling them how to compose am essay? [/quote]

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