Anonymous wrote:My DS is in 2nd grade at a well-regarded DCPS school. He’s doing fine overall, but when I asked him to write about what he did last weekend, he gave me six short sentences with almost no detail. 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?

You’re a psycho

I taught my kids to write paragraphs at 6. I used a book of different prompts for a while. We started with an outline that had sentence frames. I also told them about the hamburger model. I faded the supports until they could write a paragraph unaided around the end of second grade. The older kid now writes for a living.

Mine did 2 page essays by 5th grade, 5 pages by 8th, and 10-20 pages by senior year. I don’t think they did 5 paragraphs in 2nd though. Maybe 3 paragraphs with emphasis on sentence structure, spelling, grammar, spacing, etc. Writing was more focused on in beginning in 4th and heavily focused on in 5th-8tg, then again in 11th and 12th.

No, fool.

When my kids were in second grade in MCPS, they only had to write one paragraph. They’d be given a topic and a formula for writing the paragraph. The topic might be their favorite trip. The formula would be something like:

1) Introductory sentence that gets reader’s attention and tells them where you went on your favorite trip.

2) Write at least 3 sentences to support the introduction. Give details. Why was it your favorite trip? What did you do?

3. Write a conclusion that mentions your trip.

The kids’ paragraphs usually sounded like this:

Would you like to hear about my trip to Disneyworld? It was my favorite trip because I had fun. I got to meet Star Wars characters. I went swimming every day and ate ice cream. There were fireworks. I hope you liked learning about my trip to Disneyworld.

No, it would not be typical for them to have the foundational skills for this.
I don’t even care about the essay, even a “theme/point” is possibly too advanced at 5 paragraphs.

One to three sentences at best.

lol!

OP, what kinds of things does your child read? That will affect my answer. But generally, no, it’s not reasonable to expect a normal 2nd grader to write a five-paragraph essay.

Anonymous wrote:My DS is in 2nd grade at a well-regarded DCPS school. He’s doing fine overall, but when I asked him to write about what he did last weekend, he gave me six short sentences with almost no detail. 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?

It's not reasonable at that age. Children learn how to structure writing by reading examples of well-structured writing, and then being asked to replicate it after lots and lots and lots of exposure to the form. If you want him to be accelerated in language arts, (which is totally fine and no worse than all the parents who do super advanced math enrichment at this age) then start by showing him a good 5-paragraph essay example every day, and talk together to analyze the different parts of the essay. Your current approach is putting the cart before the horse and making him hate writing.

They should but they don't teach this in school

No. Good grief. Get a grip

I dint think I learned that until 9th grade.

Sure does depend on the kid

I think OP meant 5 sentences but accidentally wrote paragraphs

This must be a joke

Anonymous wrote:You dolt.

Even middle schoolers have trouble with 5 paragraph essays.

Do not traumatize your kid. I can see you're well on your way, so stop it right now.

I was coming here to say that! My son just learned how to organize a paragraph in 9th grade. I’m sure he was taught before but this is something constantly work on. He is required 6 sentences for essay tests IN 9th grade.

You are expecting too much.