The 5-Paragraph Essay

This is an essential for writing and can be easily introduced in third grade. My former teaching partner, Tami, and I worked on this a lot with third graders teaching expository writing about penguins, frogs, and many other theme-based units we taught in school. When I moved to Kansas and taught fourth and fifth grades, I created this outline to help the students gain a better understanding of the ease in writing the five paragraph essay by giving them a map to write it.

Here's how I've taught it for beginning writers who have not written a 5-paragraph essay yet:

For Beginner Essay Writers:

Day 1

10 minutes:

Discuss the purpose of writing this essay with my class. Are we comparing and contrasting? Is this a biographical essay? Do the students want people to learn more about their favorite polar animal? Would they like your school principal to make teachers give less homework? What type of essay is it? (persuasive, informational, narrative, etc.)

Discuss the different topics for this essay and write them on a chart/ SmartBoard / whiteboard where students can reference them during the class period.

10-15 minutes:

Students will get out their writing notebooks and start writing about their thinking on the different topics. Each need to pick their favorite and write everything he/she knows about it. When he/she finishes one, then pick another and write again. Continue for ten to fifteen minutes. During this time, I walk around observing and meeting with students, beginning with the ones who have more difficulty writing.

5 minutes: 

When the time is done, have students share what they discovered during this time. Do they know more about one topic than another? Will they enjoy writing about one of the topics more than others? Have students pick a topic. Pass out this outline.

5 Paragraph Essay Outline by Rockin' That Red Apple | Teachers Pay Teachers

10 - 15 minutes: 

Students can write their chosen topic and name on the outline paper. When they are done, pick up the papers and have students write in their writing notebooks making a KWL chart about their topic. Meet with students who haven't chosen a topic in a small group. Then meet with individuals about their topic. The K-W-L chart can be sent home and discussed with parents, especially for beginning writers.

If there's time, I read some essays aloud to give the students ideas of what I'm looking for as a teacher. If not, this can be done the next day or skipped altogether.

Day 2 - 3 

All students should have a topic and KWL chart completed. If research is needed for this project, have the books from the library or go to the library to get these. You may also do the research in the computer lab. My students had computer lab with another teacher and conducted research under his/her direction. 

Discuss with students how to write the body of the essay. 

Needed: 3 main points about the topic and 3 details for each point

*For beginners, the writing may take two days and a lot of small group meetings. Students may also meet in pairs sharing their KWL charts. Once students feel the KWL charts are completed, meet with a small group to begin the outline. Continue meeting in small groups and with individuals to complete the body of the essay.

Day 4 

The Introduction 

Begin by reading the beginnings of essays or books with similar topics as the essay you want the students to write.  As an aside, I really like using past students' essays for this because it shows a realistic view of what I expect.Next, discuss with the students if there were any essays that sounded like they might be interesting. Then ask what they think is the purpose of an introduction.

**If you've never done this lesson before, you can read any books' introductions and discuss the same above questions.

Once they've given you ideas of the purpose of the introduction, tell the students the parts of the introduction.

• Hook / Lead to pull the reader into the essay
• 2-4 sentences that explain your topic (These relate the lead to your thesis statement.)
• Thesis Statement

Let's write the thesis statement first. This is what you're trying to prove in your essay. If your topic is your mom and you're writing a narrative, your thesis could be, "My mom is the best mom that I know." Therefore, the rest of your essay will prove that statement. You will need to tell a story about your mom showing she's the best since it's a narrative. If it's a comparison essay and your topic is your mom, you could compare your mom to other moms you know and prove she's the best. The thesis is usually the easiest to write because it's a direct statement that tells exactly what the essay will prove.

After that, make a chart with the different ways to begin an essay and discuss each. These should be in examples of books/essays you read. You can make the list shorter if it makes more sense for your class.

Good writers create an interesting lead.

1. Ask a question that makes the reader want to know the answer.

    (It will be necessary to answer it in your essay.)

2. Describe the setting in a sentence with vivid words.

3. Tell an interesting fact about the topic.

4. Use a quote.

5. Give a definition from a dictionary.

**Good writers never use either of these phrases, "This essay is about.." or "I'm going to tell you more about..."

Finally, discuss the sentences that explain the topic. These can give hints about the essay's content. They can also relate the lead to the thesis in a logical way.

Day 5

The Conclusion

Once the rest of the essay is written, the conclusion is easy. Take the introduction and flip the order and the words need to be altered, too. In a conclusion, the thesis is first. After that, the explanation sentences are shown as proven. Finally, the lead is restated.

Students should have the outline completed by the end of this period. Some students will need extra support, while others will rock through it on their own. I meet with each student as often as possible during this week. Many times, I have had two students at my kidney table working closely to me and I have had meetings with individuals at the table. I checked in with the two in between meetings with the other students. 

13 Original Colonies QR Code Project

My students recently completed a unit on the 13 Original Colonies. I was surprised to learn that Maine wasn't a colony. It was part of the Massachusetts colony. I don't recall learning this at all when I was a child. This is probably because I loathed history as a child, so I try to make it more interesting now than just reading from a textbook.

Anyway, my students were assigned (by asking who wanted to write about each colony and drawing those names from the "Pick It Pot") one of The Thirteen Original Colonies to research. They were given access to a Google doc with the information needed for the project. Ultimately, they needed to create a green screen video on a school iPad or create a slideshow on Google slides.

I love how two of the students decorated their colonies' outlines. One took time to find a photo from the current state to create interest. The other student put large cities on his map. I appreciated their effort and creativity. In the future, I will suggest all of the students take the time to do this, but I would stress to make the decorating relevant to the time period. Also, I do know one colony is missing. 

Here's a link to the FREE download of the project information and rubric on TPT.

13 Colonies QR Code Project by Rockin' That Red Apple | Teachers Pay Teachers