Be Gone Five-Paragraph Structure

When I was reading Gallagher, one phrase that stood out to me was that he feels we should “…spend less time teaching writing and spend more time teaching the writer.” I love this idea because it seems like a form of backwards teaching that can change the classroom. He also mentions being more experimental with teaching writing and that we should get students to “mess around” and “play with” their writing when we can. When I was in school I was always taught one way of writing, intro paragraph, three or more body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This is also what Kenney spoke about when Erica was struggling with her paper. When we were taught how to write poetry, we were taught to follow a certain structure and we were graded on how well we followed those standards.

Reading that sentence again I noticed that I was always taught “how to write” in school rather than being taught to be a writer. It wasn’t until I studied writing in London with Teen Ink that I learned to think outside the box with when I wrote. All through time writers had to experiment and “mess around” with how they wrote in order to become great writers.

During my four years working as a substitute teacher, I had to be one of those teachers who followed a lesson plan that taught the five-paragraph essay format that Kenney talked about. As I began correcting papers in my long term positions, I felt like I was reading works from robotic students. Every introduction read the same way, every body paragraph was structured too perfectly with five to six sentences, and a conclusion that mimicked the introduction and restated the main idea. In a way it was almost scary because I couldn’t tell one student’s work from another. There was no individuality in their work.

I love the PEAS idea in the classroom as a new approach to teaching writing. There are fewer limitations and allows students to have more freedom in how they approach their writing. There are no paragraph requirements to restrict the students to five paragraphs, but still sets up the idea that they should make their point, give evidence, analyze their idea, and state why the idea is important. This can be achieved in so many ways without following the five-paragraph structure.

I enjoyed the readings and think they make some amazing points about writing. I’ve always wondered about this idea and questioned why we are so restrictive on teaching writing. I love that Gallagher and Kenney promote more freedom in writing for students.