What do you think?
Rate this book
Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay
Love it or hate it, the five-paragraph essay is perhaps the most frequently taught form of writing in classrooms of yesterday and today. But have you ever actually seen five-paragraph essays outside of school walls? Have you ever found it in business writing, journalism, nonfiction, or any other genres that exist in the real world? Kimberly Hill Campbell and Kristi Latimer reviewed the research on the effectiveness of the form as a teaching tool and discovered that the research does not support the five-paragraph formula. In fact, research shows that the formula restricts creativity, emphasizes structure rather than content, does not improve standardized test scores, inadequately prepares students for college writing, and results in vapid writing. In Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay, Kimberly and Kristi show you how to reclaim the literary essay and create a program that encourages thoughtful writing in response to literature. They provide numerous strategies that stimulate student thinking, value unique insight, and encourage lively, personal writing, including the following:
Close reading (which is the basis for writing about literature) Low-stakes writing options that support students' thinking as they read Collaboration in support of discussion, debate, and organizational structures that support writing as exploration A focus on students' writing process as foundational to content development and structure The use of model texts to write in the form of the literature students are reading and analyzing
The goal of reading and writing about literature is to push and challenge our students' thinking. We want students to know that their writing can convey something important: a unique view to share, defend, prove, delight, discover, and inspire. If we want our students to be more engaged, skilled writers, we need to move beyond the five-paragraph essay.
Close reading (which is the basis for writing about literature) Low-stakes writing options that support students' thinking as they read Collaboration in support of discussion, debate, and organizational structures that support writing as exploration A focus on students' writing process as foundational to content development and structure The use of model texts to write in the form of the literature students are reading and analyzing
The goal of reading and writing about literature is to push and challenge our students' thinking. We want students to know that their writing can convey something important: a unique view to share, defend, prove, delight, discover, and inspire. If we want our students to be more engaged, skilled writers, we need to move beyond the five-paragraph essay.
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
4 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 18, 2015
I picked this book up because I read about it in an AP Language post online. The discussion was centered around the ineffectiveness of the five paragraph essay and the lack of materials available to help teachers move away from this practice. I had high hopes that I would have some solid tools for guiding my students into more authentic writing, and less reliance on a rigid structure. However, the book isn't that kind of text at all. You might think that I would be disappointed by this fact, but by the end of the book I was completely satisfied.
Campbell writes about the most effective strategies for teaching students to write about literature. The first few chapters offer different ideas for how to get students to write more authentically. The ideas aren't super practical or structured; they're more exploratory. In today's testing obsessed world, some teachers might find these chapters frustrating and too general. However, open minded individuals will be able to take some of the strategies and make them their own. I suppose this is how they address moving away from the five paragraph essay.
The best part of the text was the last two or three chapters. Campbell incorporates a lot of useful activities / assignments for novel studies. A few noteworthy mentions: conversations between two characters, character eulogies, research on a topic that concerns you (a student), and journals. I look forward to implementing many of these suggestions in my classroom this year.
Another noteworthy tidbit- A lot of the lesson ideas were created by an IB teacher. It is often tough to find practical projects / resources for IB classrooms, and I appreciate this addition.
Campbell writes about the most effective strategies for teaching students to write about literature. The first few chapters offer different ideas for how to get students to write more authentically. The ideas aren't super practical or structured; they're more exploratory. In today's testing obsessed world, some teachers might find these chapters frustrating and too general. However, open minded individuals will be able to take some of the strategies and make them their own. I suppose this is how they address moving away from the five paragraph essay.
The best part of the text was the last two or three chapters. Campbell incorporates a lot of useful activities / assignments for novel studies. A few noteworthy mentions: conversations between two characters, character eulogies, research on a topic that concerns you (a student), and journals. I look forward to implementing many of these suggestions in my classroom this year.
Another noteworthy tidbit- A lot of the lesson ideas were created by an IB teacher. It is often tough to find practical projects / resources for IB classrooms, and I appreciate this addition.
May 15, 2014
This book is packed with creative ideas for teaching students how to be better lifelong writers, not just "for the test" writers. Many of the ideas are things I know I did with students many years ago, when I tried to make writing meaningful AND fun. Why did I ever stop doing that?
May 16, 2017
This book really delves into the myths of the all-important five-paragraph essay most of our high school students are expected to master, decidedly casting aside the truths of how well such a falsity helps secondary students succeed in college.
Read
December 30, 2021Great teaching resource.
Read for teaching methods 324.
Read for teaching methods 324.
Read
October 5, 2015Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay
By Kimberly Hill Campbell and Kristi Latimer
Jan. 2012. 220p. Stenhouse Publishers, $22.50 (9781571108524).
This book begins with “myth combatting” and ends with numerous writing resources, working with writing routines and purposes along the way. The authors, Campbell and Latimer, are both current teachers, with the former actually having created her own school, which she currently runs. They guide teachers and students alike through practices such as close reading, low and high stakes writing, collaborative writing, and writing for exploration.
As seasoned teachers, they aim to encourage teachers to let go of the typical five-paragraph essay and instead view writing as something personal and meaningful, rather than something to fulfill an assignment. Not only do Campbell and Latimer come up with revolutionary ideas for the writing process, they also provide the reader with almost a hundred pages of guides, charts, resources, and examples to implement their ideas. At only 220 pages, including the materials, this book is an easy but thought-provoking read for teachers of reading and writing.
-Ally Franklin
By Kimberly Hill Campbell and Kristi Latimer
Jan. 2012. 220p. Stenhouse Publishers, $22.50 (9781571108524).
This book begins with “myth combatting” and ends with numerous writing resources, working with writing routines and purposes along the way. The authors, Campbell and Latimer, are both current teachers, with the former actually having created her own school, which she currently runs. They guide teachers and students alike through practices such as close reading, low and high stakes writing, collaborative writing, and writing for exploration.
As seasoned teachers, they aim to encourage teachers to let go of the typical five-paragraph essay and instead view writing as something personal and meaningful, rather than something to fulfill an assignment. Not only do Campbell and Latimer come up with revolutionary ideas for the writing process, they also provide the reader with almost a hundred pages of guides, charts, resources, and examples to implement their ideas. At only 220 pages, including the materials, this book is an easy but thought-provoking read for teachers of reading and writing.
-Ally Franklin
November 8, 2013
I couldn't put this book down. My book is littered with sticky notes with ideas of how I plan to incorporate the assignments from this book into my curriculum. In some cases it helped me alter a few assignments to make them more meaningful. In other cases, I will be abandoning old essays in favor of guiding my students their own essays. My only problem with the book is that I would have liked to have examined some cases of longer expository texts instead of texts that were more creative in nature (recipes, eulogies, letters) but not in the argumentative essay format. I will have to look at some of the out-of-text examples they mention to see these.
August 21, 2012
Good ideas about focusing student writing on literature analysis. My favorite thing here was a list of types of responses. I'm going to make a copy to have handy. Also really liked the bookmarks for tracking plot and themes. Good advice on thesis teaching: Don't have students write a thesis until they have gathered evidence.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews