Welcome to HIT—How I Teach….In this episode, I continue to teach about the Five Paragraph Essay (or as I call it—the 1-3-1). Five paragraph essays have a lot more to them than simply being able to write an opening paragraph, three paragraphs for the body, and a closing paragraph!
The many elements of essays make them something that can be adapted to any grade level:
- Just persuade your reader why cotton candy is the best concession at the circus in one paragraph with no quotes (HIT #16) OR…
- Write a simplified three paragraph essay with each paragraph about a different favorite of anything you like (one favorite per paragraph (HIT #1) OR…
- Write in the first person as a character in a story about why your fellow characters are your favorites (HIT #14) OR
- Write the full five-paragraph essay with specific opening and closing types, quotation inclusion, transitions, and more about three ways something benefits others (HIT #44—today!).
As we add more sentences, more paragraphs, opening and closing paragraphs, specificity of types in the opening and closing paragraphs, quotation inclusion, transitions/topic sentences, persuasion, evidence, and more, the essay (or “expository” or “persuasive” writing depending on grade level) becomes the perfect writing type to start early with and continue all throughout high school. (After all, most SAT/ACT/college admission or contest writings are persuasive essays!)
So in this episode, part 2 of 2, I am going to explain how I use a sample essay to teach the elements assigned, teach beginning quotation inclusion in the outline and the essay itself, give instruction on various opening and closing paragraph types, keep students on topic in each paragraph, and much more! It is honestly a lot of fun…so I hope you will join me!
(Grab your Teacher’s Notebook for this episode, so you can follow along easily in your free lesson as I teach!)
Of course, just like every lesson in my one-month downloadable books and my one-semester Meaningful Composition books, this one also has the invaluable sample essay (of Three Ways Fairy Tales Help Kids).
Note: This lesson came from Write On, Fairy Tales IV, a month-long downloadable book! It is also available as a stand-alone writing project from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!
Find everything you need here!
Weekly broadcast episodes with Teacher’s Notebook downloads (and links to listen or watch!) at the Language Arts Lady blog
Master (continually updated) Teacher’s Notebook downloadable booklet
Free writing books and videos of me teaching your students for you for a couple of weeks!
All of my digital books
How I Teach YouTube Channel
How I Teach Podcast
