CI5461: Week 3

"My students understand the concept of dressing to fit the occasion. They wouldn't consider wearing pajamas or a yellow rain slicker to prom. Neither would they wear a formal dress or a tuxedo to play soccer."
-- Deborah M. Dean (from "Muddying Boundaries: Mixing Genres with Five Paragraphs)

I think Deborah Dean really strikes at the heart of how I feel about teaching the five-paragraph essay. It's important. It's necessary for my students to know how to organize a solid expository essay. But it's not the only way they can convey information. It's all about context.

In my opinion, the most important thing about teaching students different forms of writing is teaching them how to identify which form is appropriate (or not appropriate) in many different contexts. For example, it's important for them to know how to write a five-paragraph essay because it is expected of them for standardized testing. On the other hand, I would hope my students would be able to figure out that a five-paragraph essay may not be the best choice when trying to convey their personal feelings to their friends via e-mail. I want to be able to teach many different ways of writing and to teach that students have a choice of how to convey information. Their choice will affect how well their information is conveyed.

For this reason, I stand on both sides of the five-paragraph essay debate that we will be having in class on Wednesday. I can see the importance of writing traditionally. And I can see the importance of making writing fun and interesting for students using a variety of genres. What students need to learn from me, then, is not simply what to write, but when to write what.