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Lesson Plans > Language Arts & Literature > Grades 6 - 8 > Expository Writing: The Five Paragraph Essay Lesson Plan 2 (of 2)
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Expository Writing: The Five Paragraph Essay Lesson Plan 2 (of 2)

Pre-writing and writing the five-paragraph essay

 

Grade Level: 6-8

Concept: Pre-writing and writing the five-paragraph essay

Estimated Duration: 50 minutes
 
Objectives
Students will be able to:
  • generate ideas for writing from discussion
  • use organizational strategies to plan writing
  • create a coherent whole (introduction, main points, conclusion)
  • develop a thesis for clear planning
Materials
The Five Paragraph Essay graphic organizer
Outline graphic organizer 
Rectangle Writing template copied on two different colors of paper and cut out into individual rectangles
Highlighters (two colors—the same two colors as the colored paper)
Glue Sticks
Blank white paper
Overhead projector
 
Differentiated Strategies
These strategies are used to meet the varied needs of all learners:
  • for various grade levelsVarying academic levels: uses individual writing time to allow students to progress at their own ability level
  • for visual learnersVisual learners: incorporates graphic organizers to help structure an essay, uses color coding to identify paragraph structure
  • for auditory learnersAuditory learners: encourages large-group discussion to create a class outline
  • for kinesthetic learnersKinesthetic learners: engages students in a hands-on process of developing an essay
Key Vocabulary
thesis statement
introduction
main points
conclusion
 
Procedures
Warm Up
  • Using The Five Paragraph Essay graphic organizer, place the transparency on an overhead.
  • for auditory learners Ask students to help review the structural parts of the five-paragraph essay by calling out the individual parts.
  • for visual learners Write students’ responses on the transparency.
Direct Instruction
  • for visual learners for kinesthetic learners Distribute the Outline graphic organizer and two colors of highlighters to each student. Have students color the rectangles in the left margin of the outline. The introduction and the conclusion should be one color and the three body paragraphs should be another color.
  • for auditory learners Place a transparency of the Outline graphic organizer on the overhead. As a class, create an essay outline based on a given prompt. Have the students complete their outlines as the teacher completes the transparency. Consider choosing a topic with which students have familiarity and background knowledge and can give expository details.
Practice
  • for visual learners Using the Rectangle Writing template, give each student five rectangles (individual slips of paper) – two rectangles of one color.  The two rectangles of one color represent the introductory and concluding paragraphs that are color coded on their outlines.  The three rectangles of the other color represent the three body paragraphs.
  • for kinesthetic learners Using their outlines as a guide, students choose one slip of paper and write a complete paragraph on that slip of paper. It does not matter in which order students write the paragraphs; some students find it easiest to complete a supporting paragraph first. After completing one paragraph, the student raises his or her hand to be assessed by the teacher and receive the teacher’s initials on that slip of paper.  The students’ view of this process – writing a paragraph, instead of an entire paper at once, is that this process, broken down into smaller steps, is much more manageable.
Assessment
  • for kinesthetic learners for visual learners After completing the writing for all five slips of papers, students use glue sticks to adhere their paragraphs, in order, to a blank piece of paper.
  • If time permits, students should conduct peer editing with a partner, and compose a final draft on a separate piece of paper. Students should keep their essays to be used as a model for future writing.
Closure
  • Remind students of the African proverb “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Explain to them that writing a five-paragraph essay uses the same philosophy. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming if you take it “one bite at a time.”
Comments (1)
Catherine wrote at Dec 2, 2007 9:43 pm:
I love this lesson! So creative and visual!
I am going to adapt it for a 7 sentence lesson and make it interdisciplinary following a social studies lesson on power point.
Thanks so much!
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