Learning to teach the five-paragraph theme
Abstract
The five-paragraph theme, while widely used by writing instructors, has often been criticized for its tendency to focus on a rigid formula rather than a writer’s ideas. This study investigates the decision of an early-career teacher, Leigh, to teach her eighth-grade students the five-paragraph model in the context of a state-mandated writing assessment that rewarded such writing. The key settings for Leigh in learning to teach were her structurally fragmented teacher education program, her relationship with her mentor teacher during student teaching, and, as she embarked on her first teaching job, her entry year supervisory committee and her English department colleagues. Through an activity-theory analysis of field notes, observation-based interviews, and other data, we interpret Leigh’s decision making as a function of her participation in tool-mediated action in these settings. Leigh’s teaching was affected by forces without (e.g., community expectations to produce passing scores on the state writing test) and within (e.g., her colleagues’ pressure on Leigh to teach to the test). These pressures superceded the motives of other settings in which Leigh participated, primarily her administration’s downplay of the need to teach to the test. The study concludes with a reflection on why Leigh in particular and other teachers in general find this form useful enough to serve as a primary tool in their approach to teaching writing.
Reference
Johnson, T. S., Thompson, L., Smagorinsky, P., & Fry, P. G. (2003). Learning to teach the five-paragraph theme. Research in the Teaching of English, 136–176.
Journal
Research in the Teaching of English
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
no
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
- field placements (not related to methods courses)
- middle school
- University
Preservice Participants
- Inservice
- undergraduate preservice teachers
Preservice Sample Size
1
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
- artifacts
- Interviews
- Observations
Data Analysis Tools
- coding to a prior categories
- Qualitative Analysis
Researcher Positionality
- inside (staying their own students)
Research Questions
What were the principal settings in which Leigh’s writing instruction took place?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
What overriding motives governed action within these settings, and what mediational tools encouraged action toward those ends?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
Within these settings, what influenced Leigh’s appropriation of the five-paragraph theme as her principal pedagogical tool for teaching writing, and how did her instruction develop in relation to contextual constraints?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes