There are many sources out on the web for the 5P essay. Of course many of them are sites that you can copy essays from (just be aware). However there is a site that offers help with writing the 5P and other Eng. Lang. Arts tools. Factmoster.com is focused more towards elementary and middle school than HS but is a good site to direct your middle schoolers to.
So the 5 paragraph is bad, the 5 paragraph is good. Wait it has its merits but we need to go beyond it, maybe add a poem in the middle of it! Everyone has their opinions of this fun little essay.
I think of the 5P as the basics. In music you need to learn your scales before you can do Jazz improv. Knowing your scales helps you to site read music better too because you have an idea of the underpinnings of what the piece is written on.
I remember practicing my scales over and over and over, hating every moment of it, but knowing that when it came time to audition or play a 32nd note run in a piece I would be able to do it, because I knew my basics.
In English the 5P is one of those basics. I hate writing it, I hate reading it, but it gives that same necessary foundation that my scale practice did.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t go beyond the 5P. Writing in only the 5P format would be like an orchestra opting to play scales in a concert instead of Dvorak’s New World Symphony (a beautiful piece if you are not familiar with it). However the 5P has its place just like scales.
