Thread by @biblioracle

Always psyched when a debate about the 5PE breaks out on here because it's an opportunity to air out the folklore around writing instruction and hopefully move towards a deeper understanding of the kinds of things students must experience to learn to think and write well.

As I say in my book on why we need to kill the 5PE, the problems are largely structural. There's good reasons to teach the 5PE. THAT's the problem. We need to eliminate the incentives for teaching the 5PE so students can engage with writing as it actually works.

There is a bonkers sale @JHUPress right now, including Why They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necsessities. Take advantage! jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/why-they…

I promise I don't assail teachers who teach the 5PE, and I try not to offer any purely prescriptive advice to replace it. Instead, I explain the framework of the writer's practice, the skills, attitudes, knowledge and habits of mind of writers. jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/why-they…

If we want students to learn to write, we need to allow them to practice their practices. That means there's going to be struggle and mess, but that's how writing works! There is no terminal proficiency. There is no point where it becomes effortless.

The effort IS the point of writing. The 5PE is purely a tool of assessment. There is nothing in the form that transfers to other writing-related problems. Any rationale that's been crafted for the benefits of the 5PE are ex post facto.

I wouldn't claim that every instructor has to do what I recommend, but lots of folks are using (and adapting) a curriculum I developed rooted in developing the writer's practice. I think it's going well for those folks for whom this approach resonates. bookshop.org/a/1793/9780143…

I hate the thought that these things have to be battles with camps pro 5PE v. anti 5PE. The pedagogy we choose should be rooted in our values, and if people bring different values to the mix, that may result in different approaches.

I do my best in both my books to argue from a standpoint of values. Every teacher I know wants students to learn. I lay out what I think they learn when practicing the writer's practice. If that works for someone, I'm honored. bookshop.org/a/1793/9780143…

Mostly, I want a world where the 5PE is not chosen because it's a way to manage too many students and too many assessments. Let's make sure pedagogy can be rooted in meaningful decisions around students and learning, rather than surviving the system.