Structure Vs. Unstructure: A Battle Royale Inside my Brain

By Alexis Sebilian

I got the job I have today partly because I wrote a paper about the dangers of structured writing. I told the principal that it wasn’t until I got to high school that I was encouraged to break free from the five paragraph format and that’s when my writing bloomed.

With that being said, the irony is not lost on me that I now teach argumentative paragraphs and papers in a very structured format complete with a graphic organizer that must be filled out before the paper can begin. CREW stands for claim, reason, evidence, and warrant, and every argumentative paragraph that my students write from 6th to 8th grade, must be in that format.

My original thought was that once kids get the basic gist of what belongs in a strong argumentative paragraph, they will be able to break free of this stifling format when they make it to high school. However after an enlightening conversation with the fellows in my exploration group, I have been rethinking structure and its role in writing.

It all started with a simple question: Structure is fine and good and gets the kids to have what they need, but when do we tell them that their writing deserves to be more nuanced than anything structure would allow? When and how do we unteach what we have been teaching for years now? What does that process look like? As usual, I am left with far more questions than answers, but right now, I feel totally okay in that space.