{"id":1170,"date":"2021-12-03T16:18:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T00:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/?page_id=1170"},"modified":"2025-09-13T09:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:59:08","slug":"unit-3-the-dreaded-5-paragraph-essay","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/english-first-peoples-12\/unit-3-the-dreaded-5-paragraph-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 3: The Dreaded 5 Paragraph Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unit 3: The Dreaded 5 Paragraph Essay (Opinion Piece)<\/h1>\n
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David Garneau \u201cNot to Confuse Politeness with Agreement\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

You\u2019ve all spent some time getting to know the 5 paragraph essay at this stage in the game. You probably hate it, which is understandable. HOWEVER, it\u2019s pretty useful. Consider it a necessary evil: the 5 paragraph essay is the universal format for essay writing. On the provincial exam that you are required to write for any English 12 course you will be expected to answer all essay questions in this format. Not to mention college or university\u2026 The good news is, it\u2019s super easy! So in short, accept it, learn it, get good at it, and then master it.<\/p>\n

Here are two helpful guides. This first one is a very short, simple introduction to the 5 paragraph essay format: 5 Paragraph Essay<\/a>\u00a0For more detail & some examples check out this link:\u00a05 Paragraph Essay (more detail)<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Steven Paul Judd \u201cTMNT\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

There are different styles of essays \u2013 narrative, persuasive, descriptive, opinion, and so on. We\u2019re going to start with an opinion piece. Your first task is to find a piece of art by a contemporary Indigenous artist. You don\u2019t need to be an art historian to have opinions about a piece of art, and generally it\u2019s pretty natural to have reactions to art. Here are some AMAZING contemporary Indigenous artists. For some guidance finding an art piece, you can walk through the school and take in some of the amazing art on the walls, go through this website for more art, or do a google image search and check out these artists (your own ideas are welcome):<\/p>\n
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  • Sonny Assu<\/li>\n
  • KC Adams<\/li>\n
  • Christi Belcourt<\/li>\n
  • Steven Paul Judd<\/li>\n
  • Henry Roy Vickers<\/li>\n
  • Ursula Johnson<\/li>\n
  • Andy Everson (local!)<\/li>\n
  • Jane Ash Poitras<\/li>\n
  • George Littlechild (local!)<\/li>\n
  • Lee Claremont<\/li>\n
  • David Garneau<\/li>\n
  • John Powell (local!)<\/li>\n
  • Brian Jungen<\/li>\n
  • Jolene Yazzi<\/li>\n
  • Kent Monkman<\/li>\n
  • Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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    George Littlechild \u201cFirst Nations Cowboy Jim & His Horse Spectrum\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

    		Activity 1: Opinion Essay \u2013 Outline<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Once you\u2019ve found your art piece, your first job is to create an outline using the 5 Paragraph format. You are, very simply, writing an opinion piece about the artwork you chose. This includes:<\/p>\n

    1) Intro<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    • \u2018hook\u2019 that you start your essay with<\/li>\n
    • Thesis statement (where you tell the reader what your paper is about)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      2) Body Paragraph 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

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      • intro sentence<\/li>\n
      • point form what your main points are<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        3) Body Paragraph 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

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        • intro sentence<\/li>\n
        • point form what your main points are<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          4) Body Paragraph 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

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          • intro sentence<\/li>\n
          • point form what your main points are<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            5) Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

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            • intro sentence<\/li>\n
            • how you\u2019re ending your essay<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              *** I always recommend starting by thinking of your 3 MAIN POINTS. What are the 3 central points you\u2019re going to write about? Those will be your 3 body paragraphs. That helps you organize the essay and things tend to fall in place naturally.\u00a0Before starting to write your essay PLEASE have a staff member look at your outline and give you the okay. A good outline is key to a good essay!<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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              Activity 2: 5 Paragraph Essay<\/strong><\/p>\n

              Wow, guess what, you\u2019ve already done most of the work! Aren\u2019t outlines amazing??? Now you just fill in the gaps and complete the essay. Make sure to go over the guidelines for 5 paragraph essays and to proofread before submitting. I am happy to give your essay a quick look-through with some suggestions.<\/p>\n

              Another unit down, that wasn\u2019t too painful!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":1141,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1170","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 09:04:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_tag","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1170"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2354,"href":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1170\/revisions\/2354"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comoxvalleyschools.ca\/nalaatsi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}