Using the ‘5 to 7’ Exercise in the Writing Classroom

A 5 to 7 exercise is an educational activity in which students are asked to write a short text of 5 to 7 sentences in length. 

The goal is to allow students to focus their efforts on one or more specific aspects of writing—such as structure, word choice, or coherence—without worrying about anything else. The narrow scope makes the exercise more accessible and less intimidating for students. 

Typically, a 5 to 7 writing prompt takes the form of a short scenario, a reflective question, or an image. To give students a greater sense of control, you can make a list of several topics, including an open prompt, for them to choose from.

There are many benefits to the 5 to 7 approach in the writing classroom: 

• Deeper understanding of a concept. 5 to 7 exercises focus on a specific grammatical concept or aspect of the writing process, which allows students to assimilate their knowledge in that area. 
• Better quality work. Because 5 to 7 exercises are short, students can concentrate on the quality of their work and fine-tune each sentence to express exactly what they want to say.
• Reduced cognitive load. Students only have to think about a limited number of elements, which prevents them from feeling overwhelmed by the writing process. 
• Greater motivation. Giving students a range of topics to choose from, including an open prompt, encourages autonomy and creativity while fostering their individual interests. As a result, students are more invested in the writing process and produce higher quality work, which boosts their confidence in their abilities. 
• More opportunities to practise writing skills. Because 5 to 7 exercises take less time than traditional writing exercises, you can do them more often over the course of a week or month. This gives you the opportunity to cover a variety of text types, subjects, recipients, etc.

One of the reasons why 5 to 7 exercises are so popular with teachers is that they are short (they can usually be done in one sitting) and easy to plan. 

Before starting the writing exercise, you may want to give a quick explicit lesson on the concept students will be working on—for example, a part of the classic story structure, the use of complements, or verb agreements. 

Next, give your class one or more writing prompts. You can look to a variety of sources for inspiration: 

• A picture book or a story in Book of Spells
• A topical issue 
• Events and holidays that fall during the school year (vacations, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, etc.)
• Conversation topics 
• Ethical issues
• Etc. 

Once students have a prompt, they will begin writing their text. When they have finished their first draft, they must correct their work, keeping in mind the objective that you set at the beginning of the exercise, such as working on subject-verb agreement. 

Of course, you can always adapt these instructions to suit the needs and reality of your classroom.

It’s up to you to decide whether to use a 5 to 7 exercise as a formative or summative assessment, but either way, your feedback needs to be constructive. 

As a general rule, you should keep your word and only give feedback on the elements that you asked your students to focus on at the beginning of the exercise. For instance, if you told your class to work on contractions, then you should only make corrections and give feedback on contractions. 

Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from making a note of your class’s strengths and weaknesses in other areas of the Writes various types of texts competency so that you can make adjustments to future lesson plans and writing activities.