Practice for Learning

What a crazy week! Nothing new in the bathroom that I want to share yet. Maybe this weekend we can get another step done enough to share.  Our busy lives have put that on hold since we went back to work.

School life was very busy as well.  This week was our first week back from break. I was thinking it went by really fast, but then I really can't remember Monday too well!
 I gave a practice performance task in writing this week. I had the class complete it over a two day period and the kids handled it really well. Much better than I thought they would.
The topic was Zoos.  Wednesday I gave an opinion article written by a student (found on-line) about how zoos are not good for animals.  We have been doing close reading lessons all year so the students knew how to read this for understanding and mark up the text.  I provided the note taking page for them to use and it had the main idea already stated on the top.  I then gave them the second article which was more of a debate. It provided the pros and cons of zoos. Once again I provided the note taking page which had the main idea already stated on it.  These two tasks took a lot of the morning, but the kids worked very quietly and wrote notes like crazy. We took a break and went to recess and lunch then when we came back we went over our notes and discussed the articles. That ended day one.
Thursday I introduced the video clip. We have never done this type of task this year, so I had to mentally prepare them for the expectations.  I gave them the note taking page and we discussed how this is the same as reading an article.  We watched the video once just to watch, then we watched it again with the purpose to take notes. The video was only 1:30 minutes long so it was easy to watch over and over.  I did give them a couple pointers on what should be written.  I allowed them to watch the video multiple times till they felt they wrote all they could. Now it was time to write!  We have written a couple opinion pieces this year already so they are familiar with the process to use.  We reviewed the process and the materials to use then I let them loose.
All in all it was a very smooth process. I can't wait to read the results to see how they handled the task at hand.  The kids really enjoyed to topic of this task and enjoyed the articles they were given.

I am still wanting suggestions for grammar work with 5th graders. What processes do you use? Do you combine it with their own work in writing or is it a separate time each day? Share your experiences and practices.