I am sure your 5th graders expressed their stress last week while we were learning how to make meaningful revisions to our research. Editing also took us two days. I am incredibly proud of their stamina and perserverence. They learned so much, but here are the main points.
Research has to be accurate and we need to understand the research we choose to use so we can explain it. Our research needs to be organized, just like our "writing" papers. Spelling and grammar count, and fragments are easy to write- but hard to fix if we cannot remember our original intent. Transitions are a necessary tool to help with our fluency and our comprehension. We will continue to work on these instruction points throughout our year. We are already better writers and are becoming more independent in the very important steps of revising and editing.
We also learned how to use our models to enhance our content, but that content and the written componant are the most important part of our projects.
Presenting was hard first go around. We learned what 5th grade expectations are and ways to help us present our content in the most effective ways.
It was a great week. Projects took priority to all other subjects, and since projects fine tunes our reading skills, writing skills and speaking and listening skills, I was happy to let them work longer.
They will be receiving their last Darth Tater piece on Monday! Shhhh, don't tell them.
I hope they are all having restful and playful weekends. They deserve it!
