X is for Xtra Recess

Here in Mrs. Iwanski’s 5th grade classroom we use the Columbia Teacher’s College’s units of study. One of the units for our writing workshop asks students to draft an argumentative piece on a given topic. The 6th grade classes this year followed the unit verbatim and wrote on the topic of serving chocolate milk in school. 5th grade classes took the same unit but a different path. We received this e-mail from our principal and it launched an epic debate in class which turned into a researched argumentative writing assignment.

The thing that was interesting to me was that students on both sides of the issue were fired up. They researched, wrote, revised, and posted to their blogs some of the greatest writing that I have seen to date. They supported their ideas and glued them together with transitional phrases flawlessly. They reached a level of argument that even I hadn’t anticipated. After posting their writing to their individual blogs, my students received a response requesting a round-table discussion.

I allowed students to volunteer for this opportunity and was pleased by the number of students who stepped forth. As a grade level we took two for and two against from each classroom and had students prepare argument points to get up and share with the grade level and with Mr. Posick. We held a mini-assembly for the students to share their points with the principal on both sides of the argument. The remaining 5th graders watched and learned about the debate process and saw first hand a debate on the same topic they had all written about earlier.

All in all I was impressed at how much impact that “xtra recess” idea had on my students. Regardless of which side of the argument my students took, it became evident to me that extra, or second, recess is a topic that matters to fifth graders on both side of the debate.