Amira read a brief text that is an excerpt from A TedTalk by Matt Cutts about the advantages of consistently doing 30-day challenges. This was both to test her reading comprehension and her writing skills in a low-stakes manner. After reading, Amira had to write two paragraphs -- one a summary of the article, and the second to describe and explain what she will do for the next 30 days. I will review her writing and teach skills for improvement in the next class. Amira's 30-day challenge is to learn two words of Arabic each day -- that will be 60 words. We looked a few up words on a translator online. She wrote her name on her white book in Arabic. Another thing we accomplished was critically thinking with Socratic questioning for about ten minutes for Amira to come up with a pithy clever motto for herself. Her motto (also on her board): Don't Dream: Do. Amira took home (and gave me today, Friday) some assessment work involving a reading and multiple choice questions. She is assigned to read the beginning of Life of Pi.