We continued to address writing tactics to refine Quinn's ability to write effectively. He chose one of three writing prompts that entailed him promoting a dessert and being as descriptive as possible. He had an idea for a vanilla shake that could constantly change with the addition of various ingredients, and we brainstormed various ideas for catchy names for the dessert. We considered synonyms for 'change', and Quinn chose to include the word versatile in the dessert's title. Quinn had definitive ideas of how he wished to express himself. After he wrote a paragraph, we reviewed it together to insure that proper conventions of language were met. We reviewed tenses, spelling, and various word choices. Quinn was encouraged to think of different adjectives to describe his dessert and to come up with a good closing sentence to leave a positive impact on readers. He was receptive to considering ideas but was also sure about what he wanted to include and how he wished to express himself. After he completed the writing prompt, he asked if we could read the Louis Sachar book. We had time to read one chapter (37) after Quinn recalled where we left off the last time we met about two weeks ago. Quinn was cooperative and productive during our session. I was happy to learn he looks forward to our sessions.
After yesterday's lesson I realized that I need to spend more time with Andrew on his understanding of radians. I drew a circle on the board on a coordinate plane. Then I asked Andrew if rotating around the circle clockwise, how many degrees would we have moved here, here, here, etc. He named 0, 90, 180, 270, and 360. Then I showed him how 2Pi is 360 degrees. So then Pi would be 180 degrees. We used this concept to label Pi/2 and 3Pi/2. Then I asked Andrew how to find 225 degrees in radians. He set up and solved a proportion. Tomorrow, I will go back to the lesson on how to use the arc length formula.
Today we reviewed the Take home test that Josh had a few weeks ago. He got a 57% on it which is worse than we both expected. We went through all of the missed problems together. I will say the test was quite challenging. The concepts that were tested required a higher order thinking level. Joshua seemed to understand them once we went through them together. Next we completed the 3.12Notes. These used the pythagorean identities we introduced yesterday. I had Joshua lead the problems as I guided him. He needed reminders once to use factoring techniques. He will get more practice for homework.
Today PJ and I had two sessions. In the first session we reviewed yesterday's work on setting up inequalities. We discussed if a student thought of a number less than 17, what would the possible solutions be? PJ said, 15, 14, or even into the negatives. He was correct. I asked could the student be thinking of 17? He answered No since it said "Less than". Then we used a number line to graph the possible solution set. We used an open circle to indicate 17 could not be included and we shaded the line to the left, to indicate all numbers below 17 should be included in the answers.
In the 2nd session, we practiced checking to see if solutions given would solve the inequality given. This exercise was to help PJ visualize the answers.
Today Ben and I started by reviewing the vocab that we learned yesterday. Then we discussed what it means for a polynomial to be in standard form, the degree/power must be highest first, then decrease from there. I gave Ben polynomial expressions and asked him if they were in standard form. If they were not, I asked him to tell me how to rewrite them so that they are in standard form. After that, we practiced classifying them. I wrote all of the classification types on the board so he could refer to them. I told him eventually, he will need to have them memorized. For more practice, I wrote problems on the board, had Ben change them into standard form, then classify them by degree and number of terms. He did well with this lesson.
Today Carson and I went through each of the problems that he got wrong from the cumulative assessment he took the last few classes. Carson performed well in areas of algebraic expressions and equations, transformations, and probability. Carson did not do well with geometric figures, lines, and exponents. Many of the problems he got wrong he actually did correctly, but did not "round to the nearest whole number" (or whatever they asked - he answered too quickly). This was a good assessment to see where we can strengthen some of the skills in which he's lagging behind.
