Talpa and I had our last Thinking and Writing class today because she is ready for her exam. I tested her in vocabulary, grammar, and essay writing skills, and she did extremely well. I have high hopes for great success on Monday's exam, if she reviews and does her very best. Good job, Talpa!

During this session, I quizzed Talpa on her 15 vocabulary words, grammar sections, and essay writing skills, in preparation for Monday's exam. She brainstormed and outlined three essay prompts, then selected one of the outlines for her in-class essay. She wrote a very strong thesis statement with detailed body paragraphs.

Today, Talpa and I reviewed the 15 vocabulary words on her final exam study guide. She was able to correctly answer 10 out of 15. We will continue to review the words dogmatic, complacent, astute, immutable, and didactic, in order to master all 15 by the test date. We reviewed all of the comma rules, completing some helpful worksheets, and then focused the last hour on writing skills. She wrote a five paragraph opinion essay, using an ACT prompt regarding the implementation of curfews for high school students. This was an efficient day of preparation for her final exam.

Chase and I began our session by correcting a paragraph on the dry erase board. The paragraph included grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Then, I introduced Chase to a concept in order to remember writing the letter b and d the correct way. For the letter d I showed him a picture of a dime and a dollar bill. I explained to him when he is writing the letter d remember to go "Around the dime, then up and down the dollar." Then, I showed him a picture of a bat and a baseball to represent the letter b. I explained to him when he is writing the letter b remember to "first, make the bat, then draw the baseball." After, Chase completed two worksheets practicing with the lowercase letters b and d. In addition, Chase practiced writing sentences with both uppercase and lowercase letters b and d on composition paper. Repetition seems to really be helping Chase with his struggle of reversing these letters. Lastly, Chase and I went to the computer lab and practiced multiplication on the abcya.com website.

Chase and I discussed the correct way to write the letters b and d. In order for him to remember the direction of each letter I introduced him to a technique. I told him to remember that when writing the letter b think "line down" and when writing the letter d think "circle first." Also, he practiced writing these letters on the dry erase board. Then, we went into the computer lab and printed pictures of different types of snakes for a school project he is doing.

Jackson and I began the lesson by correcting several grammatically incorrect sentences provided by Katie. Next, I had Jackson work on writing 5 sentences on the topic, "Something I would be scared to do." Jackson did a good job assembling the sentences and placing punctuation in appropriate places. Jackson and I then read together from his book about the marshland of Gumbo Limbo. Finally, we spent the last 5 minutes of class playing scrabble.

introduction
thesis statement/topic sentences

I thought we had more time to work on this exercise, but it turned out today was Cal's last day. We talked about how to write a literary analysis essay. Using the Cask of Amontillado, we first talked about how to develop ideas from the text and craft a solid thesis statement. I then had Cal write and introductory paragraph before we ran out of time.

5 paragraph essay

Read/Discuss The Cask of Amontillado

We continued reading the Edgar Allen Poe short story today. Cal is doing a great job on the reading, but really needs to work on identifying difficult vocabulary words when he encounters them. He's a bright kid, and can often guess a meaning by it's context, but in the long run that can hurt him. We'll start putting together a vocabulary plan next week.

Cask of Amontillado

We started reading a new short story today. We spent some time talking about Edgar Allen Poe (history/style of writing/other famous stories) and then started reading the story. Cal had a little trouble with the vocabulary, but did a good job of stopping to ask what words meant. We didn't have a full session to work with so we did not get it finished.