Using the short story we read last week, today we worked on writing analytical/persuasive paragraphs. I asked Cal to think of three points he wanted to make about the story, and then we went through the process of crafting paragraphs using specific examples from the story. He had a tendency to re-tell the story but should improve in time.
Cal was a half hour late, so we didn't really have time to work on what I had planned. Instead, we did a grammar review, and I was EXTREMELY pleased with the results. Cal has remembered most of the the material we covered in the beginning, and did an excellent job with proofreading and spotting mistakes. Great work!
Cal finished the short story I gave him to read and did a very good job with it. He paid attention to the details, and had some very strong opinions about the message of the story. We had a great conversation about it, and then I had him start working on analytical paragraphs using specific examples from the text. We went over topic sentences again and how to develop ideas. Great effort today!
Cal was about 15 minutes late for our session, and he had not read the short story I had asked him to read for class. I had a whole exercise planned out using the text, so instead we just read it in class.
Today we continued discussing descriptive writing and focused on the use of analogies in writing. We basically stuck to metaphors and similes, but spent the day coming up with different ways to describe feelings. Cal was actually really into it and came up with some really good stuff. I was very pleased with his effort.
Finish typing story...make cover page and include picture. Will did a good job, funny story, lots of input from him - (I added a little). Will has made a lot of progress this year, both academically and socially.
Finish story ending, proofread, begin typing final copy. Will began typing final copy but didn't finish. We will continue tomorrow. He did a good job and we got lots of laughs from it.
Go over beginning of story…make changes as needed. Discuss the plot - brainstorm ideas (problems) and how to resolve them. Continue writing rough draft. Will made several changes in the story…made suggestions for the plot and ending as well. He is very sensitive, for example, one line in the story was that a boy said he "hated" a movie; Will said that "hate" was too harsh and changed it to "didn't like" the movie. He has had more ideas and been more involved in this story than others we have done. Good session.
Review beginning of story…started last week. Continue with character development and plot. This is taking longer than I anticipated, but Will keeps adding new ideas when we meet…this is great; I am so happy to see him "open up" and share his thoughts. He was literally laughing out loud today.
Cal was a half hour late today and had his testing after class, so he wasn't receptive to working on grammar. Instead, we talked about/worked on writing descriptive sentences and paragraphs. I gave him a short story with great descriptive passages. We read a few and then talked about what makes a good description. We went over analogies, similes, and metaphors. I think Cal got a lot out of it.
