Clay submitted a very solid performance for his last essay. He had minimal grammar/spelling mistakes, and crafted some solid paragraphs. He didn't have specific examples for each statement, which is something he still needs to work on. One the whole, he has come a very long way since we started, and I have been pleased with his effort.
Will finished all his poems for the poetry booklet. He then typed the table of contents and cover page. He did a great job with the poems which included pictures. He seemed pleased with the poetry booklet, and I am very proud of him.
Read Short Story. We read the short story The Fog Horn as an example of exceptionally detailed descriptive writing. Cal enjoyed the story and we had a great conversation about it.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Cal was completely worn out after his testing session. He came in exhausted and unmotivated to do any work.
Clay had put a good bit of effort into the rough draft, but still had an incomplete intro, an unclear thesis statement, and now examples to illustrate his points. These are three critical characteristics of a solid 5 paragraph essay. We went through the paragraphs and I gave him point by point suggestions on how to improve it. The final draft is due friday.
Clay continues to have difficulty with verb tenses, especially irregular verbs. Consequently, I spent today focusing on locking that material down. I gave him 15 different irregular verbs and had him write three sentences with different tenses for each. He had a little trouble with a few of them, but for the most part did very well. As always, when Clay slows down and really focuses, he can write pretty solid sentences. I gave him the prompt for the week and he should have the rough draft done by Wednesday.
Will designed a card for Mother's Day...he drew a flower (free hand)for the front of the card and wrote a poem inside for his mom. Will did a good job...he is very thoughtful so it takes a while for him to be satisfied with his work. Good session.
Rescue Swimming Essay. Cal was able to get a lot of work done today. We continued editing/discussing the paper he started last week, and by the end of the session, he had a pretty solid document.
Clay had not completed the essay for today (which I assigned), but he did make some very solid progress. He's finally getting the hang of writing introductions, and has really improved with starting generally and working toward his thesis statements. He's still having trouble integrating examples into his body paragraphs, but we'll keep working on it.
Continue writing story started yesterday...review previous ideas, name important characters and place (setting), and discuss what problem (plot) the characters will face. Will chose funny names for characters and place and laughed at the possible problems they might face. It was a good session.
We went back and did a verb review today as Clay has been making a lot of simple mistakes in that area. Again, he does a great job on the worksheets, but there seems to be a disconnect between that and his writing. He clearly needs to put more focus and effort into his essays. We then talked about the essay topic for this week and went through the pre-writing process. The completed rough draft is due Wednesday. We'll see how he does.
