Clay didn't think we would have class today and had only written one and a half paragraphs of this week's paper. We went over his introduction and then I had him start working on the body paragraphs. HIs biggest challenge now is his tendency to repeat himself. He'll start writing about one topic but often finishes the paragraph discussing another. We'll keep working on it.
We worked on the grammar for this week. Cal has done a good job with the grammar. This week, we're focusing on adjectives, double negatives, and double comparisons. Cal had very little trouble with the material and worked through the worksheets with no problem.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Cal was extremely tired when he got here and didn't want to work on this week's essay.
I had Clay write two paragraphs about his day with Bobby. On the bright side, he wrote two pretty solid paragraphs much more quickly than before. Unfortunately, he went back to making some basic mistakes with his sentence structure. We then went through each sentence and talked about the multiple options of how to improve it. It was a good exercise and brought up many of the rules of grammar we've gone over. Some some reason he's really having a hard time the the articles "a" and "an". He understands the rule, but for some reason keeps making the mistake.
Cal was back to his resistant mood today. It took a while to get him focused and on task, and for a while there, he flat out didn't want to write. But when I gave him the option of grammar worksheets, he decided to write, and whipped out 3 very solid body paragraphs. When he chooses to write and actually put some effort into it, he's a pretty solid writer. He just needs to work on work habits.
Clay's essay for this week was his best yet, and in my opinion, would be a passing essay on the FCAT. He did a great job with topic sentences and very agreement. His intro and conclusion were a tad weak, but that's something we can work on and fix. I was very pleased with his work this week.
Introduce limericks - 5 line structured poems, usually humorous - lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme and lines 3, 4 rhyme. A rhythm is created by stressed and unstressed words in specific places. Read/discuss sample limerick - note rhyming pattern and stress/unstressed words that create the rhythm. Brainstorm for ideas. Will wrote a really cute limerick but didn't have time to type it. Good session!
Cal wrote a solid introductory paragraph. When Cal makes the effort, he is more than capable.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Cal came in very tired and lethargic. It took a while to get him started, and even then, he was putting minimum effort into his writing. The toughest part is getting Cal to actually put forth an effort.
We started off with Clay writing a fully developed paragraph about his weekend, with a clear topic sentence that is maintained throughout. He wrote an excellent, fully-developed paragraph, and resisted simply listing events. I then had him work on a couple of proofreading worksheets focusing on subject/verb and verb tense agreement. He did very well and only missed a couple of mistakes.
