Introductions, goals, and practice. Finley read one SAT passage and answered 7/10 correctly. Her errors were in vocabulary and evidence-based practice. When asked for the second best answer, she answered correctly and understood her errors. She will practice the remaining reading passages for homework and the set of writing practice.
Craig did a great job today creating an essay for the prompt, "It was the hardest decision she ever had to make..." We repeated the process that proved so fruitful last time: he selected a prompt and then we headed over to the park for him to move around the jungle gyms while I scribed his brainstorming the main ideas and structure. Refreshed and revitalized, he was able to compose a very respectable essay of which he can be proud. Great job. (Keep this process in mind. Craig thrives with physical activity).
We worked on 5 separate passages today. Craig's answers were largely spot on when he concentrated. Frankly, several of the examples he got wrong were arguably correct.
Craig and I worked on 3 pages in his SSAT review book. We did problems on percentages, fractions, and decimals. Craig was able to make a set of fractions equivalent so that we could compare them. We worked percentage problems with his calculator. I taught him that, to change a fraction to a decimal, you have to divide the numerator by the denominator and then multiply the result by 100. We also talked about decimal place value.
We covered pages 17, 19, 21, and 23. The topics were Percentages, Fractions, Decimals, and Ratios. I worked through the problems and asked Craig for clarification on what he understood. I encouraged him to use his calculator to save time on computations and to get the problems tackled faster. He needed help on how to start the problems..
Craig was in a playful mood today, which was delightful but slowed us down in progress on the SSAT. He read several passages in the SSAT Prep book and answered the questions quite capably. Once we turned our attention to the essay, however, we really hit a wall. The prompt was, "What three literary figures would you invite to dinner and why?" Craig could not generate characters, either living or dead, imaginary or real, that he wanted to use. This is a typical and common prompt, so it is *imperative* that he have three in his pocket in case this prompt appears on the next SSAT sitting.
Craig has begun his SSAT prep. We started with the fundamentals by defining number sets and computing operations including positive and negative integers.
