Today, Jackson read "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. We discussed the story's surprise ending, its foreshadowing, and its use of irony. Jackson and I also talked about how the author may have used the story as social commentary about the Holocaust or, closer to home, civil rights issues. We also compared the story to questionable traditions that hold sway today, such as hazing.

Jeopardy game practicing simplifying and doing operations with radical expressions. Jackson was absent for the second hour today.

Practice using Ohm's Law

Jackson played a game called Big Time Butter Baron, a game of visualization and strategy. I then introduced him to the game of Battle Ship in which the player has to hide his ships from the computer opponent and try to locate the opponent's ships before his opponent can discover his.

Today we sang to the body parts song and practiced the corresponding vocabulary pronunciation. Also, we reviewed the Spanish speaking countries and learned about their capitals.

We discussed why people invest; short-term and long-term reasons. We talked about low risk/low reward verses high risk/high reward investments. The Rule of 72 related to compound interest was applied to a low risk investment; savings account. Then, Jackson viewed two tutorial videos that will help him analyze data and research stocks in order to make informed buying decisions. Last, Jackson, purchased/added stocks to his portfolio.

We began with a discussion of literary genres--fiction and nonfiction. We discussed how "true crime" stories could be either F or NF. I mentioned one of my favorite "police procedural" novelists--Ian Rankin and his hero/antihero, (Scottish) Detective Inspector John Rebus. We reviewed the elements of a short story--including crime stories--beginning, middle/muddle, and end. And then we started brainstorming Jackson's crime story: "Murder on the Subway."

Today, Jackson took a look at Robert Frost. We saw a brief video of his life and then read and discussed three of Frost's key poems: The Gift Outright, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, and The Road Less Traveled. We ended class with Mending Wall, and Jackson's homework is to read the poem a couple more times to try and understand what the poet is saying.

Jackson and I discussed being creative with language in writing and how a Thesaurus can be helpful when he might be stuck on a word he's used multiple times. He then had a writing challenge. I gave him a topic to write about along with "banned" words; i.e., words that might commonly be used with the topic but that he had to find substitutes for.

Jackson continues to learn how to illustrate a project by sketching a drawing with dimensions. Today he drew his mini hockey game that he made earlier in the year. He also viewed a few manufactured products made in a factory. Great session.