Michael did not retain most of the information from our class reading the other day. He forgot most of the information about the characters, and only remembered that the town was hot, but little else. I stressed the importance of class time for him as a way to compensate for his trouble with reading. We'll work on it.

Michael did a very good job in today's lesson, pinpointing topics from several of the paragraphs that we read today.

Michael had some trouble with adding fractions with unlike denominators on last night's assignment, but he seemed to be doing better by the end of class today.

Michael is doing much better reducing fractions (without needing to write out the factors). Adding and subtracting with like denominators was relatively easy for him, but he is struggling with adding fractions with unlike denominators. We will continue to work on this.

Michael continues to have a little trouble reading the play, but it seems that he's getting more comfortable with the language. I noticed one big obstacle is the use of slang and "southern" grammar in the text. He already has trouble with the language barrier and it doesn't help when the characters use slang. It definitely trips him up. But we had a great discussion about the setting and how it foreshadows the play. We talked about the introduction of the main characters and how each is reflective of different themes. We spent a lot of time talking about the Civil War and it's impact on the perceptions between North and South. Michael knows very little about American history, which does hurt him a bit in understanding the subtext of the play. But to his credit, he's given a full-effort each day and seems to enjoy our discussions.

Michael is doing well. He completes the practice assignments that I give him.

Due to a scheduling mix up, Michael and I only met for 45 minutes instead of 60. We had a good discussion about The Lottery and societies tendency to follow traditions simply because they are traditions. Michael was very talkative and I think he got a lot out of the two short stories we read. We began Inherit The Wind, and Michael definitely had trouble with reading a play. He seemed to be more confused than when reading a short story, but I think it's just going to take some time for him to get used to it.

Intro to Wilson and assessment

Michael completed the reading and did a good job with the discussion. We discussed the concept of Utilitarianism and how it applies to the role of Religion in modern society. Michael was an active participant in the discussion and I think he's getting a lot out of it. For the 2nd half of the class, we read another short story (The Lottery) but did not finish in time to discuss it.