Yanuell and I worked with his new vocabulary words. We completed the activity where he had to use the new lesson words correctly in a sentence. I introduced the new novel today. This is the third book by Jerry Spinelli. I asked Yanuell to look for similarities between the three books. We began reading the novel. We discussed the similarities of author's purpose between the three books.

In today's session, Yanuell continued reading and discussing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Many important events transpired in the chapters he read today. Harry and Hermione are able to join the Weasley family at the Quidditch World Cup, where Harry meets Cedric Diggory, who is there with his father. This was a once in a lifetime experience for Harry, and Yanuell glowed while imagining what it must have been like. The events of this chapter are not in the movie and Yanuell loved gathering and processing all of the new information. After an extremely amazing experience for the characters, the tone and mood completely shift. Following the match, followers of Voldemort, called Death Eaters, attack the site and for the first time in thirteen years the Dark Mark is fired into the sky, causing more panic. Winky the elf, of the Barty Crouch Senior House, is accused of the deed when she is seen with Harry’s wand, which is said to have released the Mark (Harry had lost the wand during the attack.) Once the students return to Hogwarts, Dumbledore introduces Alastor Moody as the teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts for the year. He also announces that the Triwizard Tournament will be hosted by Hogwarts. Only those aged seventeen or older are permitted to enter the tournament and students from other wizarding academies including Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will stay at Hogwarts for the year to participate in the event, which is being held for the first time in 202 years. Again, many of the events in this chapter were not included in the movie and Yanuell really enjoyed reading them.

Yanuell began today's session by working on figurative language. He read three different e-books filled with figurative language examples and explanations. Yanuell particularly liked the idioms because many of them don't translate to Spanish. He read, It's a Long Shot, That's the Last Straw, and You're Pulling my Leg and thoroughly enjoyed them. After reading each explanation, we worked on using them in real life examples, which was also quite entertaining. Yanuell ended his session by reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in the series.

In today's session, Yanuell continued reading and discussing, King George: What Was His Problem? The Whole Hilarious Story of the American Revolution by Steve Sheinkin. He was able to read the third chapter, entitled: Who Fired the Shot Heard 'Round the World? This portion of the book focused on the Battles at Lexington and Concord and the fact that the British and American soldiers told very different versions of the events that took place. The British soldiers claim that they had marched (all 700 soldiers) out to Concord on a simple, peaceful errand and were viciously attacked for no reason by the "sneaky rebels." According to the Americans, a pack of "bloodthirsty" British soldiers had invaded the quiet towns of Lexington and Concord and had started shooting people for no reason. Yanuell recognized that regardless of whose version was accurate, the events that transpired outraged King George which led to war. Moreover, the King hoped to bring the Americans to their knees and was quoted as saying, "When once these rebels have felt a smart blow, they will submit."

In today's social studies session, Yanuell resumed his American Revolution unit of study. The book King George: The Whole Hilarious Story of the American Revolution, contains a section called, What Ever Happened To? which explores biographical information of influential people during the war. Yanuell wanted to read this section and explore many of the people he's been studying, past and present. He read about everyone from Abigail Adams to George Washington, Benjamin Franklin to Ethan Allen, and many, many others. Yanuell thoroughly enjoys the format and tone of this book, as it makes him laugh while studying one of his favorite subjects.

As the rough draft comparing two of the major characters in the novel",Crash," is complete , we focused on rewriting and revising the essay. A major area of focus concerned the need to break down long rambling sentences into shorter clearer sentences. I directed Yanuell's attention to sentences that required revision, and we discussed methods of shortening and clarifying them. Yanuell worked on this exercise and then on adding connecting words to the revised material. He further impressively substituted some general phrases with some very sophisticated verbs such as "retaliate" and provoke". By the end of the class, we had finished the revisions and by improving the initial draft had produced a good essay.

In today's session, Yanuell researched the more recent history of Puerto Rico and learned about the differences between territories and states. The topic was much broader than we had imagined. A state is an organized, political institution that controls a territory under a government and forms part of a federal republic. It uses legitimate force to maintain a monopoly over the territory under a central government. However, there are several types of states; those that are sovereign and those that are subject to the control of other states. Sovereign states are those that have definite territories and which consist of permanent populations and government allowing them to enter into relations with other sovereign states. Again, Yanuell and I laughed because this was way more information than we had expected to uncover! Most states are part of federated states such as the case of the United States of America, and the federal government holds power over the states. A state is also sometimes referred to as country. A territory, on the other hand, is a geographical area which does not have sovereignty and is under the control of another government. They may enjoy local autonomy and, at the same time, may be subject to some of the laws of the state that governs them. Once Yanuell had processed all of this information, he began to research and apply it to Puerto Rico, which is a US territory. To begin with, people born in Puerto Rico are automatically granted U.S. citizenship. But, they don't have all of the same rights as those born in the U.S. For example, when it comes to voting, they can hold caucuses, primaries or conventions to help choose the Republican and Democratic nominees, but then can’t vote in the general election in November - something that really bothered Yanuell. Puerto Rico and the other territories, like the District of Columbia, each get to send one delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. That delegate can speak on the House floor, introduce legislation, offer amendments and vote in committees, but can’t vote on matters that come to a full House vote. In the Senate, territories and the District of Columbia have no representation at all. After examining these topics, Yanuell concluded his session with the question of: Will Puerto Rico ever become a state? The answer is not simple. Puerto Rico has held five non-binding referendums on whether to seek statehood; the first three showed residents evenly split, and the latest, in June 2017, was marred by a boycott by opposition political parties. While some in Puerto Rico support statehood, and others like the status quo, there are also some who support independence from the U.S. Ultimately that’s up to the U.S. Congress, which would be expected to put a very high bar on creating a 51st U.S. state. One complication: Puerto Rico would likely support Democrats for Congress and the presidency, an unpalatable prospect for the Republicans now in control in Washington.

Yanuell opened his next monster page, opened the editor and began, we worked together to create his next list of characters. We compiled a list of Yaegers from Pacific Rim the Movie. The list consisted of heights, weapons, and strengths. We saved the information to be uploaded in our next class.

We began a new lesson of vocabulary words today. We discussed the words, their definitions, and their synonyms and antonyms. We practiced using them in sentences. We then finished reading the last two pages of the novel. We completed the last comprehension activity. Yanuell then answered in paragraph form a short essay evaluation of the book. Yanuell explained, in paragraph form, the different techniques the author used to insert humor into his novel. Yanuell had a topic sentence and used several examples from the book. He did a very good job writing his response.

Yanuell continued his research and reading about the history of Puerto Rico in today's social studies session. Yanuell began reading about February 1898, a time when Puerto Ricans had a lot to celebrate. Finally, after centuries of Spanish colonial rule, they had just become an independent part of Spain, complete with a Constitution and voting rights. Yanuell was thrilled to read this wonderful news, but it did not last long. Within only a few years, the U.S. would throw all that asunder, paving the way for Puerto Rico’s nonvoting territory status today, a topic that we will be analyzing tomorrow. For today, Yanuell researched and studied about how Puerto Rico moved from a Spanish territory to US control. It all started with the Spanish-American War, which began in the spring of 1898, when Puerto Rico was a Spanish territory. The U.S. invaded Puerto Rico not only because it was a Spanish territory, but also due to its interests in developing a sugar market there. When the Americans arrived, General Nelson Miles issued, very famously, a decree manifesto in which he promised to protect the life, liberty, and happiness of Puerto Ricans, and their property. At this time, a lot of Puerto Ricans who were poor, who were working-class, who were peasants, took this as an invitation to side with the Americans in what was still a war against Spain. To support the U.S., Puerto Ricans began to attack Spanish-owned businesses and property. But to their great shock and awe, the Americans did not keep their promises after they won the war, when Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. in the Treaty of Paris. The U.S. ignored the new, democratically-elected local parliament of Puerto Rico in favor of creating its own colonial system. With the westward expansion of the 19th century, the U.S. established “incorporated territories” that could and did become formal American states, like the Colorado Territory. But in 1901, a series of legal opinions known as the Insular Cases argued that Puerto Rico and other territories ceded by the Spanish were full of “alien races” who couldn’t understand “Anglo-Saxon principles.” Therefore, the Constitution did not apply to them, and Puerto Rico became an “unincorporated territory” with no path forward to statehood. This did not make Yanuell happy. In fact, we were both pretty outraged as were the citizens of Puerto Rico. In addition, the U.S. disrupted Puerto Rico’s coffee industry, implementing a sugar economy and creating massive poverty among the population. Within the first 10 years of the U.S. occupation of Puerto Rico, U.S. sugar interests had pretty much taken over, and the Puerto Rican coffee class has been displaced entirely. Instead of becoming citizens, Puerto Ricans were in limbo. They didn’t even have a passport; they didn’t have any legal standing in the U.S. system until 1917. Yanuell processed this information, as it was quite heavy and plans to continue his studies tomorrow.