Clay submitted a very solid performance for his last essay. He had minimal grammar/spelling mistakes, and crafted some solid paragraphs. He didn't have specific examples for each statement, which is something he still needs to work on. One the whole, he has come a very long way since we started, and I have been pleased with his effort.
Clay had put a good bit of effort into the rough draft, but still had an incomplete intro, an unclear thesis statement, and now examples to illustrate his points. These are three critical characteristics of a solid 5 paragraph essay. We went through the paragraphs and I gave him point by point suggestions on how to improve it. The final draft is due friday.
Clay continues to have difficulty with verb tenses, especially irregular verbs. Consequently, I spent today focusing on locking that material down. I gave him 15 different irregular verbs and had him write three sentences with different tenses for each. He had a little trouble with a few of them, but for the most part did very well. As always, when Clay slows down and really focuses, he can write pretty solid sentences. I gave him the prompt for the week and he should have the rough draft done by Wednesday.
Clay did a pretty solid job on his essay, but it was not a completed final draft. He's gotten into the habit of saving his proofreading and editing for our sessions. There were far too many errors for a final draft, but as we went through it, he clearly was able to correct them. He needs to start trying to edit on his own, rather than waiting for someone else to point out the mistakes for him.
Clay had not completed the essay for today (which I assigned), but he did make some very solid progress. He's finally getting the hang of writing introductions, and has really improved with starting generally and working toward his thesis statements. He's still having trouble integrating examples into his body paragraphs, but we'll keep working on it.
We went back and did a verb review today as Clay has been making a lot of simple mistakes in that area. Again, he does a great job on the worksheets, but there seems to be a disconnect between that and his writing. He clearly needs to put more focus and effort into his essays. We then talked about the essay topic for this week and went through the pre-writing process. The completed rough draft is due Wednesday. We'll see how he does.
Clay wrote a pretty solid essay this week. He needs to focus on proofreading for verb tense mistakes, and fully developed idea. I was very pleased with the way he incorporated his examples into his discussion. Big improvement from previous papers.
We started working on a new essay today about where Clay would choose to live. We spent more time on the prewriting as Clay has had trouble fully developing his ideas and using his examples. He needs to focus on using more specific examples that reflect only the topic sentence of each body paragraphs. He then wrote an introduction, which was honestly one of his better attempts in a while.
Clay is having trouble incorporating his examples into his paragraphs. Granted, with this particular prompt, it's a little awkward, but he needs to stay focused on the topic of each paragraph, and fully develop the separate ideas. He's lately gotten into a rut where all of his examples are basically the same. He's going to write two essays this week, so we'll be spending class time focusing on writing.
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.
