Brandon spent today going through the material for the new chapter and writing his discussion posts. He finished all three and doesn't have to right his "response" questions till the end of the week. This gives us the opportunity to spend tomorrow reviewing and preparing for the mid-term exam he's going to take on Thursday.
Brandon has an exam this week, so we started off by discussing what he needs to do to prepare. With the rest of the session, we worked our way through the lecture materials. I think he'll be very happy to be finished with cellular biology.
Brandon read the two articles that were at the center of this week's discussion board, taking a strong stance on the issue of language and politics. After writing a primary post and two secondary responses, Brandon and I continued to work on his English paper, which took up the majority of class time as the research items are substantial. Brandon, ever the hard worker, was diligent as usual.
Brandon created a Week 4 overview, writing assignments for Biology and English on the board so that we can track our progress throughout the week. Once we had a good idea of where to start, we tackled the Reading, Listening, and Viewing section of his English course, watching the audio lectures and reading the corresponding pages from the text. I am delighted by how on task Brandon continues to be, and he seems to be developing an incredible work ethic about school, which always came secondary to his work ethic in the business. I am happy to see that the two seem to be merging together, and I am very excited to see Brandon continue to grow into a mature adult.
Brandon made a special visit to school to work on his college English Expository draft. Brandon's paper needs more focus, as some of the research reiterates the same ideas. To help, I had Brandon re-read his work and outline each paragraph's topic. This helped Brandon to recognize some repeated ideas, and he was able to distinguish each paragraph from the next in his essay. We are still awaiting feedback on the first draft from his professor.
Brandon continued to work hard researching the multi-tiered subject of discrimination against women in the workplace on the basis of motherhood. This topic, which is very interesting and diverse, has led us down some very lengthy research paths, but I am glad to see that Brandon is branching away from journalistic sources like The Huffington Post and Forbes to more scholarly sources like JSTOR and ESCBO Host; research databases from the Northereastern library. We were able to tighten some claims, and I think that Brandon is very proud of how his paper is progressing.
To get some relief from his paper, I had Brandon work on the discussions for the week, and we read several articles to prepare. Brandon had some really nice insights, and as he writes, I am surprised when he comes up with the same idea/word that I had in mind. This is testament to how much Brandon has grown as a writer, and I enjoy watching him come to a conclusion that I considered and did not verbalize. He is becoming more confident in his writing abilities as the courses progress.
Brandon and I continued working on the organizational structure of his proposal, tweaking some sections that required more support/clarity. For the most part, Brandon seemed to agree with areas that needed more support, but we had to do some substantial research on an item with mostly text-only, not online resources. I am trying to get Brandon to consider going to the library for research. Perhaps we will plan a field trip to get Brandon a library card.
We only had 45 minutes today, so Brandon spent the first 20 reviewing the chapter and vocabulary. When he thought he was ready, he took the quiz and scored 10/10. I'm very pleased with his effort in this class the last two weeks.
Discussion posts/vocabulary. Brandon finished up his discussion posts for the week and we typed up the terms for the chapter as well. His posts are pretty solid and he should be in good shape for the quiz tomorrow.
