In the morning session, Brandon jammed out all but one of his discussion posts for Biology. He was very focused and came up with some solid posts. In the afternoon session, he took the grammar quiz for English and scored a 96%.
Brandon was pretty worn out by the time I got there today, and didn't want to work on any of his discussion posts. I went through and highlighted the next chapter of biology while he watched the lecture videos for English, which all covered pretty basic stuff he should have no trouble with.
Raquel managed to get herself stuck behind the 8 ball in her career direction class. Basically, she just didn't do any of the little assignments along the way, until she was just monsterously behind. We got all the material organized and started chipping away at it. We got the introduction to her paper written, and everything else outlined so she could finish up on her own.
Brandon and I put the weekly assignments for Biology and English on the board, taking a look at which class had the most assignments and deciding which course to tackle first. We decided to start on work for Biology, and we listened to and read from the notes in the text as well as the professor's powerpoint. Once we got through most of the lecture materials, Brandon started working on his study sheet.
Brandon and I worked on meeting the proposal requirements for this English paper. Brandon did a good job of introducing his topic, so the next thing to do was provide context for the research. To do this, Brandon needed to explain the current events surrounding the topic, emphasizing its relevancy. For this section, we spent a lot of time researching different articles that would demonstrate why this issue needs attention, and how Brandon is connected to the idea.
Brandon and I read one of the required readings for this week's discussion post. Brandon was able to voice some things that he thought were interesting about the article, as per the DBoard instructions. After, Brandon spent some time writing the introduction to his essay. We spent the rest of class conducting research on what others have said about the proposed solution to gender inequality on the basis of pregnancy and motherhood. At first, Brandon didn't seem too keen on researching other solutions, but we had a constructive conversation on how all ideas are based on some idea or other--always. In order to distinguish oneself from the ongoing conversation, one must acknowledge the previous research and explain how even though several authors proposed similar solutions, the ideas proffered in this research project are better because....
Brandon and I spent some time considering the topic of his argument paper in English. Brandon, who is always centered on the workplace since this is his natural job prospectus, chose to write about gender inequality at work. To narrow his argument, Brandon did some research on current gender inequality topics, and I wanted him to make sure that his topic was an actual argument, not a topic. To do this, he needed to narrow his focus. After some discussion, Brandon decided to focus on the inequalities aimed at pregnant women and mothers in the workplace, proposing a solution to the issue. Once he achieved this focus, he wrote a thesis statement.
After a friendly reunion, Brandon and I navigated through the course requirements in his new classes: College English 3 and Biology. After reading the course syllabus and expectations for Biology, Brandon tracked which assignment were due this week, and we began reading and filling-in an objective sheet for his Biology reading. We didn't have the textbook, but supplementing one of the school's texts for our review sheet was very helpful. We accomplished a lot today.
Brandon took his first biology quiz today, and scored an 8/10 with minimal, and I mean minimal effort. In all fairness, the two questions he missed were kind of misleading. He was fine with it though, and after he focused on his english paper. He didn't get much writing done, but pretty much finished up searching for all of his sources.
Brandon finished up with his discussion posts for each of his classes, and we finished compiling the list of terms for Biology. He should be in good shape for tomorrow.
