Will explored the works of scholars, writers, scientists, and philosophers who contributed to the Enlightenment (including such persons as Voltaire, Smith, Hobbes, Locke, Hooke, Harvey, Montesquieu, etc. We also discussed how these thinkers, individually and collectively contributed to the American and French Revolutions.

During our session this morning, Will successfully completed an assessment for Chapter 16 on the Age of Absolutism.

Today I returned Will's graded Chapter 6 quiz (29/30) and went over it with him. Will and I were both pleased with his excellent performance. I made a point of telling him that I believed he was capable of performing at this level consistently if he would exercise discipline and diligence in doing the reading and preparing for quizzes. We then commenced consideration of Chapter 7, addressing the rise of cultural nationalism, the prevalence of Deism in the late eighteenth century, the Second Great Awakening in the early nineteenth century, key inventions and the beginnings of industrialism, Thomas Jefferson's early act as president in dealing with the Barbary Coast pirates, and, finally, the Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison.

We worked problems from the text. In one problem, we used graph paper and drafting equipment to plot a triangle in the XY plane. We measured the angles, sketched their bisectors and inscribed a circle inside the triangle, using the concurrence of the angle bisectors as its center. In the other problem we copied a map of a municipal park, connected park features with a triangle and used the perpendicular bisectors to find the center of a circle connecting the park features to locate a water fountain equidistant from them.

work on paper

I'm giving Will the time in class this week to work on his paper. He doesn't have a computer at home. He had a very productive day and produced two solid paragraphs.

introduction

Will's first attempt at an introduction was too short and too specific. I took some time again to over how to build a paragraph toward the thesis statement, and focusing on themes rather than details. By the end of the session he had a solid start to his paper.

We explored, via the whiteboard, the perpendicular bisector and angle bisector theorems. Then, we went to graph paper and drawing tools to construct a triangle with the perpendicular bisector of its sides. We demonstrated that the theorem is true by circumscribing a circle centered at the concurrence of the bisectors and passing through each vertex,

prewriting
introduction

Will started working on his paper on Hamlet and V for Vendetta today. I had him make prewriting notes and come up with the different topics he will cover, and then we went over how to write and introduction. His writing can be strong at times, but his grammar is weak, and he has trouble fully developing his ideas. We'll keep working on it.

* Review for Quiz # 2.
* Grammar: Demonstrative 4.
* Conjugation: Present 3.
* Reading: Insolite - Great Britain.

Will chose to watch part of a documentary on the history of Russia. As we moved through the documentary, we stopped to discuss major concepts of Russian history that connect to events in World History. We linked timelines of Russian history to other historical events in each time frame (i.e England founded by William the Conquerer in 1099). Doing this help students to better understand often fragmented pieces of history from various countries. We discussed the role of Mongols in Russian history, elements of geography, and the rise of monarchs, degradation of serfs, and the political unrest leading to conflicts over power. Major figures discussed include Ivan IV (the Terrible) and Peter the Great, among others. Will also read the text which focused on the early 17th century, and we discussed the content.