For this project, Hunter is going to write his own bill regarding the gun control issue. It should be a bill that he would want to become a law.
We've been having some great discussion on the topic.

Tutor does planning

Hunter and I already studied rational exponents in an Algebra 1 book. Today, I extended the concepts into the Algebra 2 book, where the exercises were much more difficult. He did a great job remembering the rules, and using them properly. He worked problems 1-25 on p. 388. We sat out back for most of the session to enjoy the beautiful day.

We completed our brief poetry unit . We discussed the use of rhyme and rhythm in Emily Dickinson's work, and compared it to the blank verse of Edgar Masters. Impressively, Hunter was also able to define and recognize alliteration. To introduce Of Mice and Men, we read the portion of Burns' poem from which the novel derives its title and discussed its implications. We started to read the novel in class.
Homework - complete reading Ch 1 of novel

Hunter and I finished watching the movie today. At its conclusion he said that he would have been mad if we had watched the movie before first reading the book! (I am glad!) :)

During our first 30 minutes, Hunter completed exercises where he has to rationalize the binomial denominator. We then worked through 10 review questions. I worked them on the board, as he directed me through the steps. I also had him write it down on paper. He often does better having me transcribe what is going on in his head. I would say that he got about 90% of the work on the 10 questions correct. It was very satisfying for me to see what he has remembered. We then took a break from the harder math and did some tangram puzzles. This will help strengthen his spatial thinking. I ended our session by doing a few math SAT test prep questions. I want to give him some exposure to the math portion of the test, if for no other reason than to give him confidence that he IS capable of correctly answering some of the questions.

Hunter looks at a variety of security systems. Good session.

In lieu of the recent school shooting, Hunter is analyzing two court cases that greatly impacted the current gun laws - Heller v. District of Columbia and McDonald v. Chicago

Hunter is completing his case brief on Everson vs. Board of Education and McCollum vs. Board of Education - which addressed religion and freedom of speech in schools.

When you have a binomial with radicals in the denominator of a fraction, you must rationalize the denominator. You do this by multiplying the fractions by the conjugate of the denominator. Doing this takes the radical out. I taught Hunter how to do this, and we worked through some exercises. He had to FOIL the binomials, and I showed him a shortcut for multiplying conjugates.