We addressed Macbeth's initial vacillation toward killing King Duncan by studying the original text wherein Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by challenging his manhood. Max raised some questions about the plot development in Act II and I clarified that Macbeths' plan is to frame Duncan's servants for his murder. I then reviewed some famous speeches from Act II i.e. "Is this a dagger I see before me" and Lady Macbeth's suggestion that a 'Little water" washes this stain from our hands. I directed attention to other examples of the 'water" metaphor in Act II . We then viewed a dramatization on the final scene in Act II wherein Macbeth already feels guilt and remorse while Lady Macbeth takes the lead in covering up the crime. I further placed notes on the board for Max to copy . We will refer to these notes when Max completes his Macbeth assignment for his school in London. Max raised good questions and offered interesting comments in today's session. For homework, read modern English abridgment of Act III.

Max and I discussed his English assignments including MacBeth and the requirements of those assignments.

We discussed possible workarounds for accessing assignments that he needs to access.

Today we looked at a new songs and talked about the chords and the melody on top. We looked at the tabs as well as the chords charts to begin learning/memorizing the finger movements.

Lesson 5 The Cycling of Earth’s Materials – Max learned the difference between rocks and minerals. Then he learned that crystallization occurs when particles dissolve in a liquid or melt, solidify, and form crystals. Next he learned the difference between extrusive and intrusive rock. When lava cools and crystallizes on Earth’s surface the igneous rock that forms is called extrusive. Igneous rock that forms as magma cools underground is called intrusive rock. Next he learned how crystals are formed in rock. If rocks cool slowly underground large crystals form but if they cool quickly small crystals form. If lava cools too quickly to form crystals it is called volcanic glass.
Assignment: Max created a list of characteristic properties of minerals that are used to identify them.

Max and I discussed in detail the assignments that need to be completed during his time at the Batt School.

We worked together on identifying high, medium, and low priority items as well as subjects.

We put together a general timeline for critical events at the school.

Create outline for the entire project and start outlining using copic markers.
Focus on creating new characters and sketches based on things seen in real life.
Focus on creativity and coming up with an original painting.

Plan next classes' figure & gesture drawing exercises.

Max was seen in his room for a 45 minute OT consultation in regards to his written communication skills. During this consultation, Max was asked to keyboard while being timed, and write in both script and print so OT would be able to assess all forms of written/typed communication. For keyboarding, Max uses a hunt and peck style of typing mostly using his index fingers of both his right and left hands. Even though all fingers were extended on the keyboard the only ones he was observed using were the index fingers. He averaged between 20 and 30 words per minutes. For a child his age, 40 wpm is average. It is difficult for him to increase his typing speed because he only uses the two fingers to type. Next, he was observed writing a sentence in cursive. He was able to write and form a majority of the letters correctly. He had difficultly with the accuracy of the high connector letters "o" and "w". Max also formed the letter "x" incorrectly. He has not been instructed on the upper letters in cursive; therefore, he writes them in print and then writes the rest of his work in script. He reported to this therapist that he prefers writing in cursive over writing in print and over keyboarding. Lastly, Max was observed to write the same sentence in print. When writing in print, Max is able to size and space well but has several errors with letter formations. He has a tendency to form many letters incorrectly, for example, from the bottom up. His cursive writing sample was neater than his print sample. Cursive is a more efficient (faster and easier on the hand) way to write. It should be noted that Max holds his writing implement in his right hand with a dynamic tripod grasp pattern. This is a correct grasp pattern that he is expected to be using. During this consult Max went over the high connectors in script as well as the formation of the letter "x". He picked both up well. Max would benefit from consultation to refine his cursive handwriting until he leaves to go back to London in mid-May. He would benefit from OT two times per week for half hour sessions for the next few weeks to hone in on his handwriting and possibly improve his keyboarding skills.

We first read through an abridged modern English version of Act I and examined how Macbeth's equivocation about murdering Duncan is vanquished by Lady Macbeth's manipulation of Macbeth's sense of morality. Once Max understood the general outline of the play, we then read in the actual text certain famous and critical speeches. I showed Max how to use the marginal annotations to decipher Shakespeare's often archaic language and opaque metaphors. While he had some difficulty with the original text, he was able to appreciate Shakespeare's portrayal of Lady Macbeth as an ambitious cold murderer and raised interesting questions during class evidencing an understanding of the characters and plot. We completed ACT I.For homework, read online the abridged modern English version of Act II.

Max and I worked on chord shapes. We talked about dominant 7th chords and how they can move around the fret board.

Max played a game that tested his knowledge of Earth science topics required across the country.