Alexa close read The Dead Girls Detective Agency -- she is about halfway through. After this she watched two videos on Mary Ann Evans, AKA George Eliot, accompanied by discussion questions for comprehension and critical thinking. This will be followed up by reading a few excerpts of Eliot's writing. Alexa will be making a chart to display of the literature and authors that we are touching upon in order to have a familiar base to begin her upcoming college experience.

Lesson on Writing Strategies put on hold. Vlad asked me to spend the whole time helping him write up a resume in the form of a letter addressed to the athletic director at Embry-Riddle, providing the director with Vlad's personal background, his academic background, his achievements, and his academic goals.

Alexa was absent. I am only putting in hours for the first part of the day that I was scheduled.

Olivia and I reviewed her notes on the play. We studied for her exam on Thursday. We reviewed the vocabulary and the different themes present. We also discussed the literary term foil and how it applies to the play.

Olivia was absent today.

Alexa watched a short video and we discussed the surprise beginning and the narrative elements used in Mary Shelley's, Frankenstein. She learned "epistolary narrative" (based on letters) "framed narrative" (story within a story) and the circumstances around the creation of the story when the four friends were stuck in a storm. We discussed the monster's true identity and its need for human companionship, as well as the character and development of Dr. Frankenstein. We concluded by discussing some of the strategies used in the creative writing in Dead Girls Detective Agency such as the foreshadowing that was much too obvious to hold. Alexa said we must watch for a twist.

Katya had done her pre-writing. We created a thesis statement. We then worked on selecting the best textual evidence to support her thesis. I also reviewed the correct structure of an expository essay. Katya will write her rough draft for homework.

Alexa continued working through sequential lessons on famous authors and excerpts of their work. She has a paper on Wuthering Heights to read that we will annotate together later this week to be followed by some reading of the book and discussion/quiz. We continued reading Dead Girls Detective Agency with some character analysis.

Alexa did not feel well today, but stayed for one of the two scheduled hours. We read and worked on our novel, Dead Girls Detective Agency, completing about 25% of the book. The plan with this is to learn more of the structure, strategies, and details of creative writing, and to write a Reader Response paper at the conclusion. I'm moving the work on Bronte sisters to tomorrow's class.

Set up organization for D&C paper on "The Mafia." Classification: the Mafia; Parts (List): Italian Mafia, American Mafia, Japanese Mafia, Russian Mafia. Discussion: structure of a mafia: members, titles, positions, roles, rules; purpose of a mafia. Transition. The Russian Mafia: its history; its members; its purpose; its ties to the Russian government. Went to various websites for research. Emphasized reliability, professionalism, peer review. Went over jotting down on the side possible concluding statements. Went over block quoting and "The Sandwich." Went over starting Works Cited page beginning with first quote found. Have a "working" title. Suggested: The Structure of a Mafia and the Structure of the Russian Mafia, for its effect on the reader.Suggested using "According to..." to cite source before citing quote. Discussed need for an introductory paragraph and a concluding paragraph. Discussed the need for transitions. Emphasized writer's responsibility to proofread every draft and final paper. Ended with 30 minutes of vocabulary.