Natalie began her study of Hamlet today. We will work on Hamlet each Thursday until we complete the play, the study questions, the study activities, compositions, tests, and the Mel Gibson film. Natalie was reminded of the literary device, alliteration, and found five of these at the end of Act 1.1 where we concluded today. Tomorrow we will work on critical thinking, the history of British literature, and some vocabulary with etymology and Latin/Hebrew roots.

Will completed his second essay for Mitchell College today. He had completed the rough draft for homework and in class revised and edited his essay. He also did a final edit for grammar and syntax of his first essay. Next, we began a study of descriptive paragraphs. We reviewed sensory details and brainstormed topics for a descriptive paragraph. Will chose to write about the fires he saw from his house in Colorado. For homework, Will is going to generate a list of sensory details he can use in his essay.

Will did a great job on his brainstorm over the weekend and came to school with lots of ideas about why he might want to go to Mitchell College. After a discussion about the positive aspects of the college, he began his rough draft. He focused on the support they could offer him as learner, the courses he could take, and the facilities. For homework, Will is going to continue working on the rough draft.

Will completed the first college application essay about what he wanted Mitchell College to know about him and what made him unique. He did a fabulous job! The essay clearly lets the reader know that Will is hardworking, responsible, and sets many goals for himself. He was able to share his learning style, passion for photography, outside of school interests - all within the 250 word limit. He had to edit and be very careful about his word choice and rose to the challenge! He seems a lot more comfortable with changing words and revising, which he found more difficult in the past. I am so pleased with his progress.

In today’s session, Natalie reviewed the meaning of the Harlem Renaissance movement by conducting some internet research about the movement. She then chose two poets to research along with Langston Hughes. Next, we read a short biographical sketch about Langston Hughes and 4 of his poems. We discussed the symbolism and the social context in which they were written. For homework, she was given the book, “Dream Keeper”, by Langston Hughes. She will read 3 chapters and pick a poem from each chapter. She will then write a paragraph about the symbolism of each poem and why it spoke to her.

It was a pleasure to meet Natalie and begin our work together. Natalie began today's session by completing an "Interest and Reading Survey". This gave us a starting point to discuss her perceptions of herself as a reader and a writer. Next, Natalie began a study of Harlem Renaissance novelist Zora Neale Hurston. She read a short biographical sketch about the author as well as an excerpt from her autobiography, "Dust Tracks on a Road". Natalie did a great job analyzing the author's craft and purpose. She ended the session by completing an assignment that asked her to analyze the writer's purpose for including certain scenes or descriptions in the text. She did an awesome job.

So happy to be working with Will once again! We had a lot to catch up on. He was very open and shared how his summer went including his feelings about his summer program at Landmark. We talked about goals for the year, and he showed me the letter from Mom about the essays he needed to write. Will worked on the first essay about what he felt made him unique. He did a fine job and is about half way finished with that essay. For homework, he is going to add some details about jiu jitsu. We should be able to complete this essay and move on to the second one on Wednesday. If he has a college brochure from Mitchell, he should bring it in so we can tailor the essay response to what they offer. We had a big discussion about approaching each essay as though he definitely wanted to attend the school, so the essay has a positive tone. He was nervous about this, because he feels he has not made up his mind yet and thought it would be disingenuous. I think he understands that it is okay, and that most students apply to multiple schools.

Hunter and I completed his hours for Enlish IV today. He worked on his written response to the prompt about "Of Mice and Men," a character sketch of Lennie. He was very motivated and did a great job of first, organizing his thoughts, and then writing, being sure to use vivid verbs, figurative language, and modifiers. He made an effort to present a logical progression of thoughts and was able to produce a lengthy paragraph. Afterwards, we edited the character sketch together.

Hunter worked on a response to the chosen writing prompt about "Of Mice and Men." He chose to do a character sketch on Lennie and made a good effort at it, using figurative language, comparisons, description, and vivid verbs.

Hunter finished making revisions to his essay. We discussed writing prompts in response to "Of Mice and Men." Hunter decided to do a character sketch of Lennie. We read an example from Steibeck that Hunter can use as a model. He will continue in our next class.