I edited Hunter's rough draft and reviewed reccommended changes with him. He made revisions on the computer and became overwhelmed and unmotivated, so we left it for our next class and continued close reading of "The Book Thief."

Today we concentrated on nuance in "On Going Home." Didion inserts subtle details and uses many rhetorical devices to engage us and clarify what she is implying. She uses structure to add additional weight, as in the summary sentence "Marriage is the classic betrayal." Hunter is to finish reading the essay and review for the quiz.

Hunter and I read aloud in "The Book Thief" and contnued to stop and discuss vocabulary, themes, and figurative language used by the author.

"On Going Home" by Joan Didion. Hunter and I spent time discussing Didion's unusual point of view. She is disarmingly transparent and reveals information about her family and herself that a lesser author would hide. Thus she demands an active reader question her motives. Of course we examined her rhetorical gifts. Assignment: Continue reading essay.

Hunter spent this class period writing more about Costa Rica. It is very difficult for him to focus on the descriptive aspect of the writing and not on sequential story-telling/ "what happened next". He is almost finished and ready to write the conclusion.

Hunter spent half the time writing his essay on Costa Rica, adding two more paragraphs about the rainforest and white water rafting. We spent the last portion of class practicing grammar. Hunter rewrote sentences, correcting the mistakes in grammar. He did a good job with this.

Hunter and I read aloud together in "The Book Thief." We read "The Snowman" and "The Presents." We discussed the use of figurative language and analyzed the characters and their changing relationship. Death visits Max. Leisel brings presents to his bedside in the hope of telling him stories about them.

In our morning session, Hunter began writing/typing his essay. He had difficulty with a thesis statement and introductory paragraph, but wrote for a long time, uniniterrupted, and crafted a lenghty first paragraph with supporting evidence. We read together from "The Book Thief" in our afternoon session, and analyzed and answered guiding questions.

Hunter completed an outline for his descriptive essay. He decided upon a "draft" thesis statement, main ideas for each paragraph, and supporting ideas. He will begin to write in our next class.

Hunter and I discussed content of his new descriptive essay on Costa Rica. He has recall of some vivid locations and activities during his recent trip there and he noted these on paper, with a list of descriptive words that came to mind. We discussed the use of figurative language and flowery adjectives to appeal to emotions and senses. We began a chart, listing ideas under columns, one for each of the senses. We discussed the steps to writing the essay and printed out some templates to motivate him to outline the essay. We discussed ideas for a thesis statement and supporting paragraphs. I think this will be a great one! We read aloud together in "The Book Thief," stopping to analyze particular passages.