Kelly gave me Katya's essay to review during this one hour class. Katya has a good start on this type of essay writing, but it needs to be more spot-on to the prompt and the directions to score higher. I showed her how to read/use/understand the prompt very accurately, and steps to follow in showing the items required explicitly in her paragraphs. Katya learned to introduce the author using an appositive to create ethos, clarity, and credibility, as well as the rule to use only the author's last name throughout the remainder of the essay. We reviewed the eight major ways of beginning academic texts, looked for which one(s) were used in the provided text, and worked through how to write the responding introductory paragraph using one or more of these strategies. The critical thinking element "purpose" was emphasized, as it is incredibly helpful in building relevant content and getting thought deeper and more original on the paper. We also discussed using "implications" in writing about how and why the writer's argumentation worked (or did not work). I modeled sentences using the word/concept "implications" coming from the all-important thesis statement -- exactly how to do that.

Alexa took a vocabulary test today (95). We will listen to the next lesson on Thursday. We went outside to read the Agatha Christie play, and to fill out a chart for the setting, characters, attributes of characters, and to gather the "old" idioms, slang terms, and allusions Christie used for this play set in the 1930's. We are about 20% in to the reading. We did not watch any accompanying movie today, but discussed differences between the movie and book. The "rising action" is just beginning. I would like Alexa to read ahead at home.

We continued reading the play from this morning and worked on the illustration project.

I did a brain break with Katya to center herself to begin her day and taught her a few other energy techniques done with walking and breathing. We read a play called Love from a Stanger based on an Agatha Christie short story. We looked up and discussed the meanings of phrases and definitions as we read and discussed building that habit as we read. We discussed giving different types of readings a chance to develop even if at first we are not interested in them, finding something to learn from all of our experiences.

Alexa had to leave at 1:15 so we took this opportunity for a final study session for a vocabulary test that she was supposed to take today. I quizzed her orally on the words and definitions and had her create some flash cards. Her homework is to review the flash cards 4-5 times throughout the duration of the day and night so that she feels totally comfortable with all of the words.

Katya gave me a great review on all that she has read in The Book Thief. She explained key characters and events and also answered my questions regarding more detail on different situations, characters, tone, and settings.

Alexa completed vocabulary lecture two today, learning about the built-in spelling-meaning connection in English through morphology. We reviewed last week's vocabulary and added a few new words today. She will take vocabulary test one on Thursday -- I'm leaving it with Elise. We then read a few chapters of The Book Thief, with discussion of the narrator's continuing complex function, and ended with watching the next portion of The Book Thief film. Next Friday, Alexa will work on the Agatha Christie play, Love from a Stranger. Read parts with the teacher, and discuss words, idioms, meanings, and anything related to the 1930's in the way of underlying thought and decision-making (as it comes up in the text).

Katya heard half of a lecture on vocabulary and learned a couple of new words using the 5-step process that includes morphology and semantic chunking. We will finish this next Tuesday and then have a quiz. On Thursday, she will read The Book Thief with the substitute teacher (look for rhetorical devices and discuss word choice, tone, etc). On Friday, Katya will read "parts" with her teacher in the Agatha Christie play, "Love from a Stranger." She may also work on her book creation with the illustrations following The Book Thief example of Max's book.

We continued with Christie's, From the Love of a Stranger, reading the parts in the scene. There were several allusions, so we stopped to learn about these, how they function and why they are used by good writers. We discussed how reading as a writer helps our own writing. Katya looked up two of the allusions and then we problem-solved about how they fit into the text and what they added to the characters and situation. Allusions are great for broadening knowledge-base with at least a acquaintance with past persons, places, things, or events of the past.

Today Katya worked on the contemporary play by Agatha Christie, Love from a Stranger. We read through the first scene of Act 1, and then watched the original 1937 black and white film rendition. Some new words Katya learned are "old" words that are beginning to go out of use, like bureau. This also gave opportunity to discuss the culture at the time concerning women because the "big" thing was getting married, and in the story, the protagonist female has just won the lottery and is having second thoughts.