Philip did not do his assignment from last week. He had a little writer's block so next time I will give him class time and assist him in getting started. He enjoyed learning about The Harlem Renaissance and reading two of Langston Hughes poems, Harlem and Mother to Son.
He also enjoyed learning about a rhetorical question.

Philip was on task. He could not remember being oriented to the plot triangle at all in his past. After seeing the model, he applied the plot triangle to Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. We decided to read Of Mice and Men and then perhaps A Separate Peace as our novels for the course. Philip readily began working on a creative piece with a coup de grace.

Lucas was on time and ready to go. He quickly grasped the plot of the story and raised questions about the depth of the river and the Civil War. He wanted to draw a picture of the story as he heard the audio.

The lesson began with Philip sharing his Drone story. He wrote in the first person and added sensory details, better describing the present the boy opens in the drone story. We then read "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and Philip gleaned Peyton's reversal of fate upon watching the film. He was "Wowed" as I had anticipated. We are looking forward to further discussion of same and the creating of a sudden reversal in original fiction.

Lucas thought The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse was a "cool" way to write a book--starting with the pictures. He readily grasped the series of pictures and we talked about "thinking outside of the box" as he viewed a series of 3 pictures in boxes. He worked the entire session and came up with a short story.

Philip was very excited about the concrete poem he created. It is a clock. We discussed consulting Marcus about a graphics program to put it into print.
Today's lesson involved writing a narrative from a series of three pictures of a young man receiving a drone as a gift. Philip readily supplied creative details as I guided him into thinking about what was outside of the boxes. He posed great questions as I introduced good clincher sentences and titles that hint at what is to come. We reviewed using sensory details and avoiding common words like "good." Philip asked about and utilized more creative words such as "awe." He is naturally creative and an absolute joy to work with.

I believe the student's last name that I worked with was Miller but it could have been Lasner. Not sure.

Philip likes poetry and readily and enthusiastically shared an original haiku about a clock and an original short story based on mythology with me. We briefly spoke of poetry he has read (The Road Not Taken) and his current reading "The Old Man and the Sea." He also has written a poem in the sonnet form about Mondays that is fantastic. We identified and defined concrete poetry. We discussed the use of sensory imagery, onomatopoeia, and synecdoche in literature. Philip then read me a story he wrote and asked what to do to improve it. He needs to add more sensory imagery so the reader can better identify with his characters and also add more dialogue. We discussed adding to his updated mythological story collection and publishing it as a long term project. For homework he will create a concrete poem of his own.

Lucas reviewed writing concrete poetry and different examples were viewed. Lucas quickly pointed out the shift in tone in the apple poem. He identified the theme of the poem and also onomatopoeia. He learned that poetry is sensory in nature. We shifted to Haiku and he learned to tap out syllables and count 5, 7, 5 syllables in Haiku. We then moved on to Shakespearean sonnets and iambic pentameter. It was an excellent session.