Jayne briefed me as to her weeks' vacation in Telluride, Colorado. She had a wonderful time, "but it was very cold!" She went skiing and snow-shoeing. When we got to work, we reviewed ways by which to identify the author's purpose in texts, and Jayne completed an activity sheet which tasked her with underlining clues and recording the author's purpose on the answer line. Jayne worked effortlessly, completing the questions with ease and obtaining a perfect score on the exercise. It's good to have her back!

Chris worked on a script to show the Accreditation Committee a tour of the facility, which is to be videotaped next week. He felt better today and was eager to resume writing. Chris shared many good ideas and was reminded of the parameters of the assignment. We reviewed some important Standard conventions of grammar as he wrote descriptions of different rooms in the facility in his notebook.

This afternoon, Mercer participated in an outdoor school activity with his peers, which was supervised by Dr. Pat. He was excited to join his classmates outdoors on this first day back from spring break and was well and appropriately engaged with them.

Jayne showed me the maze in the video game about which she wrote in yesterday's class. It is called the Mimic Hiachi's maze. She explained the directions she provided in the expository writing she submitted in yesterday's class in far greater detail than she wrote. We reviewed her writing and added the details that would have improved her writing sample. Jayne understood how the additions would have improved the clarity and objective of the essay; however, she admitted it was easier to talk about it than to write about it.

The plan was to read pages 102-105 in his Treasures book, "Protecting Wildlife, and to look up vocabulary words in the glossary. Mercer was to write the words and their definitions in his notebook, discuss and analyze the main idea and make inferences.

This morning, Mercer worked on writing a student essay for entrance to a school he wishes to attend next year, Rumsey Hall, in Connecticut. He selected the first option out of the 5 essay prompts provided and he was to respond in a minimum of 250 words. Mercer had to explain an event that impacted his life or way of thinking. He narrated the event for me and began writing it, but I finished the long hand. Mercer chose an incident that occurred when he was eight years old that scarred him not just physically, but emotionally. He was clear in his thought and organization of details and used good word choices and phraseology. I asked him to carefully edit his work to insure it met the parameters outlined and if he wished to include any additional information or insights before submission.

Jayne and I discussed the purpose of informative narrative (sometimes called expository writing). She chose a subject with which she was familiar, but which the average reader would likely be unfamiliar. Her topic was to discuss how to win part of a video game - specifically a maze. Jayne somewhat reluctantly wrote an informative narrative long hand. Her handwriting was difficult to read; in her words, "It’s like a kindergartner's!" Jayne needed to decipher certain words. I pointed out some spelling errors but Jayne defended her submission, stating that it would be auto-corrected had she used the computer. Jayne has the knowledge and skills to achieve and meet objectives and expectations, but considerable prompts are necessary at times to enlist her cooperation and maximum effort if she is not engaged in the process, activity, or does not see its merit. Jayne and I reviewed the basics of informative narratives and was reminded of the importance of avoiding the personal pronoun 'I' or using contractions. She was also encouraged to include what inspired her thoughts and a method to cite the source where she obtained the information, even if it is her own strategy.

This afternoon, we discussed how test questions may ask for figurative language to be interpreted. Mercer read 2 passages and was queried about things that were compared. He first read a newspaper ad and then answered questions about the ad. Mercer’s responses demonstrated his ability to interpret abstract analogies that used metaphors and idioms in the question. He then read a 2nd passage and was tasked similarly. Mercer was a bit quick to respond on this second task. He previewed the answers first, which is an excellent test-taking strategy; however, he failed to read the passage in its entirety and struggled with one of the answers, choosing incorrectly and impulsively. When the sentence was pointed out to him, however, he successfully chose the correct answer, one which used a simile to compare two things. Mercer is a bright and curious student whose potential is actualized when he is engaged and focused on tasks. For the last 10 minutes of class, we discussed the Montgomery Bus boycott, which was triggered when civil rights activist, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat to a white person. Mercer’s curiosity was piqued and he listened intently as I read him an article about the boycott. He subsequently engaged in a discussion with me, answering open-ended questions using information he learned from the article.

We began a review and exercise on active voice vs. passive voice in sentence construction but paused when we had a fire drill. We will continue the exercise tomorrow.

We talked about the need for precise language when giving both written and oral directions. Kellan was tasked with writing directions on how to brush one's teeth. I modeled precise language by giving Kellan exact directions of how to draw a monkey. He practiced precise language when giving me directions on how to draw a robot.