Pierce and I continued reading "Who Was Isaac Newton?" Pierce learned about Newton's work with the Royal Mint, specifically the "Great Recoinage." Newton was responsible for re-designing England's coins to prevent counterfeiting and stabilize England's monetary system. Newton finished his career as head of the Royal Society. He was buried at Westminster Abbey. His work changed the way we understand the world. Unfamiliar vocabulary from the text included divine, counterfeiter, and tyrant. After finishing the book, Pierce immediately wanted to choose another biography from the series. He chose Dr. Seuss, expressing that his favorite book is "Oh, the Places You Will Go." We purchased the book on my Kindle and found a related writing activity we will begin next week.

We worked on skills involving supporting answers using evidence from the passage in texts. Austin's responses demonstrated he understands expectations and is able to deliver his responses in an articulate fashion and express his thoughts well on paper. He was reminded to use specific examples from the text and not state generalizations until after the specific references are cited. We selected a passage involving soccer as this remains one of Austin's main interests. Next, we spent time reviewing examples of figurative language. Austin was tasked with completing an activity where he had to decide which type of figurative language was given in several examples. He answered correctly 86% of the time or 12 out of 14 trials or opportunities. I explained what hyperbole was and offered examples. When queried a bit later, Austin remembered its definition and was able to give an example.

First, we reviewed Reid's school folder. Reid made flashcards for his spelling list; the words are increasingly difficult (spelling and definitions), so we spent time ensuring that Reid understood the pronunciation and meaning of each word. Next, we completed a reading comprehension exercise from school about Chapters 19-21 of "The Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger" by Lois Sachar. One of the questions asked Reid to sequence four events from a chapter; we reviewed transitional words such as first, second, subsequent, and finally to accomplish this task. Reid edited his work using CAPS. We reviewed the FLSZ spelling rule (doubling the consonants listed at the end of a short word) and discussed the author's use of a quirky idiom ("rub a monkey's tummy"). To conclude, we went outside to practice his spelling words while playing basketball; Reid was allowed one shot per correctly spelled word.

Pierce and I continued reading the book "Who Was Issac Newton?" and completed chapters 7-10. Pierce learned about Newton's collaborations with his peers, such as Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren, and Edmund Halley. We reviewed unfamiliar vocabulary in the text: scholar, minister, alchemy, ellipse, orbit, proof, Paliment, and principle. Pierce completed the following math activities: addition with four digits, word problems (what year will Halley's comet return? How old will you be when Halley's comet returns? How old will I be?), and multiplication tables. We will finish the book in the next session. I will find a novel with a math theme for our next co-read.

To begin, we went through Sasha's folder. She made flashcards for her spelling words (oy and oi words). Sasha highlighted the vowel team on each card, and we observed that oy is found at the end of a word or syllable, while oi is most often found at the beginning or middle of a word. I helped Sasha finish a worksheet from school on the spelling list. We went to Sasha's school website (Razz Kids) to read a comprehension passage online. Sasha read with reasonable fluency and answered the comprehension questions correctly. Sasha read an oral reading fluency passage to me three times (again, the passage was from school; she is supposed to read it to an adult twelve times over the week). To conclude, we went outside to practice her spelling words while bouncing a ball.

To begin, we went through Reid's school folder. Reid made flashcards for the week, wrote three sentences with three of the words, and edited his work using CAPS (self-checking for capitalization, appearance, punctuation, and spelling). Next, I reviewed the definition of a sentence: it has an "actor" and an "action" and is a complete thought. Using a worksheet I prepared for Reid about the NBA, he identified fragments and entire sentences. He corrected the fragments to make complete sentences. To conclude, we went outside to practice his spelling deck while playing basketball.

Prior to our session, Quinn was permitted to take 5 minutes to look up a poster he would like to put up to decorate his room. He chose the soccer player Maradona. We got right to work after he made his choice. We worked on a reading passage entitled the Simple Physics of Soccer." the article's content vocabulary words included: apply; combination; determine; exert. The words proved a bit challenging to Quinn. He was asked about them before we started reading and then after reading the article,and Quinn was able to understand their meanings better after reading and exploring the words through some different activities. He then answered questions about the article. Quinn answered 6 out of 8 questions correctly and explanations were afforded him. Quinn also worked on exercises requiring him to choose the best word that fit in sentences, but the work was more challenging; a few strategies were shown to facilitate performance. After completing his work, Quinn asked if we could read a chapter in the novel. We read chapters 28 - 30 - guided reading with Quinn, as he did not want to read too much today. When queried, however, Quinn demonstrated good comprehension, listening, and inferential reasoning skills. He was excited, animated, and responsive today, and he is looking forward to getting his poster!

Austin worked on an activity in which he had to choose the meaning of italicized words using context clues. There were twenty questions with which he was tasked. Austin worked at a good pace and only requested assistance for one example. He wrote the correct letter where indicated and underlined the clues in each sentence that helped him define the term (e.g., example; explanation; synonym; or antonym. This exercise afforded him practice reading context clues and allowed me to assess his ability to synthesize and integrate the information. We also worked on a refresher figurative language exercise before moving onto our reading of the novel. We read two chapters (16 - 18) in the novel and Austin was able to recall and summarize details very well. He understood the intended displaced projection by the author onto the protagonist's animal friends and his responses reflected good inferential and evaluative comprehension. These are examples of higher order critical thinking process which indicate Austin's ability to move beyond the text and consider/convey what he believes is the author's underlying message and purpose. I am very satisfied with the progress and capabilities Austin continues to demonstrate in each class sessionand his readiness to accept a challenge.

We continued our study of Sir Issac Newton (interspersed with math problems as incentive). We learned that Issac Newton improved the design of the telescope while teaching at Cambridge and his introduction to the Royal Society of London. To conclude, we review prefixes, root words, and suffix. I introduced the prefix dis-, the root word duct, and the suffix -est.

Pierce and I co-read two chapters of Who Was Isaac Newton. It was fascinating to learn what Newton accomplished during the plague of the mid-1600s, including the invention of calculus, the discovery of the light theory, and the laws of motion. Pierce reads with good fluency and demonstrates excellent retention of details. In between reading chapters, Pierce completed math problems on the white board. I am impressed with his enthusiasm for math. To conclude, we reviewed morphology learned and I taught the prefix mis, the root dict, and the suffix er.