Cameron went home early and was absent for my class.

Kaitlin began Wordly Wise lesson 18 and her new spelling words by pronouncing all the words correctly, and discussing the meanings of all the definitions that accompany these words. She took a test over Book 1 of the Odyssey.

We addressed ways to outline, organize, and turn research questions into topic sentences. Cam was prompted to organize his thoughts towards writing lyrics for a song.

Cam was given a writing prompt on which to work in today's class and when afforded supportive prompts, he developed his ideas effectively. Cam was encouraged to use a thesaurus, which lists synonyms for words, and to use this tool if struggling to find a keep him from sounding repetitive; however, Cam has richly imaginative ideas and a diverse vocabulary, and he is rarely at a loss for configuring his language to be creative and interesting.

Kaitlin completed several activities on the proper usage of the words between and among. She practiced writing short summaries on several important topics in the Odyssey. Then she discussed and wrote a summary of the Odyssey.

Kaitlin worked on activities structured to develop her vocabulary skills. She explored antonyms and the suffix "equi." She reviewed the rule for dropping the silent e when adding an ending that begins with a vowel.

We began class discussing the wonderful feedback Cam received for his writing yesterday. He was to type it up today but brought his tortoise to school today, so he went to various students and staff to show him to them. He discussed its eating and feeding habits and answered questions with certainty and assurance. He came up with a topic sentence and is to write about his experiences when we reconvene for class on Thursday.

Kaitlin reviewed book 2's summary and analysis of the Odyssey. She completed a literary analysis of the epic hero Odysseus giving evidence of his physical strength and his intellectual prowess.

Kaitlin completed several reading strategies activities pertaining to the Odyssey. She worked on the proper usage of (like) and (as if).

What a fun class! To enlist Cam's full attention, he was given the following writing prompt: "If you were going to write a song about yourself, what would the first lyric be?" Cam rose to the task and began writing about himself and put it in the form of a country rap, with rhyming lyrics. He continued to refine and practice his song throughout our two-period class with enthusiasm, creativity, and resourcefulness. Cam also researched and found an excellent country back beat to add his lyrics. He clearly had a terrific time writing the song and worked on figuring out the correct syllables to fit lyrics to the cadence and corrected pronouns to fit subject-verb agreement Cam and I performed the song for several staff who all received it with enthusiasm. Admin are considering adding a talent show after watching Cam perform his song. We enjoyed a productive and fun class English I class this Monday morning, and Cam is looking forward to singing it for Ms. Judie a bit later today