Kaitlin was online today. We read and discussed the short story, " The Gift of the Magi." written by O'Henry. We discussed the author, setting and the literary analysis of the plot.

Kaitlin listened to a reading of the short story thriller, "The Interloper," by Saki. She also watched a movie version of the short story.

Cam discussed the tortoise he brought in and is to prepare a composition about it. We took the tortoise outside and Cam gave it a bath in the outside sink and used a dollop of soap to scrub the underbelly of its shell. He explained that he was to use a minute amount as it is not designed for humans. A few students came outside and wanted to observe Tootie so we obtained some cucumber and 2 strawberries and watched him eat. We also observed that he preferred to be on solid ground when ting; he backed away and tried to escape when put on the metal picnic table. Cam is a natural with other students when it comes to showcasing and explaiining the animals/reptiles/amphibians he brings in and he does an excellent job explaining them to an audience.Show

Kaitlin reviewed the story, "A Most Valuable Person," and answered questions pertaining to the story. She read and discussed the Poem by Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken." She is to write a paragraph about the author, Robert Frost for homework.

Cam was encouraged to write a persuasive argument about what makes a school sports coach for or against having a co-ed team. Cam wrote an effective response, but it was succinct and did not offer the different arguments necessary to include in a persuasive essay. We went over the elements to include in a persuasive essay and Cam elaborated, per request, and given the additional ideas. He was responsive to grammatical changes recommended and we reviewed sentence fragments and how to correct them. Cam was shown that to fix sentence fragments, he could add missing elements, by incorporating the fragment into adjoining sentences, or by dropping the subordinating conjunction. We revisited and revised the sentence fragment in Cam's essay and re-wrote it using the proper conventions of grammar.

Kaitlin was online today. She listened to and discussed a reading of the poem, "Casey at the Bat."

Cam responded to a writing prompt asking him to pretend he works for a local newspaper and has been assigned to interview a fisherman who just caught the world's largest fish. He wrote a "breaking news" report announcing the catch in expository form. This exercise allows me to note Cam's organization of thought and the application of grammar rules.

Kaitlin discussed the characters from the story Perceus by Edith Hamilton, and then listened to a reading of the story.

We discussed different types of writing styles. We identified types of expository writing. Whie expository writing aims to explore or explain a particular topic, persuasive writing aims to convince the reader to take a particular point of view or action. Cam chose a writing prompt and wrote a journal entry about it. He expanded on the prompt, "My cat told me about the dream he had last night." Cam is an imaginative writer who uses language effectively.

Kaitlin was absent today.