I began the class with the following writing prompt: Many sports teams boycotted games last week in response to Black Lives Matter. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not. Ayden wrote a good sentence in response.

Next we studied vocabulary. Ayden did not do his homework, which was to look up the definitions of ten words. Therefore I had him do the work in class. Next, I read the sentences from the book with the words to provide context.

Finally, we read the book together. Ayden was supposed to finish the chapter but did not, so we finished it in class. We discussed the books setting, main characters, and point of view.

It was fantastic to see Ayden on my screen! I have missed teaching him. I shared the syllabus for the year and explained the class's focus and expectations. My goal for Ayden is to improve his writing, vocabulary, and literary analysis. I told him to expect homework every night. He will receive a vocabulary list at the beginning of every week, and I will test him once a week. I emailed Ayden the syllabus and the vocabulary list for the week.

We began to read the book Ready Player One, a highly-regarded dystopian novel. Ayden is to finish chapter one for homework using LearningAlly and look up the definitions of the ten vocabulary words.

Abby continued reading "Where the Crawdads Sing" and reviewed some sample essay prompts on the first part of the novel. She then drafted an introductory paragraph for one of the essay prompts which we reviewed.

Based on Rory's outline of the movie , "The Book Thief" ,we discussed how to convert his outline into sentences and paragraphs. We first noted the date of the movie's release and then identified the director . Next, we composed an introductory topic sentence using this information. We completed the introductory paragraph by describing the main characters , and the movie's locale, Nazi Germany 1939. I mentioned "Schindler's List" as another movie set in this time frame ,and we examined how "The Book Thief" is fiction while "Schindler's List' is based on a true story. Before composing any type of critique or review, Rory picked out plot highlights and incorporated them into his composition noting how the movie creates dramatic tension arising from the main character's hiding a Jewish man from the Nazi regime. While we did not complete the writing in one session, we did address some word choice and structural issues and made a very good start on this writing project.

As GT has completed 10 chapters of the novel, we examined the broader themes and workings of the allegory.I first noted how "Lord of the Flies" is a reverse mirror of the 1837 novel"Coral Island" and Golding's attempt was to reveal how man's violent nature would in fact devour any efforts to maintain civilization - even in the short run -in the absence of authority figures. I noted that in the romanticized "Coral Island" the boys all achieve harmony with each other and even convert the natives on the island to Christianity. . We then discussed certain political implications of the allegory noting how Jack is reminiscent of Nazis while Ralph represents the order of the British civilized society. We then reviewed the symbolic significance of the title and how the lord of the flies appears in the novel as a decapitated pig, but actually represents evil or the devil. GT did a good job recognizing that beyond the political implications of the novel, the thematic heart of the novel lies in the realization of the character ,Simon, that the "beast ' all the boys fear is not an external force but an internal intrinsic character flaw of mankind. I pointed out how in the novel Simon serves as the mystic seer who is the only one who can see this truth, thus causing his inevitable murder by a society that refuses to hear the truth. We last looked at how Ralph and Piggy rationalize the death/murder of Simon analogizing their excuse as being mere bystanders to the populations in Germany and Poland during the Holocaust. For homework, GT is starting to read Chapter 11.

Vlad worked on organizing his research paper.

Today we continued to work on Vlad's final project paper in which he is comparing the nuclear catastrophes at Hiroshima (1945) and Chernobyl (1986). We made excellent progress. Vlad was instructed to write just a few more details that I clearly highlighted for him at the end of class and to write his final concluding paragraph for HW tonight.

Vlad and I were able to meet for a second time today to continue work on his final paper about Hiroshima and Chernobyl. Vlad's knowledge about both of these events is so impressive that I am learning much from Vlad. The challenge is Vlad taking the facts he knows and researching and writing them cohesively for his final paper. He is off to a solid start!

Vlad began writing his final paper today. The paper focuses on comparing and contrasting the nuclear disasters in Hiroshima (1945) and Chernobyl (1986).

Vlad completed 9 more study guide questions during class.

I introduced the final project to him about writing a paper that compares/contrasts the disasters at Hiroshima & Chernobyl. I explained it is a great cross-curricular project
for him. I told Vlad I was so impressed when I heard him discussing the radioactive damage released into the Earth's atmosphere with Mauricio yesterday.

We began to make rudimentary lists:

A Comparison list and a Contrast list. Vlad will continue to add to these lists. Once finished with the lists, he will continue to add factual numbers and evidence to what he has on his lists.

To date, Vlad has seen the first episode of Chernobyl.

For H. W. : Vlad is to continue to work on his lists and research facts to add to them. Vlad knows I am happy to help him further with this assignment.