We spent time reviewing and editing Vlad's amazing "Vlad Talk" speech that he will be delivering to a group off campus next week on 4/23. We did not get a chance to complete it, but maybe we can revisit it at lunch today. I told Vlad I will be available. POST SCRIPT....Vlad was incredibly proactive and responsible today as he DID seek me out at lunchtime to do some additional review/editing of his "Vlad Talk" speech!

Vlad and I read, discussed, and took notes on the introduction to American author, John Hersey's non-fiction piece, Hiroshima. We decided to work across the curriculum with Bari, as Vlad is currently studying World War II in his AP US History class. Vlad took thorough notes on a powerpoint, video and discussion about the background, purpose, and author's style of the work. Vlad has a quiz tomorrow on this information. We also read the History Channel's article, "The Man Who Survived Two Atomic Bombs," the story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who miraculously survived the bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki within a few days.

Today in our review, we focused on comma usage, sentence structure, punctuation, parallel structure, reading for the main idea, avoiding wordiness and taking to the time to read for meaning. For homework, I would like Vlad to complete his corrections for the ACT that he took so that we can use class time to move forward.

Vlad and I discussed the main ideas of the TED Talk we have been watching. We finished the talk and Vlad began to discuss the main points. I would like him to put these in an informal writing piece to prep as if he was going to do a presentation on this. We must really practice the writing portion of reading comprehension. It will help Vlad to focus his thoughts more. I am going to start having Vlad do mini-writing pieces in chunks.

Vlad and I went over the ACT Exam that he took. We began to review correct and incorrect answers and a thorough discussion of why incorrect ones were chosen. Vlad gets the correct answer on the 2nd try 99% of the time. For homework, Vlad is to complete the corrections on the rest of the 75 questions for the Reading portion. We will plan for him to take another practice test at home in a quiet spot and timed.

We began preparing for the reading portion of the SAT. Laila completed two practice tests. After the first one, we discussed the ones she missed and talked about employing some strategies. For the second one, she used some of the strategies and said that they worked well for her. We then discussed the one that she missed. She really did well on both tests. We need to work on speed since the test is timed.

Alexa continued to work on her book project for "Fahrenheit 451". Her poster contains symbols representing significant events in the story. She included quotes from the beginning, middle, and end of the story that reflect the central idea of each.

Absent

Abby worked on her essay about the novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time."

Complete reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime" and begin writing literary essay. Abby wrote her thesis last Friday.