Alexa analyzed two arguments. She developed an argument and explained how one position was better supported than the other. She incorporated relevant and specific evidence from both sources to support her argument.
Will came to his session with a completed rough draft of his essay on the “Amazon Go” article that he read in class last week. I am pleased that he was able to complete this work for homework, since on Wednesday he expressed reservations about being able to do it independently. It was well written and concise. I believe the double entry graphic organizer really helped him to draft his essay and include all the pertinent facts from the article. We reviewed his rough draft and found very few punctuation or grammar errors. Will wanted to be assured that all his sentences were correct, and we talked about the difference between a rough draft and a final copy. I reassured him that it was okay to make changes after you have had a chance to get away from a piece for a while. I also tried to help him understand that the rough draft will usually not be completely error free since it is a starting point for writing and that writing is a process. Once he completed the editing process, he typed the final copy, did a final review and printed out a hard copy. He did a fabulous job on this assignment and worked very diligently. Bravo!
Will finished his paragraph on fishing today. He expressed interest in learning to use commas and semicolons. His facility with grammar is already quite good and so is his usage of commas.
Will decided to spend half the class on a songwriting lesson and the other half on grammar. He learned words like intriguing and evocative to describe a song's title, which is the first step to creating a song, according to the guide we are using. Will scored 100% on an exercise on reflexive pronouns and is able to discern when and when not to use them.
Will read two poems by William Carlos Williams, whose name he found very amusing. These were very concrete pieces and Will discussed them adroitly. He said that he really couldn't relate to the poem about the blossoming pear tree because he has never seen anything like that. May he do so one day. Will also told me what he wanted to do in English next term: songwriting, punctuation, and writing for online audiences like email and reviews. He wants to read as well but not texts that have "old timey" words. We shall comply. Will wants to read an hour each day over break.
Will completed a combined writing and grammar exercise in which he was asked to generate sentences with adjective clauses. After a bit of difficulty, Will was able to identify and ensure that each of his sentences had a subject and verb as well as an original adjective clause.
Will identified all of the main ideas in "The Devil and Tom Walker" and independently identified the themes! He had completed last night's homework with 100% accuracy and will finish a writing exercise tonight.
Will began today's class with a grammar lesson, as he requested. We reviewed when to use nominative and objective case pronouns and he completed the summary assessment quite well. He then began to read Irving's classic tale of greed, "The Devil and Tom Walker" and wants to finish it at home independently.
