Jared and I reviewed the characters and plot of Huckleberry Finn, noting that Mark Twain was the first American author to use regional dialects in his narratives.
Assignment
Write an exposition of the first part of Huckleberry Finn
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Jared has a lot of experience in writing expositions, and he lets on that he knows less than he actually does. While frustrating, this skill can be useful in the business world, where it is often better to under-promise and over-deliver, rather than the other way around.
Review how to create a topic sentence and develop a paragraph.
Assignment
finish writing packets and write a quality paragraph
Session Minutes
45
Minutes Student Attended
45
Lesson Comments
A very instrumental lesson for both as they needed more clarification on what makes for a well-written paragraph. We will continue elements of writing next week prior to the descriptive essay.
Purpose of field trip is to understand art as a form of communication as is writing. It is a lesson in history and the artistic movements spanning literature, art, and music.
Assignment
Choose a particular piece that speaks to your heart and write about it.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
What a great day!!! They loved the art exhibit and felt very moved by many of the pieces. They chose one that particularly inspired them and wrote about their feelings and description of the piece for future essay.
The girls are so inspiring as they are so motivated to learn! It is so great to be with fellow New Englanders. Their skills in writing are much higher than those I have encountered teaching college English! I am looking forward to creating their courses with their enthusiasm!
Powerpoint of the most popular mistakes in essay writing.
Discuss diagnostic essays.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
The girls are so gifted. We discussed both of their weaknesses and talked about essay writing and grammar. We made plans for field trip for first essay assignment to improve description writing with added art history lesson.
Comparing various themes in writings to this point in the course
Lesson Outline
We looked at various themes that occurred throughout all American writings since Colonial times, including the role of women, the role of religion, racism and slavery, how nature is viewed, how being American is defined, and various styles of writing.
Assignment
continue to work on comparing themes in writings in the course to date.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
I think Jared will actually come up with various thematic and stylistic variations of the writings in the textbook during his break.
We reviewed some difficult vocabulary from Jared's latest reading selection. We also reviewed a few of the rules of the international alphabet so that he can use it to learn pronunciation of unfamiliar words.
Assignment
complete Hawthorne's short story and begin Miller's Crucible play.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Jared had difficulty with some of the vocabulary words because he did not study. Still, he was able to use most of the words correctly in sentences.
