I shared the rubric that I will use to grade Taylor's essay. We read over it, and I asked her if she had any questions/comments. Taylor and I worked on her introduction to her essay. We worked on leading effectively into her thesis statement. We worked on creating effective sentences.

Taylor and I read "The Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexee and Simon and Garfunkel's "Song of Silence." We discussed their themes and how those themes relate to the themes found in FAHRENHEIT 451. We then composed a thesis for Taylor's synthesis essay. She really did a good job digging beneath the surface and composed a thesis with a deeper meaning. We then planned her essay, searching and finding the appropriate quotes to use for textual evidence.

Taylor and I briefly discussed the connections between " I am Real" and FAHRENHEIT 451. We started to discuss some possibilities for the creation of a thesis statement. I introduced Sherman Alexee's article "Superman and Me."I asked Taylor to read the article and to look for the thematic connections between all three publications.

She worked on her English project during this time.

Taylor and I discussed the section of the novel that she had read for homework. We then finished reading the novel. We answered the accompanying study/discussion questions. We talked about some possible literary analysis topics. We did a few pages in the Sadlier vocabulary book trying to complete the first unit.

Taylor and I finished our discussion of part II of the novel. We briefly discussed the paper assignment of a synthesis essay for the novel. We then previewed the discussion/study guide questions for part III of the novel. We began to read, stopping periodically to comment, part III. Taylor will read the next 10 pages for homework tonight.

Vlad took a sentence structure (clauses, sentences and fragments) test today. He was a bit anxious, but he did well! 85%! Woo Hoo! Now we will move forward with writing larger pieces.

We actually continued a little more history review at the beginning of 3rd period. It was then my supreme pleasure to proctor Vlad's English grammar quiz, as well.

Alexa and I went over annotating a text. We discussed how she would annotate the short story beginning specifically with her circling the words that she didn't know. We began reading the story aloud. We took turns reading it. I introduced her independent novel, KILLING MR. GRIFFIN by Lois Duncan that she chose. She will begin reading this novel and annotating it on her own.

Today, we reviewed for Vlad's quiz tomorrow and began learning direct object, indirect objects and objects of the preposition and discussed how each functions in a sentence. All this is background that Vlad needs to learn more complex and sophisticated sentence structure for all of those papers he is going to publish later on in his life! :)