Zach was prepared for our session today and did a very good job with the reading. I was very impressed by his attention to detail and his understanding of the material. We had a great discussion about some of the symbolism in the book and about the development of the characters. Great job!

Zach started reading his summer reading books, but chose a different book than we discussed last week. I guess he got intimidated when he saw Jane Eyre. I quickly scanned the pages he read and we had a pretty good discussion. What's interesting is Zach is only concerned with his interpretation based on his personal experiences. While this can be a good thing, it can also be dangerous if it results in him missing the point of the book. We'll work on it.

Zach seems to be in great shape for his last two exams. It sounds like he did a good job of sticking to his schedule and is on top of everything. We spent time talking about the summer reading and planning out how he wants to approach it.

I'm really pleased with Billy's focus and effort lately. He came in ready to work and we got a lot done. His new english teacher is actually giving him work and we got through two packets of vocabulary and grammar.

Zach has done everything I've asked him to do. He's got all of his work organized in preparation for exams, completed the math study guide and flash cards for the vocab. We spent today talking about effective ways to study, and went through each class and made a plan of action. We then talked about the importance of planning and following a strict schedule for the next week. He seems like he's in good shape.

Zach is in good shape for his exams. He's organized all of his class materials and has completed half of his vocab cards. A big part of the session was spent discussing the need to be proactive in his exam prep. Right now he doesn't have a lot of work, and is taking the path of least resistance. We talked about getting ahead of the process and he agreed to finish his vocab cards and math packet by the end of the week. We then worked on Algebra 1 problems, which he seemed to do very well.

Apparently, Billy has a new english teacher as of a week ago and for the first time this year, actually had english homework. I helped him with a summary of a passage in his literature book, and then we worked through a vocab/grammar handout. He was very focused and worked hard. He's come a long way.

Zach did a great job organizing his notebook and begrudgingly admitted that the new system works better. We finished up talking about his Julius Caesar project and then turned our attention toward exam prep. We went through English and History and what steps he can take to start preparing for exams now. He agreed to make flash cards for the over 200 words he will be responsible for on his English Exam.

Raquel got more information about the format of the paper and didn't need as much help organizing her thoughts. We spent the session looking up research materials for the paper and talking about how she wants to go about the process.

Raquel came straight from the airport so she was a little frazzled when she got here. She wasn't very clear on the assignment but we made do with what she had. We organized the paper and starting working on the introduction. I think she has a good idea of what direction to go and we are going to meet for 2 hours on Saturday.