Hank watched a video teaching the elements of a plot diagram. We discussed the plot's organization in 'Wonder,' noting that it is linear, although told from several different points of view. Hank read the first three of Via's chapters, where he learned much more about Auggie's physical appearance. Via compared Auggie to the sun with everyone in the family revolving around him. Her perspective on life with Auggie demonstrates an internal struggle.

Hank played a word-building and a memory game on the Lumosity site. We reviewed what we read in our last session and made some predictions about what may happen in today's chapter 'Halloween.' Surprisingly, our predictions proved inaccurate. Auggie's newfound ease with school life is turned upside down. Hank was able to put himself in Auggie's place to describe how he would feel if he'd been so hurtfully disappointed by his friend. Today's reading is the end of the story told from Auggie's point of view, next we will read about the same time period as seen from Via's point of view.

Hank and I began our session with a MadLibs. He REALLY enjoyed this and asked, "Can we do another one?" Hank read aloud our MadLibs story. It was funny! We then reviewed what the steps of the writing process are. We took notes on each step of the writing process in Hank's writing journal. He wrote exactly what I wrote on the whiteboard. We had a discussion on the last step, "publishing." He thought that publishing meant to overlap his writing with a sharpie. I stated that it is nice to make your writing look nice. However, when we publish our writing, we are sharing our writing with others. We then began creating a pencil out of paper by drawing it and coloring it. We will take notes on what writers write on the pencil we created during our next session. Hank will glue this into his writing journal.

Hank was eager to return to 'Wonder,' so we jumped right in. He gave a detailed retelling of the events from Tuesday's reading, and we read the next 5 chapters. At this point, we have really come to know Auggie and what to expect from him as he encounters new people and situations. He behaves as we have come to expect. The secondary character, Jack Will, also shows himself to be a friend to Auggie, as we expected from our first meeting with him. However, as Auggie settles into the school setting, he learns that all is not quite as it seems. Hank predicts that Auggie is about to get his feelings hurt again, hopefully not by those he believes he can trust. Hank also watched a BrainPop video teaching the reading strategies of previewing and visualizing. He played a context clue game afterward.

Hank and I began our session with a discussion. We then interviewed each other asking questions like, "What is your name?," "Do you have any siblings?," "Do you have any pets?," "What is your favorite subject?," etc. This was a fun way to get to know each other by doing an interview. We then had cake. :) We went outside and did a scavenger hunt with his brother, Ben. The two of them competed against each other in who can find the most things in 6 minutes during their scavenger hunt. Hank won! We came back inside and talked a little bit about "The Writing Process." He said he heard these words before and used a couple of these processes when writing. We then made a creative way to write all of the parts of the writing process, which made it look like a puzzle. Hank has great handwriting! I am excited to work with him on writing. Next week, we will do a MadLibs activity.

Hank watched a BrainPop video demonstrating how to use context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words. He scored 90% on the related quiz. We read the next three chapters of 'Wonder,' looking for opportunities to apply context clues, but Hank didn't encounter any unfamiliar words. He did meet a new character and make some accurate inferences as he read.

Hank completed lesson 101 on the Reading Eggspress site, which included the following skills:
• Predict actions and outcomes
• Understand the meanings of words
• Make inferences
• Find facts and information
• Identify base words, prefixes, and suffixes
• Understand word meanings.
We reviewed what was happening when we last read "Wonder," and recalled that Auggie was about to go to lunch on his first day of school. Hank predicted some potential problems he might encounter in the lunchroom. We learned that in addition to looking different, Auggie has problems chewing his food because of his mouth formation. We are hopeful that he will find a friendly person to eat with because the next chapter is titled The Summer Table. Hank read ahead enough to learn that Summer is a girl's name, and he predicts that she will befriend Auggie.

Hank practiced identifying the narrator's point of view and how it impacts the telling of a literary text. We watched a PowerPoint of 'The Real Story of the Three Little Pigs' and compared it to the original tale. The importance of the narrator's point of view is demonstrated clearly in this humorous tale. We continued reading about Auggie's first day of school, as told from his point of view.

Hank used a Reading Eggspress lesson to practice making judgments based on clues in the text. He also worked on identifying base words, prefixes, and suffixes. In today's reading of "Wonder," we analyzed Julian's actions when adults are around, and when they aren't. Hank agreed with Auggie's mom that Julian is the type of kid who changes his behavior based on who his audience is. In other words, he is sneaky. We were glad to confirm that Jack is still behaving like a friend.

We previewed a graphic organizer for the plot of "Wonder," noticing the elements that we can identify now and the rising action, climax, and falling actions that will come at the end of the book. Before reading the next chapter, Hank had a question to look for while reading. In today's reading, we saw the three new characters reveal something of their personalities. Hank used text clues and experience to choose one of the three to befriend.