Hank read an article on Newsela about the Avengers Campus at Disneyland. The article explained the many ways the Avenger theme is coming to life with a new digital gesture recognition system and all the typical Disney-style applications.
He read the next two chapters in 'The War That Saved My Life,' where Ada and Jamie begin to settle into their new life with Ms. Smith. Hank noticed that Ada tells us again that she does not like to be touched, and she is very uncomfortable with the doctor's examination of her foot. Also, we were surprised by how Ada and Jamie react to life in their new home. Jamie, usually easygoing and compliant, becomes defiant and Ada, always his defender, lashes out at him angrily when she feels he will jeopardize their place with Ms. Smith. Are her feelings about Butter stronger than her desire to protect her brother?

I worked with Hank to mix a resin solution. I had him let the solution stand for 5 minutes while I showed him the led system that would go into his resin base. Afterward, I had pulled out a 5"x5" plexiglass container, he placed his sculpture into the container and poured the solution into the container. I placed his work on a shelf to cure. Before the end of class Hank and I worked on creating the head of his Minecraft Ender Dragon.

Synonyms and antonyms were reviewed. Given pairs of words, Hank confidently determined if the words were synonyms or antonyms. Hank was tasked with creating a fictitious newspaper article about himself. He spent time thinking about and drawing a picture of the event. Story webs were introduced and utilized. Hank enjoyed writing the story and seemed to be pleased with his finished product.

Hank read a Dogo News article about the Perseverence rover's successful Martian landing inside the Jezero Crater. We noticed ways the writer added to the enjoyment and understanding of the information by using photographs, diagrams, and embedded video clips. Next, Hank continued reading 'The War That Saved My Life'. We met a new and important character who describes herself as "not a nice person." Hank pointed out that although Ada repeats her claim not to be nice, her actions are those of a caring person. We made some predictions about Ada and Jamie's future with Miss Smith.

Hank arrived in a reserved and less-than-sunny mood.

So, we discussed how he was feeling. We discussed how writing can be used to benefit the audience of a piece and that it can also be used to benefit the author as well.

We reviewed what he had wrote in his previous session. We recorded new ideas that he had for his entertaining piece. We revisited some of the old ideas including the character he was working on last session. He decided to scrap that character and make a new character with a new story.

We discussed the merits of doing work on characters even if they don’t get used and of being willing to discontinue ideas that no longer seem to fit our overall vision.

Hank wrote about a page in his composition notebook about his plans for future writing. For the last couple minutes we joined his brother for a Madlib.

Hank was in a great mood by the end of our session. It was great working with him.

As Hank continued reading 'The War That Saved My Life,' we noticed all the ways that the world is unfamiliar to Ada. We also learned that her mother had convinced Ada to believe it is somehow her fault that she has a club foot. In today's reading, Ada begins to question some of her mother's lies about her. We read closely to understand why Ada values freedom from her mother over freedom from Hitler and his bombs.

I decided to switch genres before we read another in the 'One and Only' series. We talked about historical fiction elements and how they differ from the realistic books we have recently read. After examining the cover illustration and getting a bit of background, Hank read the first two chapters of 'The War that Saved Me'. This reading required a bit more 'stop and talk' to be sure the meaning was clear. We also noted that our reading pace was slower with this book as the character's lives are such that we cannot connect in any way.

Hank was asked about prior composition experiences. He was given the opportunity to showcase his recently written informative piece by reading it aloud. Student was happy to do so. Student was able to describe the purpose of an informative piece.

We discussed other purposes for written pieces. We explored entertainment pieces and dissected the elements of compelling entertainment pieces. Hank was guided through a creative "brainstorming" session. He recorded his ideas on a chart. He drew a visual representation of a character that he created and will describe in a written format in future sessions.

Hank was given his reference image, some clay, and armature wire to continue construction of his Mindcraft Ender Dragon. We refined the main body, created the neck and tail, and attached the parts using the armature wire.

Hank completed the book 'The One and Only Ivan' today. We discussed The big lesson that Ivan learned in the story and applied it to our lives. Hank defined the theme as " Everyone needs to belong." We looked back at the main characters and found evidence to support their desire to belong to a group. We also previewed the book "The One and Only Bob' to decide if that will be our next read.