Alex and I mapped out a plan for the summer that will lead him to improved study techniques and a deeper understanding of extended texts and their value in our lives.
We have made plans for him to start his journey with the summer reading from his school, and to supplement that material with books or passages that genuinely pique his interest.
Alex read, discussed, and analyzed chapter three of Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind. Upon completion, he continued writing his AP-style argument essay.
Alex read, analyzed, and discussed chapter two of Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind. He then continued the writing of an AP Language and Composition argument essay.
Alex read chapter one of the nonfiction Sapien: A Brief History of Mankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Prior to reading the chapter, I had Alex watch a Ted Talk given by the author as he discussed the main points and objectives of his book. Alex then continued writing the outline for his argument essay. I had him look up viable sources to use as support for his essay. We discussed further the elements for a high-level AP Language essay.
I met with Alex today and we discussed his academic needs and how we would meet them. I began with the elements of AP Language and Composition which is his English class for next year. We decided that we would spend half the session preparing him for the writing necessary for AP Language and begin reading the assigned book for AP Language.
Alex and I worked together on preparing him for an impending test.
We worked on vocabulary first. We then tackled relative pronouns as they were identified as a high priority in a previous session.
We finished by working on the vocabulary again. Alex was instructed to stay in the room after my time with him had ended to continue to study in the manner that we had used during our session.
Alex came to me for help with a make-up work packet and preparing for a test.
We started by working on vocabulary. I then printed him a copy of his vocabulary for the chapter.
We then worked on the packet his teacher provided. He was instructed to work on his section independently. Then, I graded the section and answered questions or helped to understand why some answers may be preferred.
He was asked to rank his confidence level in each section before it was graded so that he would know on which sections to focus his studying attention.
Learning Map, Extended Discussion in Spanish, Search for Authentic Alternate Sources
Lesson Outline
My first activity with Alex was to sit down at the computer and discuss with him each of the key grammatical concepts that he should have been exposed to up to this point in a traditional curriculum leading up to and including the Spanish 3 course.
We started at the very basic and ended with concepts of the Subjunctive and present progressive.
We identified areas in which he was less confident and his strongest areas.
We discussed his personal goals for Spanish acquisition. I informed him of the extra efforts that it would take for him to accomplish his desired goals. I told him strategies that could help him to achieve those goals.
We read from two different Spanish texts of different difficulty levels. We discussed the different conjugations and themes of the texts.
We had an extended conversation that was conducted completely in Spanish. We conversed for 7 minutes.
Afterwords, we dissected the conversation, and discussed ways to improve.
It was a very productive session. Alex is a promising student and I look forward to helping him accomplish his goals this year.
