Atticus made a point of assuring me that he read and focused on last night's reading assignment and we reviewed procedures for improving comprehension focus. We then discussed the plot events of the assigned reading and Atticus composed his written chapter summary. After we examined his work,we reviewed the appropriate use of apostrophes and rules for placing words in the plural form. I then placed some of the main plot points on the board and we examined what topic sentence would be fitting using the noted plot points as examples.
Atticus recalled the events from chapter 24 before reading chapters 25 and 26 of “Out of My Mind.”The story continued predictably, with Melodie’s team winning the local Whiz Kids championship. Melodie’s desire to feel “normal” and “one of the group” seems about to be realized until the team celebrates their win with a meal. Once again, her differences become the focus, and Melodie feels unseen.
We had a robust discussion about Melodie’s mother’s character. Atticus provides support for his opinion that she is a rude person.
Today, Atticus wrote a explanation of how the nervous system disease, ALS, also affects other body systems. We discussed how your body has to receive a stimulus before it can respond to a stimulus. This is why we have senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, sight. Atticus brainstormed how the body senses and responds to stimuli before it responds by moving/thinking/etc. We read about two vocab words: the sensory system and receptors. He underlined the words and definitions, then wrote and illustrated them in his science notebook.
Atticus worked on his art show submission. He started to add his shadows and accents using black paint. He then used the heat tool to dry his work and added an extra layer of both his blue base coat and his black accents.
This morning, we reviewed last night's homework on solving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division equations. Atticus did well but was encouraged to at least attempt the more challenging problems at home and not save them for class. Then, he took the lesson's quick quiz on solving inequalities, scoring 80%. This grade reflected him hastily completing the quiz and not his ability. When asked to look at the missed questions he was able to easily correct his answers for half credit. For homework, Atticus was assigned a review on powers of exponents.
We will be focusing on reading comprehension , word recognition, and spelling over the remainder of the school year. Today, our class discussion addressed reading comprehension skills and focused reading. In response to questions, we discussed the causes and events leading up to Little Bear's seriously wounding Boone . We then worked on drawing inferences by inferring Little Bear's remorse from the text. I returned Atticus' recent quiz that basically tested plot comprehension. As he had significant difficulty with the exam, I directed Attius to specific pages in the novel and had him reread the text and provide the correct answers. We further worked on the distinction between "there, and their." Last, Atticus began writing a plot summary of chapter 14 which he will complete tonight for homework.
Atticus began class with a jump rope warmup. His goal was to achieve 80 consecutive jumps. Atticus came very close to accomplishing his goal by completing 79 jumps. Next, he partook in a fun, very competitive game of badminton and ping pong.
Atticus took a practice test over chapter 6. We discussed influential Pharaohs and rulers of Ancient Egypt. He wrote a short summary of each Pharaoh in his interactive notebook next to a picture of each ruler.
Atticus read an article about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). This disease affects cells in the brain and spinal cord, making muscles weak and difficult to control. We viewed a diagram illustrating a normal nerve and muscle cell versus an ALS affected nerve and muscle cell. Atticus researched a well-known person who has been affected by ALS and wrote a short report telling this person's story, focusing on technologies that have helped this person deal with living with the disease.
