Jack and I started a new worksheet (the previous sheet was misplaced). I worked with Jack to create a staircase above the horizon so that he could compare it to his previous assignment.
Assignment
n/a
Session Minutes
45
Minutes Student Attended
45
Lesson Comments
Jack was very distracted and needed to be redirected several times. All in all, we were only able to work on his assignment for about 15 minutes of the class. The rest of Jack's time was spent slurping his drink from a spoon and using the bathroom.
We continued to read Louis Sachar's book of realistic children's fiction and focused on (Bradley), the protagonist's motley collection of toy animals. Foremost, there’s Ronnie the Rabbit and Bartholomew the Bear. Around his toy animals, Bradley is creative and imaginative, but at school, he presents himself as a “monster.” With his animals in his room, Bradley reveals his compassion and intelligence. I prompted Jack to think why the author chooses to incorporate the animals in the book and Jack's shared intuitive and sensitive insights which suggested he understood the intent of the author to show another side of Bradley to his readers.
Jack read about careers in science including energy auditors, desalination engineers, and marine biologists. He learned about the science background needed for each field.
Today he completed pages 54 and 55 of the book, activities 5-6 and 7. He is learning the parts of the house in Spanish. He did a good job today memorizing new vocabulary.
Jack will complete his Mathematics MAP testing today.
Assignment
n/a
Session Minutes
45
Minutes Student Attended
45
Lesson Comments
Difficult session with Jack. Dr. Jordy assisted at the start of class, as Jack was ignoring me (as if I were invisible, walking around, looking for me while I am right next to him,) not staying in the classroom and being uncooperative and unsafe.
Today we went off topic a bit and studied words that people don't realize are acronyms. Jack was really interested and I even learned some new things! Examples - SCUBA, LASER, RADAR, CARE Package, SPAM, CAPTCHA, GIF
Fables, figurative language: onomatopoeia, types of expository writing
Lesson Outline
Talk about the figurative language we have done so far. Read fables to find examples. Introduce onomatopoeia and find examples. Complete notebook sheets for this. Introduce expository writing and that it is non-fiction with examples.
I placed Jack's activity on his desk, but Jack did not start or complete the assignment of the day.
Assignment
n/a
Session Minutes
45
Minutes Student Attended
45
Lesson Comments
Jack refused to do his work, and instead built a fort. I did try, repeatly, to have Jack put away the fort, but he did not. At one point during the session, Jack took the top of his lava lamp off and placed plastic over the bulb. I did have to unplug the lamp and we removed the bulb. I have spoken with Dr. Jordy about possibly removing myself from his class.
This morning, we picked up in our study reading Chapter 5, lesson 5, and learned about the actions of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Jack was prompted to think about and discuss how the two were similar. We noted that African Americans have not been treated equally even after slavery ended and read about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and how he worked to bring equality to African Americans by leading peaceful protest marches and refusing to use violence to meet his goals. After he asked what the word 'violence' means, Jack proceeded to cite examples of violence. Once redirected, we continued to read about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, both of whom worked to bring equal rights to women. We also read about Dennis Banks, who helped found the American Indian movement with the goal of bringing civil rights to Native Americans. We discussed the common goals of these people and Jack was encouraged to reflect on whether they deserved to be recognized as American heroes.
