This week in we started our new novel "Life of Pi." Please read as much as you can for next week. Every Monday and Tuesday the class has 20 minutes at the beginning of class to write about whatever they want. This gives me a chance to assess each students weaknesses and strengths in writing. In science we finished chapter 2 and we got a chance to discuss ecosystems and different biomes. Next week we start review for the unit test, and there is a vocabulary quiz on Tuesday. Please study!

Howard's concentration is improving. I did not have to remind him so many times to pay attention and stop talking. I am pleased with his progress. Howard needs to work on his tense agreement when he is writing. He often changes back and forth from present tense to past tense in the same sentence.

Teddy's concentration is improving also. I have isolated a few problems in Teddy's writing and I hope to help him overcome these obstacles in his written work. He needs to pay attention to his tenses and make sure he is consistent with past and present tense. Also he needs to watch for spelling errors that occur because he is rushing through his work. He often leaves out letters in words. Finally, he must make sure that there is a subject in each sentence. He sometimes leaves out the subject of his sentences completely, such as "because walking the dog and then the dog got lost" instead of "because HE was walking the dog and then the dog got lost."

I always enjoy reading MJ's free topic writing. I admire his attempt to use English turn of phrase and expressions. He experiments with metaphors in his writing and I think this is very good practice. My only suggestion is that MJ take class a bit more seriously.

Irisa has a good grasp of paragraph structure and grammar. She makes some mistakes in tenses sometimes but we can work on that. Keep up the good work.

Anne has been more focused this week and she has worked very hard during class time. She has the common problem of confusing her tenses sometimes but I think she can improve with some practice and more attention to detail.

I only see Betty for half the class and I feel this hinders her from finishing her work. I am trying to find a way to maximize her learning in the short amount of time we have. Often by the time she arrives to class, we are already working in our workbooks and she has missed the whole lesson. Perhaps she can find time while she is at Tree House to read her science book independently.

I look forward to reading more written work and seeing how the class does on their unit test. See you next week.