CassieEnglish FCassie has great potential to be a strong student in English. She showed a lot of interest in The Immor-tal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and contributed to discussion when called upon in class. Cassie frequently comments on the basic plot events at the surface of the text. This is a necessary foundation for being able to discuss literature at the high school level. As an improvement goal, Cassie should begin to formulate questions for each chapter that dive beyond plot events and enter into the realm of critical questioning and thinking. I have no doubt that with proper preparation for class, Cassie could improve her comprehen-sion of the text and its relevance in her daily life. It seemed that she had a difficult time participating sim-ply because she was behind in the reading schedule and did not complete many of her journal assign-ments. When she was caught up, she contributed well to class and raised some good questions about the morals and ethical issues in the book. If Cassie works hard to stay on pace with reading assignments, she will grow as a reader and writer and will become an excellent student in English. Cassie also showed great interest in her final project on literary devices and did a good job asking questions about, and even-tually completing her thesis statement in class with me.

History CIn History, Cassie did a good job hypothesizing and using context clues as she explore new terms. Espe-cially when called upon, Cassie was able to think on her feet and articulate what she knew about a certain concept or idea. Her willingness to take intellectual risks by volunteering answers that she was not totally sure of demonstrates a commitment to learning from her mistakes and trying new things academically. During the Make a Movement project, Cassie’s group created a mentor program between 6th and 9th graders at Aspire. As the 9th graders met with their 6th grade mentor groups, Cassie facilitated discus-sion with her partner Sierra and interacted well with the girls. However, Cassie could go a long way to-ward improving her achievement if she prepared for study properly. Actions such as completing home-work on time and keeping up with reading assigned segments of the text will help Cassie achieve her po-tential at school. Additionally, I recommend that Cassie actively seek information about current events by reading or listening to news in many media formats.

Deanna English F (incomplete)Though it is difficult to assess Deanna’s performance in English due to her absences, when Deanna was able to be in class, she showed great interest in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and the literary devices used in the book. She was always willing to volunteer answers or comments during group discus-sion about each chapter, and also asked some excellent questions about the advanced vocabulary in the book. Deanna worked diligently during the last two weeks of class to complete her final project on literary devices and I often witnessed her scouring her book for quotations, and anecdotes to supplement the project. Deanna also worked one on one with me to understand the nature of thesis statements and to create one for her final project. I am always impressed with Deanna’s commitment and effort. Areas for improvement include: staying on pace with reading and homework assignments.

History F (Incomplete)Though it is difficult to assess Deanna’s performance in History due to her absences, she was always able to contribute to class discussion on the days she was present by offering anecdotes from her daily life, and her first hand experiences with current events. Deanna also did a nice job working with her Make a Movement group when she was present, and made sure to contribute to the group work by making posters to advertise their project and also supporting her sisters when they gave short speeches to the

Aspire girls. Deanna should continue to pay attention to the world around her, and perhaps begin to read news articles from different perspectives in order to gain new views on issues she is already familiar with.

BernaeEnglish A+Bernae demonstrates advanced skills in English class. She is an excellent contributor to class discus-sions not only due to her impressive knowledge of literary devices, literature, and writing, but also be-cause of her ability to listen to her classmates and respond to their comments constructively. Bernae is also skilled at introducing new ideas into a discussion and has the ability to grasp an issue from two differ-ent perspectives during discussion. Bernae is always prepared for class and typically exceeds homework and in-class assignment expectations. Bernae seems to prefer individual work, as she would often isolate herself from the other girls during work time in order to produce her best work. Her writing skills are strong (especially thesis statement writing), but will continue to improve naturally as she advances through high school. I challenged Bernae to write a review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and share it on the website called GoodReads in order to practice her writing skills and also to improve her critical analy-sis skills.

History A+In History class, Bernae seems extremely comfortable discussing current events, social issues and social movements. She is a leader in History class and continually poses challenging questions that deepen class discussion. Though we only skimmed the surface of the topic due to time constraints, Bernae seemed especially interested in building her knowledge base pertaining to social justice and often asked questions about the nature of social work. To challenge herself in History, Bernae should continue to read about current events and world news in the newspaper or online to scaffold her knowledge in these areas of social studies.

Nijia English A+Though Nijia began the year as a quiet student in English class, she became noticeably more involved in class discussion as the summer progressed. Now, at the end of the summer, she participates more and has a lot to say about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Nijia also showed a strong interest in the literary devices we studied this summer, and asked very pointed questions in order to understand them better. She is skilled at locating textual examples of literary devices and seemed quite excited about pre-senting her final project which showcased 4 examples of literary devices in the book. She has been work-ing diligently during class time for two weeks to finish her project. Nijia can still improve in volunteering answers in class and speaking loudly and clearly so her classmates can hear her great ideas.

History A+In History, Nijia has had many successes. She exceeded expectations during both of her Minute to Win It oral reports by offering more than 3 facts about her subject. She also completed all homework on time and demonstrated the ability to examine and present logical arguments for various points of view during conversation. This is an important skill for high school students because it allows them to break out of the comfort zone of only offering their own opinions and enter the realm of sophisticated discussion where multiple perspectives can be entertained. Nijia was also unanimously elected the leader of her Make a Movement project group, and she took the responsibility seriously, leading her group to create and suc-cessfully execute a 6th and 9th grade mentor group day during the second to last week of Aspire. Nijia should continue to increase her global awareness and knowledge of current events by reading the news from multiple sources.

Makayla

English A

Makayla’s fiery passion for life spills over into English class everyday. At the beginning of class, I can al-ways count on Makayla to ask a fantastic question about the chapters we are discussing for the day. These questions are typically things that many of the other girls are wondering about, but are perhaps too shy to bring up. For this reason, Makayla’s questioning has a great impact on the class as a whole as well as her own individual learning. Makayla is also always willing to volunteer answers and read aloud in class, even when she is not entirely sure of the “right” answer, or the right pronunciation of a word. Her in-trepid nature allows her and all of her classmates to learn from mistakes and grow as readers, and writ-ers. Makayla should continue to work on trying not to repeat herself during discussions. This is a very common challenge for young high schoolers, and I believe as Makayla continues to reflect on her work in English class, she will reduce or eliminate repetitive language and ideas.

History A+

Makayla is very enthusiastic in History class and is always prepared to share anecdotes from her own life and community when we discuss social issues. Makayla also demonstates another important skill in His-tory class: the ability to hypothesize and create meaning from context clues. I often ask the girls to at-tempt to define unfamiliar words on their own before presenting correct answers, which allows students to synthesize their preconceived notions with new ideas. Makayla articulated her undeveloped ideas and re-mained open to absorbing new concepts. She drew on this skill specifically during discussions about so-cial justice, a term with which she was previously unfamiliar. By using context clues from a short video clip played in class, Makayla was able to piece together a solid interpretation of social justice before being in-troduced to the definition. We explored social justice rather quickly due to time constraints, so I chal-lenged Makayla at midterms to either download news applications on her phone, or begin reading the newspaper in order to sharpen her skills of interpreting bias and perspective. This will help her develop an awareness of current events and contribute to an emerging world view.