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Playing catch-up with MCT


Targhee
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I need some advice about getting my DD (10, 5th grade) caught up in language arts/writing. I want to start MCT at the Town level with her, but at an accelerated pace.

 

Here is some background information on her. She was in public school for 1st-3rd grades, and it was a Spanish language immersion school. While I loved the immersion school and its approach, we moved out of state and have been homeschooling again (she was also HS in K). The drawback of the immersion school was a bit of a lag in English language instruction (because they spent so much time on Spanish). We started 4th grade with difficulties writing more than 2-3 sentences before she burned out. She was diagnosed with a stutter last year, but we were unable to get services for her. I suspect that this stutter is actually part of a language organization difficulty (we are getting an ed psych eval this week) because even if she does not stutter her speech is slower than average and a bit disjointed (and her spelling is pretty bad - we're working on that). On top of that, she has had fine motor/writing difficulties (been through OT for that), and she is ADD, which contributes to her difficulties organizing words to convey her ideas. In spite of any challenges she is faced with she is wicked smart, and quickly understands big/deep/complex concepts. I think MCT will resonate with her.

 

We used SWI A last year, which she disliked because she did not like using a model paragraph (it was too close to creative writing, but not close enough for her because she had to copy someone else - we need a distinction between creative and academic writing). We also lightly introduced grammar (the parts of speech) with a some picture books and a worksheet here and there (subjects and predicates, simple diagramming, subject-verb agreement, etc). This year we used Wordsmith Apprentice, which has done the job of getting her to at least not balk at writing. It isn't exactly deep or rigorous though. The grammar in it is paltry and nothing new to her. We also are using Wordly Wise - she likes learning vocabulary but it isn't systematic (no roots and stems, etc).

 

My goal is to get her through Voyage by the end of next school year. I have 12 weeks left of this school year to work in, and then the entire year next year. How do I do it?? We do not school over the summer, but I think we I could manage maybe 20-30 min a day (Practice Town? CE?). My thought was to use this 12 weeks to do Grammar Town, start Practice Town and CE, but I don't know how to schedule Paragraph Town. Do I wait until fall? About how long does it take to get through Paragraph Town? I am thinking of just not getting Building Poems and jumping into poetry with World of Poetry. Any other ideas out there about how to get to the end of Voyage level by next year??

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If that was my goal, I'd do Grammar Town, Practice Town, and Paragraph Town. I'd skip Caesar's English unless you just want it for vocab but it doesn't really teach grammar and there's almost no grammar or writing practice in it. It also takes a long time. If you work on Practice Town through the summer, you could probably start Grammar Voyage at the beginning of next school year. Or, you could probably skip Practice Town and buy Practice Voyage. IMO, Practice Town stays at too low of a level for too long. If the pattern in Practice Voyage is similar, the sentences in that level would not be too hard for someone doing Practice Town until the very end of the book. At that point, you could stop or you might be ready for that level already.

 

If she has trouble writing, however, you will need to supplement with something for punctuation and capitalization. MCT does not teach that.

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I'm not sure why you want to get to the end of Voyage by the end of 6th grade. A 7th or 8th grader writing MLA essays would be completely on-target for high school level work.

 

You say that last yr she struggled with more than 2-3 sentences, but what is her current level of writing? A student using Voyage really needs to be a strong writer already writing multiple paragraphs. Voyage focuses on improving stylistic techniques and attempts to teach students how to incorporate supporting quotes into essays. It does not teach students how to write multiple paragraph papers.

 

Not knowing what her current level of writing is, it is sort of difficult to make comments. Based on my own kids and their writing progression, I would suspect that they would need next yr to solidify paragraph writing transitioning to multiple paragraph writing and hold off until 7th grade to move to essay with supporting evidence writing.

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You say that last yr she struggled with more than 2-3 sentences, but what is her current level of writing? A student using Voyage really needs to be a strong writer already writing multiple paragraphs. Voyage focuses on improving stylistic techniques and attempts to teach students how to incorporate supporting quotes into essays. It does not teach students how to write multiple paragraph papers.

 

Good point - I didn't say where she is now with writing. I interjected the '2-3 sentences' to reference where she started at. Much of her lack of stamina was do to muscle deficiency in her grip. We spent several months in OT working on that. She can easily write a paragraph on a single topic (intro, detail/support, conclusion). She has had very limited (2 assignments) experience writing multiple paragraphs on a topic. We have not worked on writing any essays yet, which is why I wanted to start her in Town level.

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If that was my goal, I'd do Grammar Town, Practice Town, and Paragraph Town. I'd skip Caesar's English unless you just want it for vocab but it doesn't really teach grammar and there's almost no grammar or writing practice in it. It also takes a long time.

First, thank you for the suggestions! I do want CE for the vocab, but can I use it out of sequence (I don't care if we finishe CE 2 by the end of next year) and just start it in the fall?

If you work on Practice Town through the summer, you could probably start Grammar Voyage at the beginning of next school year. [/Quote]

Can I start Grammar Voyage before finishing writing in Paragraph Town, or should we work on that over the summer? How much time (daily and how many weeks) would Paragraph Town take?

 

If she has trouble writing, however, you will need to supplement with something for punctuation and capitalization. MCT does not teach that.

I think we have capitalization covered. Finer points of punctuation, as for clauses and parenthetical statements, we haven't covered. Nor have we covered quotations in any detail. Any recommendations for those skills?

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Having just attended a talk by MCT himself, I want to pass along something he stressed.

 

Take your time - whatever time is needed - in the beginning to build a solid and complete understanding of the foundational elements. This is critical to success farther along. Of course, set goals, but be prepared to slow down if necessary.

 

We are using the Town level currently, and I've already dug deeply into the Voyage level in preparation, as well as read through some of the secondary materials. This curriculum builds a great deal of momentum pretty quickly, especially moving into the Voyage level.

 

Also, I second Paige's comments above on the Practice Town and Practice Voyage books.

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Take your time - whatever time is needed - in the beginning to build a solid and complete understanding of the foundational elements. This is critical to success farther along. Of course, set goals, but be prepared to slow down if necessary.

 

 

Thank you for that - very neat that you got to hear him speak! That makes real sense, especially since I hear there is a big jump between Rown and Voyage. I think one of the reasons we are not just jumping in at Voyage (which is the suggested starting point for new 6th graders) is because I want those foundational elements solidly there. I think she will excel in the program - she really loves the logic, wit, and beauty of words. I just am trying to figure out how to customize it so that we get the essentials of Town before going on to Voyage. Our umbrella school would have paid for MCT, but only if in 6th grade she started in ML and WwW :-|

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