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Michael Clay Thompson - grade level recommendations?


blue daisy
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What do you think the general grade level equivalents are for these?  I know on the website, it says the first level is 3rd grade and it goes up from there.  But I was looking at a friend's samples today, and they are definitely challenging.  I'm looking for my boys, who will be 7th and 4th grade next year.  They are both advanced readers with good vocabulary.  But even so, I'm thinking level 2 may work for my younger DS and then level 3 might even work for my older one.  Ideas?  Anyone want to share their experiences?

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Sure!  I'm using the Town Level with my 5th grader this year, and she used Island last year. Island seemed pretty easy, and my 2nd graders are going to start it soon.  But there is a big jump to the Town level - it requires more writing, the grammar includes more elements, and the vocabulary is more advanced.  My 5th grader is finding it a challenge, and I probably won't have the twins do it until their 5th grade year,  (I think we'll do some CAP Writing and Rhetoric and probably the NaNoWriMo young writer's program during their 4th grade year.)

 

Oh, and I want to add that Practice Town seems to be unnecessary if you're doing the other books.  There are plenty of sentences to analyze in Caesar's English and Paragraph Town

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Sure!  I'm using the Town Level with my 5th grader this year, and she used Island last year. Island seemed pretty easy, and my 2nd graders are going to start it soon.  But there is a big jump to the Town level - it requires more writing, the grammar includes more elements, and the vocabulary is more advanced.  My 5th grader is finding it a challenge, and I probably won't have the twins do it until their 5th grade year,  (I think we'll do some CAP Writing and Rhetoric and probably the NaNoWriMo young writer's program during their 4th grade year.)

 

Oh, and I want to add that Practice Town seems to be unnecessary if you're doing the other books.  There are plenty of sentences to analyze in Caesar's English and Paragraph Town

 

Thanks, this is helpful!  My upcoming 4th grader is advanced with reading/vocab/spelling, etc, so I think Town will work for him.  We'll just go at a slow pace if needed.  He wants to start doing spelling bees, so we both thought learning more vocab from latin roots would be good for him.

 

I was worried that Voyage would be "behind" for my upcoming 7th grader, but again, we can just go at his pace, skip ahead if needed and move on to the next when he's ready.  He's also an advanced reader/speller/vocab, etc.

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I think he gives a large range for his recommendations.  It really depends on the kid.  I used them for the younger end of his recommendation without a problem.  EXCEPT neither of mine could handle most of the writing assignments.  It might be because he wrote then in terms of what is generally done in public schools whereas I followed more the WTM method of writing instruction in the early years.  We still learned from reading the writing books though.

 

 

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I used Town with a 5th grader and it was a great match. I used ML 1 and Essay voyage with a 7th grader - not the usual combo - and it worked for her. There is flexibility in the levels. I think your plan to do level 2 for 4th grade and 3 for 7th grade would be good. Some people complain about the writing assignments in Essay Voyage. We didn't do them all, and we read Essay Voyage mainly for samples and concepts. We used WWS 1 and then moved on to LTOW for actual writing instruction.

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I'm using Level 4 with my dyslexic rising-10th grader. It's going to be challenging. She's my oldest, so I obviously do not really know what most homeschooling kids her age--these days--would find challenging, but if I recall my own public school education, I would have found the literature and vocabulary at this level challenging even as a neuro-typical 9th grader who enjoyed language arts. These level 4 literature selections (The Time Trilogy) are no joke :P 

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I disagree with PP about Practice Town (or any of the practice books). Do not skip this! There is a lot of application of what is taught in Grammar Town ANd teaching of other things (grammar, vocabulary, a bit of poetics). The comments section in the teacher's manual is where you'll find these nuggets. Do one sentence a day ... or even 3 per week. It won't take a huge chunk of your time, but you'll reap so much from it. (You do Practice Town after Grammar Town but concurrently with the other books in the series.)

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