Word Within a Word

[Shelly in the Country]

This vocabulary program caught my eye in my Rainbow Resource catalog last night. It is root based vocabulary study. Anybody have any experience with this? Reviews?

[Wildiris]

I bought Word Within a Word last year thinking that my then precocious 6th grader could handle this type of word study. I put it on the shelf and plan to use it when she is a older. Now in 7th grade, I pulled off my shelves Vocabulary for the High School Student. Rainbow gives a good description of this book, as well as giving a good peek inside so a person can see the format to the text. This seems a better fit for her. She can move through this more independently. Rainbow did not have the TE, so I bought that through Hewitt Homeschooling.

[Shelly in the Country]

Rainbow did not have the TE, so I bought that through Hewitt Homeschooling.

 

I've looked at this one, too. Is the TE necessary?

[Wildiris]

Yes, I find the TE necessary.

[Matryoshka]

This vocabulary program caught my eye in my Rainbow Resource catalog last night. It is root based vocabulary study. Anybody have any experience with this? Reviews?

 

That's part of the Michael Clay Thompson LA curriculum (didn't know Rainbow sold any of that!) - but from what I've heard of WWW, it's not necessarily the best jumping in point for a new student to the program. The program was written with gifted kids in mind, and can run a bit above grade level listed.

 

I'm using MCT's Caesar's English I with my two 6th graders and love it. CEI, according to MCT is for 4-5th grade, but we're finding it quite challenging enough. It's so much meatier than what we were using before (Word Roots), and my kids are really retaining it. We're moving through it quickly with the thought that we'll get to CEII (ostenibly for 5-6th grade) sometime later in the year, and WWW next year at the earliest. From what I hear it's yet another big jump up in intensity.

 

CEI seems like a great entry point to the program, and it's easy to move through it quickly if you want to compress.

[Lovedtodeath]

 

I'm using MCT's Caesar's English I with my two 6th graders and love it. CEI, according to MCT is for 4-5th grade, but we're finding it quite challenging enough. It's so much meatier than what we were using before (Word Roots), and my kids are really retaining it. We're moving through it quickly with the thought that we'll get to CEII (ostenibly for 5-6th grade) sometime later in the year, and WWW next year at the earliest. From what I hear it's yet another big jump up in intensity.

I am getting excited about vocabulary now. :lol:

[Shelly in the Country]

That's part of the Michael Clay Thompson LA curriculum (didn't know Rainbow sold any of that!) - but from what I've heard of WWW, it's not necessarily the best jumping in point for a new student to the program. The program was written with gifted kids in mind, and can run a bit above grade level listed.

 

I'm using MCT's Caesar's English I with my two 6th graders and love it. CEI, according to MCT is for 4-5th grade, but we're finding it quite challenging enough. It's so much meatier than what we were using before (Word Roots), and my kids are really retaining it. We're moving through it quickly with the thought that we'll get to CEII (ostenibly for 5-6th grade) sometime later in the year, and WWW next year at the earliest. From what I hear it's yet another big jump up in intensity.

 

CEI seems like a great entry point to the program, and it's easy to move through it quickly if you want to compress.

 

Thank you! I was not familiar with Michael Clay Thompson before today. Rainbow Resource doesn't sell the Caesar's English books so I wouldn't have known about them without the "heads up". :001_smile: This looks fantastic. Dd has been tearing through Wordly Wise books and even though she enjoys them I would like her to do something more root-based. I think I will be spending some time over at the Royal Fireworks Press site.

[radiobrain]

Rainbow sells WWW and Magic Lens... FYI. I don't know why they don't sell any others.

 

I cannot say enough good things about CE. We are still on number 1, but it is very indepth and meaty, giving you far more than vocab and root work. It gives a scope to language and shows how one word can be used in a myriad of ways (by different famous authors, in major works) and why. I think it is excellent.

 

I am only saying this as you seem to already be intrigued by the MCT world...:D it is a weird and wonderful world! I think that CE is definitely the place to start, I think the only difference would be how long it takes to get through a lesson (or how many pages a lesson becomes). My 11 & 9 year olds take a few days to a few weeks to get through a lesson, and I would think an older kid would just finish it faster.

 

Remember, in that level you only need the TM. All Island/town/voyage level books need only the TM (except for the practice books where you need both) and in the WWW/LEns books you would need student and HS TM (not standard TM)

 

Good luck! Caesar's English rocks!

 

korin

[Melissa B]

Remember, in that level you only need the TM. All Island/town/voyage level books need only the TM (except for the practice books where you need both) and in the WWW/LEns books you would need student and HS TM (not standard.)

 

You really don't even need the student book for the practice books. It is only one sentence per day. I dictate the sentence to the child who writes it on a white board and then analyzes it. You could just copy it to a white board rather than dictate it to save time.

[Shelly in the Country]

I am only saying this as you seem to already be intrigued by the MCT world...:D it is a weird and wonderful world! I think that CE is definitely the place to start, I think the only difference would be how long it takes to get through a lesson (or how many pages a lesson becomes). My 11 & 9 year olds take a few days to a few weeks to get through a lesson, and I would think an older kid would just finish it faster.

 

Remember, in that level you only need the TM. All Island/town/voyage level books need only the TM (except for the practice books where you need both) and in the WWW/LEns books you would need student and HS TM (not standard TM)

 

I am definitely intrigued :001_smile:. The poetry materials look great as well. My dd LOVES poetry. I think I will be spending some money soon...

 

But back to vocabulary (since that is what I need to get within the next two weeks; dd is finishing up her WW book):

 

I only need the TM for Caesar's English? There is, what I am guessing is a student book, for $15 and the TM for $20. I don't need the student book? Are the assignments done orally? :confused:

[Vida Winter]

I am definitely intrigued :001_smile:. The poetry materials look great as well. My dd LOVES poetry. I think I will be spending some money soon...

 

But back to vocabulary (since that is what I need to get within the next two weeks; dd is finishing up her WW book):

 

I only need the TM for Caesar's English? There is, what I am guessing is a student book, for $15 and the TM for $20. I don't need the student book? Are the assignments done orally? :confused:

 

For most of the RFWP materials all you need is the TM (it contains an exact copy of the student book within it). The exception to this is the practice books - Practice Island, Practice Town, etc -- you need a TM and a SM for these since you want the student book to be blank and your student can write in it.

 

For help selecting materials I would suggest calling Royal Fireworks Press. They are very helpful in selecting materials and will not advise you to buy things you don't need. Their customer service is excellent.

 

Do not be hung up on grade levels with this program. I personally had a lot to learn from the very first "Practice Island" book and that was targeted for 3rd grade on up. MCT does not "dumb down" sentences or vocabulary -- it is the most thorough, useful language arts program I have ever used.

 

One nice thing about using the entire program is that the Caesar's English words are used frequently in the other books so reinforcement is built in.

[Matryoshka]

I am definitely intrigued :001_smile:. The poetry materials look great as well. My dd LOVES poetry. I think I will be spending some money soon...

 

I did the first poetry book with my younger dd over the summer and really enjoyed it. I'll be starting the Town level poetry book with my older two soon and am really looking forward to it!

 

I only need the TM for Caesar's English? There is, what I am guessing is a student book, for $15 and the TM for $20. I don't need the student book? Are the assignments done orally? :confused:

 

Yes, yes, you only need the TM. The TM and the Student book are the same except there are quizzes and answers and teaching tips at the back. You don't write in the book.

 

Every odd chapter has 5 stems. You read and discuss the chapter together. There is a word search - I photocopy it.

 

Every even chapter has 5 vocab words. Again, read and discuss together. Then there's a section on synonyms where the child looks up the ones they don't know and sees how they're slightly different. There are also Rewrites, where they rewrite passages with the vocab words in simpler language. I have them do those on separate paper; I do the rest orally.

 

Every chapter has a quiz - they are located at the back of the TM. I photocopy them. They're not in the student book anyway.

 

hth!

[Shelly in the Country]

Thank you so much :001_smile:. I think I know what to buy now. Now I must talk myself out of replacing every bit of our current language arts with this :lol:. Seriously though, this looks like a great language arts program and the videos of Mr. Thompson talking about the state of LArts education today was very inspiring.

 

How had I never heard of this before? :tongue_smilie: