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Ha anyone here used or considered MCT at the high school level?


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I've been reading so much about it on the k-8 board, but don't see it mentioned here much. Just wondering if anyone would be willing to share like and dislikes about MCT for high school. Or, if you looked at it and decided not to use, can you tell me why?

 

I'm looking at LA curriculum for middle school years and don't want to jump into MCT only to leave it for something else very quickly. TIA

 

Shannon

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I am using it for my 7th grader and will use it next year for 8th.

 

The discussions on the K-8 board are centered around the elementary levels of MCT (Island, Town & Voyage) so I tend to stay pretty quiet over there. There aren't many people using the secondary level; WWW is the one portion of the secondary level that I have seen discussed.

 

DS and I are enjoying MCT. We love Magic Lens and DS has learned quite a bit about grammar and sentence structure. 4practice is great. DS enjoys being able to dissect a sentence and work with the challenges that MCT throws in. The literature/history references have piqued DS's curiosity and we have traveled down many a rabbit trail in our attempts to learn more about them.

 

We began the year with AAW and had to let it go after the first month. The first part went well. We cruised through the expectations of writing, essay structure, MLA basics, etc. But when it came time to write the first essay I noticed DS had some issues with paragraph development. (DS was in ps until Jan. 2009 and always aced his writing assignments.) So I backed down to Paragraph Town and Essay Voyage. We zipped through Paragraph Town and will begin Essay Voyage in the next few weeks. I am going to work with DS on basic writing skills/paragraph development until next year (8th grade) when I will return to AAW and begin with advanced writing.

 

 

As an aside - I implemented MCT's secondary level writing and grading standards for a community college course I teach and am surprised at how poorly the students write. The one student who did exceptionally well was a homeschooler.

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You have probably described my situation with my son's writing too. I was thinking about starting him in Paragraph town and Essay voyage, but I was reluctant to mix levels with grammar and writing.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

Shannon

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Could someone tell me what MCT is please? :D I tried googling and was just getting MCAT vocabulary.

 

published by Royal Fireworks Press. It is often used as gifted curriculum but is being used by many homeschoolers.

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Could someone tell me what MCT is please? :D I tried googling and was just getting MCAT vocabulary.

 

Are you sure you want to ask that question? Do a WTM search on MCT and watch what happens. :tongue_smilie: There were about 100 threads started between Nov - Jan.

 

MCTLA is Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts. Royal Fireworks Press is the company who sells the program: www.rfwp.com

 

The program is written for gifted students or students who are looking for a challenging, think-ouside-the-box language arts program. The basis for MCTLA is a four level analysis based on grammar, vocabulary and poetics. There is a strong emphasis on reading good, high quality literature.

 

It really is a great program.

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I'm using Magic Lens 1/WWW 1 with 8th and 9th grade boys. I finally found something that is not so mind numbing for both me and the boys. We've used many programs over the years (Rod and Staff, ABeka, Easy Grammar, Analytical Grammar, Jensen's Grammar, and lots of online supplements) and we are enjoying and learning more with MCT LA than any of the others. Granted, the boys had a good foundation before we began, but they are finally understanding *why* grammar works the way it does and why the rules are necessary.

 

There are more folks on this board using the lower levels than using the Magic Lens level, but there are several of us. While I had the program for a while, we just began using it this spring semester (January). I think there are others who have used it longer.

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As an aside - I implemented MCT's secondary level writing and grading standards for a community college course I teach and am surprised at how poorly the students write. The one student who did exceptionally well was a homeschooler.

 

To what are you referring? Is it the Grading CD I see on pg 11 of the MCT brochure? The stock no is 6980 and costs $25.

 

"Containing all of MCT's comments for grading academic papers. Also contains the curriculum implementation slideshow and his address to students."

 

Or is it the CD which comes with each parent manual for Advanced Academic Writing?

 

"Each teacher manual and parent manual comes with a CD of actual research paper comments, making them unique and supremely practical resources ..... By using the comments on the CD, the parent is able to put together an essay of his or her own detailing the child's mistakes and how to correct them."

 

Thank you,

Capt_Uhura

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I'm using Magic Lens 1/WWW 1 with 8th and 9th grade boys. I finally found something that is not so mind numbing for both me and the boys. We've used many programs over the years (Rod and Staff, ABeka, Easy Grammar, Analytical Grammar, Jensen's Grammar, and lots of online supplements) and we are enjoying and learning more with MCT LA than any of the others. Granted, the boys had a good foundation before we began, but they are finally understanding *why* grammar works the way it does and why the rules are necessary.

 

There are more folks on this board using the lower levels than using the Magic Lens level, but there are several of us. While I had the program for a while, we just began using it this spring semester (January). I think there are others who have used it longer.

 

So how will MCT count toward HS credits then? Just curious how it fits into HS requirements.

 

I have also been looking at AG and the idea of being finished with grammar is appealing and there are many aspects of it that look good to me. What was your AG experience like? What about it did or didn't work?

 

Shannon

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Our transcript reads:

 

9th grade - X credits

English 9 - 1 credit

Geometry - 1 credit

Am. Govt - .5 credit

 

This is just an example of part of what the transcript will look like. I don't list the materials we used. But I do use high school level materials. MCT LA states that the Magic Lens level can be used in high school - so we're calling it high school level. As we continue with ML 2 and 3, we will call it English 10, English 11, etc.

 

My oldest used AG prior to beginning concurrent enrollment, so I think that would have been his 10th grade English. He went on to take Freshman Comp 1 in 11th grade. He did fine with AG, but it is really bare bones (no graphics, etc.). I would equate the feel with Easy Grammar, but the content, IMO, is definitely on a higher order than EG. We *did* AG, but we *enjoy doing* Magic Lens - does that make sense?

 

BTW, we do add in other components to make an English course (grammar, literature, poetry, writing, vocabulary, etc.)

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BTW, we do add in other components to make an English course (grammar, literature, poetry, writing, vocabulary, etc.)

 

 

I think I understand, but not sure whay you are adding vocab, poetry and writing. I thought they were part of MCT. Do you think MCT didn't include enough of these subjects? I can see why you need something for lit. I appreciate you answering my questions.

 

Shannon

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I believe Cynthia's point was about all the components that make up a credit of high school English. She isn't adding vocabulary or grammar in addition to MCT, but explaining all that goes into making a full credit of high school English.

 

For example, my son's 10th grade English is made up of MCT vocabulary, grammar and poetry, but the bulk of it is lots of literature, analysis and writing. I don't use a literature program, by the way, but pick out the works I want him to read and use the WEM as a guide for discussion and analysis.

 

Does that help?

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I believe Cynthia's point was about all the components that make up a credit of high school English. She isn't adding vocabulary or grammar in addition to MCT, but explaining all that goes into making a full credit of high school English.

 

For example, my son's 10th grade English is made up of MCT vocabulary, grammar and poetry, but the bulk of it is lots of literature, analysis and writing. I don't use a literature program, by the way, but pick out the works I want him to read and use the WEM as a guide for discussion and analysis.

 

Does that help?

 

Yes, that clarifies it for me.

 

Shannon

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To what are you referring?

 

 

The Core-element Grading beginning on page 40 of Advanced Academic Writing.

 

If you want a D, get your English right.

If you want a C, get the English and MLA right.

If you want a B, get English, MLA and essay structure right.

If you want an A, get English, MLA, and essay structure right & have a good thesis.

 

My students are complaining that my standards are higher than the Basic Comp teacher. I had a class discussion today about why I am grading this way and how I would be remiss in my duties as an instructor if I didn't grade on each of these aspects.

 

I allow rewrites on all papers (of which there are three) so they should be able to correct the mistakes.

 

As a matter of fact I used MCTLA's methods (4 level analysis) today to help one of my struggling students. When the student left she understood what I was trying to help her with. I thought, "Wow, I don't think I could have explained something that well last year." Last year was Pre-MCTLA in my house.

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