MCT for a 9th grader?

[kchris]

Would my 15 year old son look at me like I was crazy if I started him on the Town level? He' not had much (...well any :blushing: ) Vocabulary or Writing instruction. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Edited August 25, 2010 by kchris

[FrogMom5]

I don't know that you really need to start him back at Town level. My ds had not had any writing instruction and he was fine with Voyage level.

 

I think the MCT website recommends Voyage level for older students with no prior instruction. I would start him there.

 

Hope you get more replies, especially from those who have more experience with MCT.

 

Denise

[Gooblink]

I think Town level would be a great place to start. I've been going through it with my boys, who have both had a couple years of grammar, and we are all learning new things.

 

Your 15 year old will probably be able to move through it rather quickly, but I would resist any temptation to skip over Practice Town work.

 

The vocabulary is in no way childish or "dumbed-down." Especially if your son has never had formal vocab work, I would expect the CE 1 to be plenty challenging.

 

The stories in Paragraph Town are cute and humorous, but, again, they are not childish.

 

HTH :001_smile:

 

ETA: Then again, Voyage level would probably be OK, too. :)

[kchris]

Thank you, both! :)

[1Togo]

He might give you a crazy look, but MCT is excellent. Our daughter is 14, and we have used several writing curriculum. Although she learned from all of them, especially LTW which we still use for literature, I wanted a complete package; i.e. vocabulary, grammar, composition, and poetry. We are working our way through the Level 1 poetics book; i.e. The Musics of the Hemispheres, and plan to begin Level 2; i.e. Town, in a few weeks. Of all the Town books, only Paragraph Town has a "youngish" feel to text writing. However, the content is rich with examples ranging from The Wind in the Willows to Moby Dick, and the writing lessons are complex. At first I thought we could start with the Voyage level, but dd needs the paragraph work.

 

If you dedicate about 1.5 hours per day to MCT, I think an older student can work through Town level in one semester and then move on to the Essay level. As Dr. Tom puts it, the MCT content is high school even at the lower levels.

 

Bonita

[kchris]

Thank you, Bonita! I think I'll go with Town. :)

[EKS]

I wouldn't start a 15 yo at the Town level. It features a talking duck, which is perfect for 4th graders.

 

I started my then 13yo at the Voyage level, and it was perfect for him.

[kchris]

It features a talking duck, which is perfect for 4th graders.

This is what I'm hesitant about.

[Rhea]

My 9th grader last year started with Essay Voyage, Grammar Voyage (which she moved through very quickly), and Word Within The Word 1. Due to lack of time we chose not to do poetry, but we are going to this year.

 

You will love these materials! Essay Voyage is wonderful. I had thought to start my daughter in Academic Writing and had purchased EV for my 7th grader, but soon realized I wanted my daughter to have the benefit of EV too. The writing examples in EV are rich, like velvet instead of raw unsanded wood. (Can you tell I love that book?)

 

Rhea

[StephanieZ]

I agree that you could do Town & Voyage both in one year with a 15 yo. No problem. I'd estimate 5 hours total time each week.

 

I posted a schedule to combine Island & Town in one year for someone over on the MCT yahoo group a week or two ago. ;)

 

To combine Town & then Voyage (*for a 15 yo*). . . I would:

 

(**I am NOT suggesting this as a good avenue for a younger child!!! Just as an IDEA for a teen who wants to remediate. . .)

 

Vocab: 2 lessons each week will be no problem. So, 40 lessons (CE1&2) in 20 weeks. Plenty of flexibility for slowing down as needed. (Each lesson only adds five words, so this is just 10 words a week. No problem! WWW has 20 new stems a week!!)

 

Poetry: Read the Town Level Poetry book together over 6 weeks. Don't freak out about mastery. It'll all be repeated!

 

Then, move into the Voyage level book and savor it more slowly for the remainder of the school year. . . (ie, a chapter each two weeks or so)

 

Grammar:

 

Wks 1- 4 -- Grammar Town

Wks 5-10: Practice Town, 10 sentences a week (2/day)

Wks 11-14: Grammar Voyage PLUS complete Practice Town (10/wk)

Wks 15-34: Practice Voyage (5 sentences/wk)

 

Writing:

 

Wks 5-14: Paragraph Town, two lessons a week (there are 20 lessons)

Wks 15-34: Essay Voyage, one lesson every two weeks (there are 10 lessons)

 

HTH

[kchris]

Thank you, Rhea and Stephanie!! :)

[ChemMommy]

Okay, I really didn't need to do Sentence Island, but I wanted to look at the program for my younger kids so I went ahead and ordered it. Both books were very childish and my 16 yo did a lot of eyerolling. HOWEVER, he did learn a lot from PT. We did PT in about one month. He could see the points the book was teaching and able to practice writing paragraphs. We've since moved on to EV and have really slowed down.

 

My son was confident that he could write a good paragraph. He couldn't. Now, he understands the mechanics of writing a paragraph. EV has been a real learning experience for him and is NOT babyish at all.

 

If I was doing this again, I would still use PT. It was babyish, but the content was good and it went fast. EV has been an excellent program so far. My son's writing has clearly improved!