Need advice from MCT Voyage users

[SBP]

We're six weeks in to our school year now, and I'm trying to evaluate what's going well and what's going not-so-well. MCT is definitely going well. It's far and away my favorite part of our day, to the point that I'm a little afraid of gushing like a besotted schoolgirl every time I mention it.

 

However...

 

The weak link (for us) is definitely the World of Poetry book. It's not so much that the book itself is weak, but it's the one element of the program that I really can't seem to figure out how to teach. The way I have it scheduled currently, I have the kids do Practice Voyage on M, W, F and we do World of Poetry on T, Th. So Poetry two days a week, for about 15 minutes. I know that's not a lot, but I think if I tried to do more or more often, I'd have a mutiny on my hands. Right now, we just read a few pages, and they take turns reading the poems he uses as examples. Sometimes I'll get out poetry from other sources, and we'll try to mark the meter (which is the section we're on right now) or find some other element mentioned in the lesson. Usually by that time, everyone is yawning and I'm wondering what I'm supposed to be doing. They're getting exposure to the various elements of poetry, but I definitely wouldn't brag about their retention of any of it. And the thing that makes me kind of sad about it is that my kids have always liked poetry and enjoyed memorizing it. I'm starting to see this experience as killing their enjoyment of poetry when, in the hands of the right teacher, it could and should enhance it.

 

Advice? How are you using this resource in your school?

 

My other question is about Essay Voyage. We're loving this resource and using every single bit of it, but we're getting through a chapter a week right now, and at this rate, it will only get us through this semester. So for those of you that have used or are using Essay Voyage, what do you do with the rest of the school year? I know I can go back and assign more of the "options" (which I'm tweaking so that they'll correspond with our history studies) and just keep revisiting topics in EV as they apply to the writing we're doing in other subjects. I would also be open to another resource if anyone has suggestions. The Elegant Essay? The Lively Art of Writing? Does one of these (or something else) follow Essay Voyage well? Suggestions and BTDT stories would be most appreciated :).

 

SBP

[cheryl h]

We are only 2 weeks into Grammar Voyage, but I am :bigear: on this one.

[SBP]

Anyone?:001_smile:

[patchfire]

We spent three weeks going through World of Poetry - overlapped a bit with Grammar Voyage & then by itself. We read the chapter, discussed it, did the writing bits, and then moved on. When we are memorizing poetry, we'll bring it up, or while we're working in CEII or EV (e.g., we decided "vivacious hatred" was an amazing oxymoron, while working through CEII). We'll go back through it more slowly over the remainder of the school year - she'll re-read a chapter one week, say, and the next week or two we'll concentrate on discussing that aspect in memory work, prose, etc.

 

Dd is spending two weeks on each EV chapter - we spend the first week on the grammar/vocab/paragraph/essay stuff, and then the second week on the various options. Still, at the rate we're progressing, she's going to finish the book by the end of January. My tentative plan is to spend part of the remainder of the year going through at least the first 2-4 chapters of The Lively Art of Writing, as well as re-visiting EV, doing different options, etc.

[Matryoshka]

We're starting Essay Voyage next week, so I don't have any BTDT yet. We're also doing Lightning Lit 8, which has some writing assignments, and our history has some as well - I think that may be enough to round out the year (I'd expect them to apply what they learned in EV to their other assignments). If we still somehow run out of writing, I have been sorely tempted to add Lost Tools of Writing to all this, but it's so expensive - with all the other stuff on the plate, I'd have to be sure I'll have lots of extra time to actually get to it. I'm thinking maybe I'll add Lively Art of Writing instead if I have extra time, as I've heard good things about it, it's inexpensive, and it would reinforce the Essay theme.

 

I won't be much help on the Poetry book - all I've managed to do is read through them as well. They do seem to retain the information quite well as far as being able to recognize the concepts, although I have yet to get them to prouduce anything using it.

[SBP]

We spent three weeks going through World of Poetry - overlapped a bit with Grammar Voyage & then by itself. We read the chapter, discussed it, did the writing bits, and then moved on. When we are memorizing poetry, we'll bring it up, or while we're working in CEII or EV (e.g., we decided "vivacious hatred" was an amazing oxymoron, while working through CEII). We'll go back through it more slowly over the remainder of the school year - she'll re-read a chapter one week, say, and the next week or two we'll concentrate on discussing that aspect in memory work, prose, etc.

 

This is tremendously helpful - thank you! I think we're bogging down in meter, when what we need to do is push on through and then revisit it, as you say, as we encounter relevant things throughout the year. For some reason, I'm having a lot of trouble thinking outside the box with this particular resource.

 

Dd is spending two weeks on each EV chapter - we spend the first week on the grammar/vocab/paragraph/essay stuff, and then the second week on the various options. Still, at the rate we're progressing, she's going to finish the book by the end of January. My tentative plan is to spend part of the remainder of the year going through at least the first 2-4 chapters of The Lively Art of Writing, as well as re-visiting EV, doing different options, etc.

 

We started out at the same pace you did - lesson stuff one week, writing stuff the next, but I didn't feel like they were getting enough writing done in their other subjects, so I elected to press on through EV. So we do a lesson one week, I assign writing for the next, but while they're working on the writing assignment(s) for chapter 2 (e.g.) during their afternoon time, we're forging ahead with chapter 3 of EV during the morning LA class. I think what's thrown me a little is that I expected Lightning Lit to be more demanding (time-wise and composition-wise) than it's been so far. If the pace of Lightning Lit picks up, I might not be as worried about finishing Essay Voyage early, KWIM? I just feel like becoming a strong writer requires lots of actual writing time, and I haven't been wonderful up to now at coming up with writing assignments across the curriculum. I'm determined NOT to drop this particular ball this year.

 

Thank you so much for your response!

 

SBP

[SBP]

We're starting Essay Voyage next week, so I don't have any BTDT yet. We're also doing Lightning Lit 8, which has some writing assignments, and our history has some as well - I think that may be enough to round out the year (I'd expect them to apply what they learned in EV to their other assignments). If we still somehow run out of writing, I have been sorely tempted to add Lost Tools of Writing to all this, but it's so expensive - with all the other stuff on the plate, I'd have to be sure I'll have lots of extra time to actually get to it. I'm thinking maybe I'll add Lively Art of Writing instead if I have extra time, as I've heard good things about it, it's inexpensive, and it would reinforce the Essay theme.

 

I won't be much help on the Poetry book - all I've managed to do is read through them as well. They do seem to retain the information quite well as far as being able to recognize the concepts, although I have yet to get them to prouduce anything using it.

 

I've only just heard of The Lost Tools of Writing, and I couldn't get the demo link to work, but the price... :ohmy:!

 

I put Lively Art of Writing in my shopping cart at Amazon. That fits my budget much better :D.

 

Thanks for your response :).

 

SBP

[Shawna in Texas]

I'll start with Essay Voyage. We spent 3 weeks on Ch. 1. I plan to do it that way with the rest of the book. He gives several options for each week, so it's easy to do. The first week we did a paragraph on an unusual animal. The second week was to find Veracruz, and do an informative paragraph. Last week was the 3 or 4 paragraphs from Veracruz to Sao Paolo and I gave her the option of mimicking Montaigne a bit and I was pretty impressed because she mentioned the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio.

 

You could go the way I did with Paragraph Town. Finishing, but going back to pick out exercises that were particularly good. I really like the writing books and I think DD gets a lot out of them.

 

Once I finish the writing book, that's when I'll start the poetry book. I plan on getting several resources together, such as Kenneth Koch, favorite poets, and different anthologies. I'd rather do a more in depth poetry study than try and fit in with the rest of LA.

[Matryoshka]

We started out at the same pace you did - lesson stuff one week, writing stuff the next, but I didn't feel like they were getting enough writing done in their other subjects, so I elected to press on through EV. So we do a lesson one week, I assign writing for the next, but while they're working on the writing assignment(s) for chapter 2 (e.g.) during their afternoon time, we're forging ahead with chapter 3 of EV during the morning LA class. I think what's thrown me a little is that I expected Lightning Lit to be more demanding (time-wise and composition-wise) than it's been so far. If the pace of Lightning Lit picks up, I might not be as worried about finishing Essay Voyage early, KWIM? I just feel like becoming a strong writer requires lots of actual writing time, and I haven't been wonderful up to now at coming up with writing assignments across the curriculum. I'm determined NOT to drop this particular ball this year.

 

 

It's good to hear feedback from someone a bit farther along. We just did the first unit of Lightning Lit last week, and I'm going to have them write their assignment from that next week, while we do the first chapter of EV. But it sounds like it might not get too overwhelming. I also need to make sure not to drop the writing ball! I tend to get bogged down in editing/revising, as I do think there's a lot to be learned there, but if you spend too much time on it, you never get to the next assignment!

[8filltheheart]

I guess I don't see any of these as a problem b/c I see the entire point of studying them as meaning they spend the rest of their lives (not just the week, month, or yr) incorporating and improving on the ideas.

 

I rarely use writing curriculum, but I will say that I love EV's essay examples and his points are excellent. I pull writing assignments from lit, science, or history weekly. We evaluate together in terms of what is expected based on what they have learned in the past (an not just the recent past......their cumulative educational past). They have to re-work the assignment in areas of weakness.

 

As far as the poetry, being exposed to the terminology is excellent. However, those definitions don't just belong to poetry: most are relevant to prose as well. It is easier to find consistent examples in poetry. Short stories are also excellent sources. I love the way he teaches the terminology. I am not so keen on some of the poetry selected.