Lostinabook Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) My fifth grade dd is on her second year of using MCT materials. We did the whole Island series last year & this year we are just doing the grammar, the writing, and the practice book. We began fourth grade with R & S & ended up quitting since she had absolutely NO retention. With MCT she's understanding grammar to the extent that she can transfer the knowledge when she's doing other subjects. I've been astonished. However. She's on Lesson 6 of Paragraph Town & as I was looking through the remainder of the book today I can see that she probably won't be ready for the assignments that will pop up in the next few weeks. I'm wondering if I can stretch some of the assignments over a couple of weeks & then not introduce Essay Voyage until at least 7th grade. I'm also wondering how you as a teacher determine that the essays are good enough. For instance, in Lesson 13 (of Paragraph Town) the assignment is to write a 5 paragraph essay which uses the same 1-3 key words in each paragraph. The example essay is on Wind in the Willows & the repeating words are "incorrigible" & "individualist". I don't see an essay of that caliber happening here & I don't want to discourage dd, but I don't want to allow her to slide by either. Any suggestions? I have some other questions, but I'll stick them in a separate post. Thanks for any help! Edited January 23, 2011 by Lostinabook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caitilin Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 My fifth grade dd is on her second year of using MCT materials. We did the whole Island series last year & this year we are just doing the grammar, the writing, and the practice book. We began fourth grade with R & S & ended up quitting since she had absolutely NO retention. With MCT she's understanding grammar to the extent that she can transfer the knowledge when she's doing other subjects. I've been astonished. However. She's on Lesson 6 of Paragraph Town & as I was looking through the remainder of the book today I can see that she probably won't be ready for the assignments that will pop up in the next few weeks. I'm wondering if I can stretch some of the assignments over a couple of weeks & then not introduce Essay Voyage until at least 7th grade. I'm also wondering how you as a teacher determine that the essays are good enough. For instance, in Lesson 13 the assignment is to write a 5 paragraph essay which uses the same 1-3 key words in each paragraph. The example essay is on Wind in the Willows & the repeating words are "incorrigible" & "individualist". I don't see an essay of that caliber happening here & I don't want to discourage dd, but I don't want to allow her to slide by either. Any suggestions? I have some other questions, but I'll stick them in a separate post. Thanks for any help! I am in a similar situation with my 4th grade ds. I think that next year in 5th grade we will take a page from CrimsonWife's book, and plan to use the Killgallon books instead of MCT, as my ds will NOT be ready to move up to Voyage level, which my dds are using this year in 7th grade. I will have to reevaluate his readiness after 5th grade to decide whether he will be able to handle Voyage in 6th or if we should wait till 7th. I am sure that your plan for your dd will be fine--the grades are not written in stone, after all. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 I'm also wondering how you as a teacher determine that the essays are good enough. For instance, in Lesson 13 (of Paragraph Town) the assignment is to write a 5 paragraph essay which uses the same 1-3 key words in each paragraph. The example essay is on Wind in the Willows & the repeating words are "incorrigible" & "individualist". I don't see an essay of that caliber happening here & I don't want to discourage dd, but I don't want to allow her to slide by either. Any suggestions? The writing in PT was a stretch when my DD did it 2nd semester of last year. The problem was that the grammar portions of the "town" level were too easy and the vocabulary & poetry were just the right challenge level. So I just had her give the writing assignments her best shot. I'm planning to do a quick refresher of PT the semester before I think she'll be ready to tackle EV. I think she'll get a lot more out of it the second time around and the assignments are open-ended enough that it won't be boring to repeat. This semester she is doing the Killgallon Grammar for Middle School Students and working through a creative writing curriculum called Adventures in Fantasy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan in KY Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 I highly recommend you add in Killgallon to supplement Paragraph Town. It's not that much more work, but the exercises pack a punch and should bring your dd up to speed. I have 4th and 5th graders (one of each), and using Killgallon in conjunction with PT has been one of my best curriculum decisions to date. When we get a bit farther in PT, I won't mind relying more heavily on KG and mixing in some of SWB's writing suggestions until they can do the whole of PT. Fwiw, we are on PT lesson 6, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karie Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 My 4th and 6th graders are going through Paragraph Town together. My 6th grader could do it faster, but I'm making sure he gets the concepts. Surprisingly, my 4th grader is also doing much better than I thought he would. My plan is to move my 6th grader into Essay Voyage for 7th and to redo Paragraph Town with my son this fall when he is in 5th grade-the review for him will be good, and rewriting all the labs with different subjects will be perfect for him. He will NOT be ready for Voyage this coming year, thus the repeat of PT. So, this fall, I will split them up. I am doing all components of Paragraph Town, too. This past week, we just finished the lab that was referred to regarding writing a 5 paragraph essay with key words. I even asked on several boards, including WTM, for some examples because I was baffled what to do. Both of my boys came up with their own ideas with relative ease-I was all stressed about it....and they did it without any major troubles. My older son did AWANA as his subject, and the word "discipline" as his keyword. Younger son did his paper on gymnastics, and used "strength" and "exercise" for his key words. Their papers were NOT the caliber of the example given, and I don't think they should be expected to write at that caliber at this grade level. To the OP, if you would like, you can email me and I can send you their papers on WORD format. They are only 9 and 11-and they write like they are 9 and 11. Don't let the examples in the book make you think that that's the level they should write at!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostinabook Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 I am sure that your plan for your dd will be fine--the grades are not written in stone, after all. :) You're right of course :D I don't know why I get so hung up on grade levels--esp since this is a program for gifted children & mine aren't! Thanks for the encouragement! I'm planning to do a quick refresher of PT the semester before I think she'll be ready to tackle EV. I think she'll get a lot more out of it the second time around and the assignments are open-ended enough that it won't be boring to repeat. Good idea! I hadn't thought about just redoing the assignments at a higher level next year. Thank you! I inadvertantly clipped out the part of your post re: Adventures in Fantasy, but I'm curious about that. Is this what you're using? Dd enjoys writing fiction and I'm hands off about it, but I shudder at her paragraph construction so having something that would provide some gentle encouragement might be good. I highly recommend you add in Killgallon to supplement Paragraph Town. It's not that much more work, but the exercises pack a punch and should bring your dd up to speed. I have 4th and 5th graders (one of each), and using Killgallon in conjunction with PT has been one of my best curriculum decisions to date. When we get a bit farther in PT, I won't mind relying more heavily on KG and mixing in some of SWB's writing suggestions until they can do the whole of PT. Fwiw, we are on PT lesson 6, too. Thank you! We are doing Killgallon too, but I hadn't thought about using it as our only writing program. To the OP, if you would like, you can email me and I can send you their papers on WORD format. They are only 9 and 11-and they write like they are 9 and 11. Don't let the examples in the book make you think that that's the level they should write at!!! Thank you Karie! I will pm you. I'd love to see samples of your children's writing. It seems like the samples in books tend to be WAY above my children's capabilities so I always feel like I'm doing something wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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