Using MCT and IEW together?

[SnegurochkaL]

Hi, I am considering combining IEW SWI A and Island/ Town level as a LA curriculum and using it with my 3rd/4th grader. Has anybody done it before? Any suggestions? Do I need Practice books also? Thanks a lot.

[imhim]

bumping

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

Hi, I am considering combining IEW SWI A and Island/ Town level as a LA curriculum and using it with my 3rd/4th grader. Has anybody done it before? Any suggestions? Do I need Practice books also? Thanks a lot.

I have not done it before but plan to do it with my younger children so I can tell you how I plan on doing it. Hopefully it will help some and bump your post up so someone more helpful will see it:001_smile:

 

First, you will still need the practice books because they are for the grammar portion, not the writing portion. The practice books consist of sentences that your children analyze.

 

Second, I'm not entirely certain how I will combine MCTLA with IEW. I plan to have my younger children complete at least Sentence Island before beginning SWI-A. I may also have them complete Paragraph Town depending on what I feel will be the best fit at the time. My tentative schedule is Sentence Island, Paragraph Town, SWI-A, SICC-A but that is just tentative and subject to change.

[SnegurochkaL]

I have not done it before but plan to do it with my younger children so I can tell you how I plan on doing it. Hopefully it will help some and bump your post up so someone more helpful will see it:001_smile:

 

First, you will still need the practice books because they are for the grammar portion, not the writing portion. The practice books consist of sentences that your children analyze.

 

Second, I'm not entirely certain how I will combine MCTLA with IEW. I plan to have my younger children complete at least Sentence Island before beginning SWI-A. I may also have them complete Paragraph Town depending on what I feel will be the best fit at the time. My tentative schedule is Sentence Island, Paragraph Town, SWI-A, SICC-A but that is just tentative and subject to change.

 

Thank you for reply:)

 

Are you planning to do other parts of MCT curriculum such as Poetry and Vocabulary?

 

I am thinking of doing Thematic Units such as Ancient/ Medieval History after SWI A and move to SWI B later. Are you planning to do Voyage level too?

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

Thank you for reply:)

 

Are you planning to do other parts of MCT curriculum such as Poetry and Vocabulary?

 

I am thinking of doing Thematic Units such as Ancient/ Medieval History after SWI A and move to SWI B later. Are you planning to do Voyage level too?

Yes, I am planning on using all parts of MCT. I'm currently using them with my older kids because they are so awesome!

 

In regards to IEW, once you complete an SWI you move to an SICC. The SWI's are introductions and you'd gain very little from going from SWI-A to SWI-B. If you use a theme based lesson plan you could move to SICC-B instead of SICC-A but wouldn't do another SWI after having completed an SWI. Here is what is covered in each so you can compare. Of course, you can also choose to theme based lesson plans instead of doing an SICC.

 

 

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

I used all the parts of MCT Island level with my 1st and 3rd grader this past year and we are going to be doing Town level this next year (2nd and 4th grade). I didn't like the writing assignments, so we didn't do them. :) I am using a combination of Writing With Ease and IEW for formal writing assignments instead. Copywork for handwriting, narrations in history, dictation with spelling (All About Spelling), story sequence/retellings (with short stories/picture books/fables) and writing style projects from Primary Arts of Language (IEW), key word outlines and writing assigments from TWSS/SWI 1/Theme Writing (Fables/Fairy Tales/Myths).

 

I wrote a long post about our language arts programs here.

[SnegurochkaL]

I was thinking that SICC level C will be more beneficial in my opinion because it will be covering essay writing.

I am actually planning to use MCT through Voyage, IEW and Classical Writing. I like all 3 of them:) My daughter has enjoyed CW Primers, it was fun and educational. She is very creative with her ideas but struggles to write them down clearly enough for other readers to understand what she was trying to say. She is only 8, so she still have 10 more years ahead to be good at it:)

 

I feel I am having the same situation with LA as I have with math. Using 3 completely different math curriculum I have a wide range of areas being covered.

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

I was thinking that SICC level C will be more beneficial in my opinion because it will be covering essay writing.

I am actually planning to use MCT through Voyage, IEW and Classical Writing. I like all 3 of them:) My daughter has enjoyed CW Primers, it was fun and educational. She is very creative with her ideas but struggles to write them down clearly enough for other readers to understand what she was trying to say. She is only 8, so she still have 10 more years ahead to be good at it:)

 

I feel I am having the same situation with LA as I have with math. Using 3 completely different math curriculum I have a wide range of areas being covered.

SICC-C is really for high schoolers and IEW recommends that they complete The Elegant Essay prior to SICC-C. If you go from SWI-A to SICC-C I would do several themed lesson plans (because there is much that you will miss by skipping from SWI-A to SICC-C), The Elegant Essay, and not consider SICC-C until they are high school age unless they are advanced writers.

 

Are you not planning on continuing through the Magic Lens levels?

[SnegurochkaL]

SICC-C is really for high schoolers and IEW recommends that they complete The Elegant Essay prior to SICC-C. If you go from SWI-A to SICC-C I would do several themed lesson plans (because there is much that you will miss by skipping from SWI-A to SICC-C), The Elegant Essay, and not consider SICC-C until they are high school age unless they are advanced writers.

 

Are you not planning on continuing through the Magic Lens levels?

 

 

Thanks for your reply. Right now I am planning for just few years ahead with IEW. I am thinking starting with SWI A, do few history related units( my daughter loves history), continue with SWI B( I already have it), then do Elegant Essay or SWI C, finishing with SICC C for high school.

 

Since I also want to use some portions of CW and MCT we will be talking about very large LA load for my child. She does study a lot of math daily ( between 3-5 hours ), and few languages, so we will be talking about her studying as much as a college student when she is only 8:)

 

Regarding MCT, I am not sure about Magic Lens levels. I read users' comments that some of them didn't like it at all. I didn't have time to dig into it yet. Math is the only one subject I planned through HS.

 

On other side I also need to look at expenses. In a year or so my daughter will need to have a private coach, her siblings are growing up and need to skate too. Skating covers our PhE requirements.

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

Thanks for your reply. Right now I am planning for just few years ahead with IEW. I am thinking starting with SWI A, do few history related units( my daughter loves history), continue with SWI B( I already have it), then do Elegant Essay or SWI C, finishing with SICC C for high school.

 

Since I also want to use some portions of CW and MCT we will be talking about very large LA load for my child. She does study a lot of math daily ( between 3-5 hours ), and few languages, so we will be talking about her studying as much as a college student when she is only 8:)

 

Regarding MCT, I am not sure about Magic Lens levels. I read users' comments that some of them didn't like it at all. I didn't have time to dig into it yet. Math is the only one subject I planned through HS.

 

On other side I also need to look at expenses. In a year or so my daughter will need to have a private coach, her siblings are growing up and need to skate too. Skating covers our PhE requirements.

I would not do multiple SWI's, your child will get very little from it. Instead, I would sell the additional SWI (unless you plan on using it with another child) and purchase an SICC. The SWI is just an introduction based on the child's writing level, with only minor changes to what is introduced in each level. After the child does an SWI they are to move on to the corresponding SICC and do them consecutively to cover all the TWSS units. A child who begins with SWI-A will follow it with SICC-A, SICC-B, and SICC-C. A child who begins with SWI-B will follow it with SICC-B and SICC-C. A child who begins with SWI-C will follow it with SICC-C. If you purchased both SWI's from IEW you should be able to return one.

 

In regards to the Magic Lens, MCT just revised Magic Lens 1. I'm told it was a major revision but don't have the previous edition so I can't compare. It is the only level of Magic Lens that I own and if we like it we will wait until he has revised the others as well. We haven't started it yet (next year) so I can't yet compare it to the lower grades, which I love. It will be interesting to see how they differ. I am going to be spreading it out over more than just a year based on what others have said about the previous edition, probably over 2 year.

[SnegurochkaL]

I would not do multiple SWI's, your child will get very little from it. Instead, I would sell the additional SWI (unless you plan on using it with another child) and purchase an SICC.

 

I will think about it. May be I will reconsider:)

 

 

Did you use two beginner levels of MCT withing one year: for example Island and Town levels.

 

Thanks to everyone who participate in this discussion:)

Edited June 1, 2011 by SneguochkaL

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

I will think about it. May be I will reconsider:)

 

I guess I will look into it later. I still have at least 2 years before we will be using it:)

 

Did you use two beginner levels of MCT withing one year: for example Island and Town levels.

 

Thanks to everyone who participate in this discussion:)

Since my children are older I will be using more than one of the lower level components in one year (vocabulary and poetry) but only because they are in high school. I will not do the same with my younger children because they will be younger.

 

I would call and speak with someone at IEW because they do not recommend doing more than one SWI and I think remaining at the introduction that long will just frustrate her.