Okay, MCT people, help me out

[Mom in High Heels]

I've read through the billion and a half threads on MCT, but can't find my answers. I'm thinking of using MCT next year because I want more analysis type of stuff and writing. I don't understand where to start though! Indy will be in 6th grade and has a fantastic understanding of grammar (poor grammar drives him batty-it makes me so proud), but I'd like to have more than grammar. His writing is not great, though he can narrate up a storm. I've been all over the website, but I just don't understand. He's learning Latin and ancient Greek, and I like the idea of the Caesar's English. HELP ME!

[fluffybunny]

I've bought and read nearly all of their books in the first 3 levels, and for a 6th grader I would start with Sentence Island, Practice Island and Building Language. You should be able to move up to the Voyage level within a year.

 

A similar question was asked here: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/466095-be-honest-is-mct-worth-the-money/

[Dana]

For a 6th grader who's good with grammar, I would be more likely to start with Level 2.

I definitely wouldn't do Building Language, but would start with CE.

You could choose to do Sentence Island as a more "fun" introduction to the program, but I don't think I'd do any other books from Level 1 other than maybe the poetry book.

 

We used all parts of Level 1 in 3rd grade (although I don't think we finished poetry). Level 2 spread a bit more and didn't stay in just 4th grade... CE is wonderful (and has just been revised). We did very little with paragraph town or with poetry though and this year we've done grammar and CE 2, but we haven't touched poetry or writing. We've done a lot more with WWS.

 

You can mix and match books, but they do work very well as one level. I wouldn't start Level 1 with a 6th grader though...especially if he's strong with grammar.

[Dana]

One other idea... RFWP does have forums now. The yahoo group is still limping along, but it's mostly dead. The forums should get a response from someone from RFWP if you post.

[EKS]

I would start with Town level.

[Trish]

You could probably start with Town, but if you're going to do Poetry, I would do the poetry book from the first level. I think that's pretty advanced in some ways.

[Mom in High Heels]

Now I'm more confused than ever! I looked at the Island level and it seems waaaay too basic for him. He knows the parts of speech really well. He's not so great with paragraphs, so maybe the Town level? How quickly do you get through a book?

[Chrysalis Academy]

Start with Town level, definitely, and you can do 1 1/2 levels in a year without too much difficulty. I would do the whole Town level in 6th grade, and you can get halfway through the Voyage level too, if you like it and are motivated. That's what we've done this year, my 5th grader has done all of Town and will be done with the first half of Voyage by the time we take summer break.

 

You definitely want to start vocab with CE1, and the Building Poems book is plenty deep for a 6th grader, and Paragraph Town will only help solidify his paragraph writing, which you'll probably want to do before launching into writing essays, anyway. There is a lot of overlap between Grammar Town and Grammar Voyage, but both are more complex than Grammar Island - they introduce verbal phrases and compound and complex clauses, for example. We actually ended up skipping the first half of Grammar Voyage, because it was review, but it was good to go over phrases & clauses a second time. They are starting to stick, now!

[Crimson Wife]

I would definitely not start with "island". That is 3rd grade or even below (my 1st grader is finishing it up). I would probably start with Paragraph Town + CE1 then move right into "voyage".

[Chrysalis Academy]

I would definitely not start with "island". That is 3rd grade or even below (my 1st grader is finishing it up). I would probably start with Paragraph Town + CE1 then move right into "voyage".

 

 

 

Yep, that would work too! There is repetition in both the grammar books and the poetry books.

[Corraleno]

Can someone who has the new edition of CE tell me if all the typos that are in the samples are actually in the book? It looks like many of the dashes were converted to ó and many of the apostrophes became í (e.g. student's becomes studentís), and the punctuation is just generally a mess. An occasional typo would not bother me too much, but if there are really that many per page (e.g. see page 9 of the samples), that's inexcusable IMHO. I'm hoping the samples on the website were prepublication and the issue was fixed before printing. Can anyone confirm that?

 

Jackie

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yes, I think they must have been, I don't see that particular error at all. I haven't really noticed much wrong in the new CE, I won't say it's flawless, but it is better than some of the other/earlier versions I've seen.

 

Ok, actually, the thing that is done badly that drives me nuts is that some of the boxes highlighting stuff in the TM are offset/not correctly centered. It drives me nuts, but it is really just a cosmetic thing, not a content thing.

[NittanyJen]

No way would I start a 6th grader with a good grammar background in Island level-- I started my son on Magic Lens level in 6th grade and he's doing just fine. The only "down side" of that approach is that Magic Lens isn't as "fun" as Town and Voyage. If he needs some brushing up on paragraph skills, then go ahead and do Town, or even do Voyage, but use Writing With Skill or IEW or something else for writing.