Caesar's English I users: update-it was in there and I missed it

[Momof3littles]

Edited to add: I'm an idiot and it was there in a gray text box. Whoops :( My high school bio teacher used to joke that textbook publishers should figure out students disregard the little text boxes that are meant to highlight certain topics. He always joked they seem to backfire and students don't read them. Apparently that is still true of me! Poor MCT, he had it in there all along, I just missed it.

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In the teacher's manual for the enhanced version, on p40 it lists "forbid" as an antonym of countenance.

 

Can anyone tell me why? Even looking at the secondary definitions I'm feeling dense.

 

Gah. I'm prepping and feeling I'm not off to a good start. Maybe I need more caffeine.

 

I checked the forums at RFWP and didn't see anyone else confused about that one.

 

edited to add that I found an additional definition online listed as "approve," so I guess that's where forbid comes in. But I didn't see that listed as a definition in the CE 1 TM. Am I going to run into a lot of words like that in CE, where the definitions used in the text are not the ones I might need for the exercises?

[Chrysalis Academy]

Well, I can see why you are frustrated - it doesn't include the secondary meaning of countenance, the verb form "to approve" anywhere in the lesson, so using the verb form in the antonym exercise seems kind of sneaky.

 

However, I can tell you what happened when when we hit this lesson:  when we tried to think of an antonym for countenance, noun, meaning face/facial expression, we noted that it was hard to think of one, which led us to notice that for many concrete nouns, there isn't actually an opposite - what is the opposite of chair? table? tree?  Whereas for abstract nouns - beauty, truth, etc., we could easily think of antonyms.  So it actually led us to a really interesting discussion/thinking about the nature of concrete and abstract nouns.

 

I think this is the best frame of mind with which to approach MCT:  have a discussion.  Wonder about things.  Is there a right answer? Sometimes, but often there is more than one.  Do you agree with MCT's answer? If not, why not?  This is a useful and engaging process to go through with kids.  Sometimes you won't have the answer.  Sometimes the book won't have the answer.  Sometimes their answer, supported by reasons, may be better than the book's!  This is all very exciting and engaging for kids.  And the beginning - an important beginning -of critical thinking about their textbooks.

 

This will come up again when you get to the fill-in-the blank word from literature.  Which word did the author choose? Is it the same one you chose? Do you like their version better, or yours? Why?

 

Don't be afraid to explore with this curriculum: your kids will learn so very much from the process.  Good luck!

[Momof3littles]

Thanks, Rose. I am prepping to use it in a co-op, so I wanted to make sure I was adequately prepared. Typically I wouldn't stress, but I always feel like I have to be on my A-game when there are other kids in the mix ;)

 

We absolutely love MCT's materials in general, and I'm sure CE will be wonderful. I was just kind of stumped and a tad frustrated that I was too dense to figure out the antonym. MCT makes me work hard once in a while ;)

[nansk]

I think I first found this use of 'countenance' in Jane Austen's writing:

 

Their taking her home, and affording her their personal protection and countenance, is such a sacrifice to her advantage as years
of gratitude cannot enough acknowledge.

[kiwik]

I will not countenance such behavoir under my roof.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I keep dictionary.com handy whenever we are using MCT or other curricula since it has an audio button to hear pronunciations and a ready dictionary/thesaurus. It also has the pronunciations of many historical names and places.

[8filltheheart]

I didn't use CE 1 and I haven't paid attention to what has been revised, but the CE 2 I used a couple of yrs ago had errors. One that sticks out in my memory was the completely incorrect definition for oblique(it was defined like obtuse.)

 

And Essay Voyage and AAW are flawed writing instruction from my perspective--too many block quotes, insufficient introduction to supporting quotes with poor paragraph development, and the block quotes are incorporated in such a way that they used as the proof vs. the writer proving their pt and using the quotes to support their position. (The first 1/2 of Voyage is fine,but the MLA 1/2, unless it has been completely revised, and the entire AAW books 1 and 2 unless revised, get zero recommendation from me.). I would not accept any of the essays in those books for a passing grade without complete revision to correct the above errors. Definitely not the way you want to teach them to write with supporting evidence.