Memorizing/MCT ?

[Ariston]

I just started looking through Grammar Town (we skipped island level--my kids are 10 and 12) and I was surprised to see in the first few pages two sets of things to memorize. A list of prefixes that seem to be a mishmash (i.e. they're not the most common ones, nor are they ones that kids would be most familiar with.) And then on the first pages, he wants them to memorize the list of d.o. and i.o. pronouns. Is that really necessary for native English speakers who have grown up in houses where correct grammar is used?

 

Memorizing these things would be highly annoying to my kids, and burdensome to me, but MCT stresses their importance. Those who have been through Town, is it necessary to have these things memorized as one moves through Town? Will I regret it if I skip this, or make a half-hearted attempt?

 

More importantly will there be a lot more memorizing of these types of things? I don't mean poetry and so forth, but lists of information?

 

And I get that there are many among us who are big fans of the benefits of this type of memorization, but I was under the impression that MCT was not that type of program.

[EKS]

We didn't do it, and my son benefitted greatly from MCT anyway.

[sassenach]

It matters only because it's a really common mistake, even (especially?) for native speakers. Especially I and me, because sometime I sounds right to the ear, but me is correct.

 

There is not a lot of memorization in MCT, outside of vocabulary. I'm not sure how one does vocabulary without some level of memorization.

 

That said, I think you could straight up refuse to do any memorization and still be better than fine with this program.

[Jackie]

We didn't do any memorization from Island level. Currently in Town level, our memorization is only for vocab in Caesar's English.

[Tranquility7]

We do a ton of memorization in our homeschool, and we love MCT... but no, we did not memorize the prefixes or the subject and object pronouns.

 

For the prefixes, we study lots of Latin and so we learn vocab and such that way.

 

For the subject and object pronouns, I *do* ask them sometimes to tell me the subject pronouns, or the object pronouns... but we don't have them "memorized"; they simply figure it out on the fly using a sample sentence, based on what they know about the parts of the sentence. If I ask for subject pronouns, they think of their sentence and substitute out the subjects, going through the three persons singular and plural.

Ex:

Me: What are the subject pronouns?

DD6: *I* love dogs, *you* love dogs, *he* loves dogs, *she* loves dogs, *it* loves dogs, *we* love dogs, *you* love dogs, *they* love dogs.

 

Me: What are the object pronouns?

DD6: Dogs love *me*, dogs love *you*, dogs love *him*, dogs love *her*, dogs love *it*, dogs love *us*, dogs love *you*, dogs love *them*.

 

So... no need to "memorize" these.

Edited September 9, 2016 by tranquility7

[domestic_engineer]

We memorized the subject & object pronouns.  I don't think you HAVE to memorize it, but it is just another tool that you can use when you think through your 4 level analysis.  

 

We did not memorize the stems.  (I had to look it up because I didn't even remember MCT asking us to memorize it.)  But many of those stems were covered in the Island level - some in the vocab book and others as the child went through Practice Island.  The "unusual" stems will provide context for the grammar terminology (pronoun, preposition, interjection, conjunction, compound, complex)

 

I think that those are the only times MCT asks you to memorize lists in the town level.

Will you regret it?  Probably not, but over the course of the town level, you might find yourself memorizing them.  And I find myself repeating the chant when discussing Spanish or Latin verbs.

[SanDiegoMom]

The voyage level also asks you to memorize the object and subject pronouns, so I think it's just something that keeps circling around...

 

We memorize stems with our vocab using flash cards. Whatever the stems and words for the week are, we memorize those.

[SparklyUnicorn]

We never did that. 

 

 

[Runningmom80]

We also didn't do it.  I don't even remember that page. :laugh:

[SparklyUnicorn]

Just cracked level 3 two days ago and that is in that book too.  We didn't do it.  I really do not see the point. 

[Ariston]

Thank you everyone, I was getting nervous that every few days we'd be memorizing another list of grammar something or other!

 

I feel at ease now.

[Spy Car]

Only through Voyage (so far). Thompson does want students to have 2 things wired (so far). One is pronouns (subject, object, possessive, etc)  and the other is conjunctions (subordinating vs coordinating).

 

These he does suggest memorizing. This suggestion is quite a departure from his pedagogical method otherwise. MCT is remarkable for not relying on lists of things to be memorized, but to understand the concept and pick up ideas naturally through use.  

 

In our case (as with many, it seems) we've gone over these items, but not "memorized" them in the traditional sense.

 

Feeling at ease is warranted :D

 

Bill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ariston]

Thanks Bill,

That was exactly my concern.  My kids would have no understanding of what they were learning at this point....they'd just be memorizing "the subject pronouns are....."

 

I'm going to skip memorizing them for now and as they build understanding revisit it.

 

Elena

[LMD]

Team didn't memorise. Love MCT!

[ikslo]

DS9 memorized the coordinating/subordinating conjunctions rather quickly after I set them to music:

 

When you know the notes to sing

You can sing most an-y-thing!

 

And, but, or, nor, for, so, yet

If, as, since, when, be-e-cause

Edited September 10, 2016 by ikslo

[Xahm]

For coordinating conjunctions in school I learned FANBOYS and that anything else would be subordinating. It served me well, took five minutes, and I taught it to many classmates in college.