MCT Grammar

[hands-on-mama]

Can you help me understand this program some more? I'm looking for something that doesn't have a lot of busywork. I have a 4th and 6th grader next year and have no clue where I would even begin to put them in this program. What does a typical day look like with MCT? I can't seem to get a feel for it from the samples.

[domestic_engineer]

The grammar is front loaded in your year.  So you'd do the grammar book first.  Once that book is finished, then you work your way through the practice book.

We would typically just set the timer and work X minutes reading and discussing the book.  I know other folks will break up the book by page numbers/sections.

When we are finished with the book, then we just did 1 sentence a day in the practice book.  Depending on the season of life, we'd aim for doing the practice book 2-5x/week.  Depending on how comfortable the kid is with doing an analysis, a sentence in the practice book can take anywhere from 5-15 minutes.

There's no script to follow; so it's really up to you to plan and structure.

[silver]

We use the grammar, practice, writing, and vocabulary books (we skip the poetry book). I read a small bit each day from one of the books, starting the year with the grammar book. After the grammar book is completed, we rotate through the other books. I skip the writing exercises/assignments, but still read the writing books because (at least at the island and town levels, not as much at the voyage level) the writing book reinforces the grammar book nicely. We do all work either orally or on a dry erase board.

[8filltheheart]

I did a quick google search for you for a conversation I remembered from yrs ago. It's not quite on target for your question, but it might give you a starting point for how to look for other old threads.

https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/488277-mct-scope-and-sequence/

 

[Sarah0000]

We would sit on the couch and read together until interest waned, and mostly did two books at once, usually a few weeks at a time. There was no schedule, it was simply a part of our read aloud stacks. We did everything orally with the exception of a couple writing assignments. Afterwards DS did a dozen pages of the practice book working twice a week but then we ended up just analyzing his own sentences from his writing as the need arose.

[Jackie]

Just for the grammar part? Or for an entire level?

The grammar part is pretty straightforward: Spend a few weeks working through Grammar Island (or Grammar Town or whatever), reading in the book together for about 15-20 minutes at a sitting and working through any examples. When done with that book, analyze one sentence from Practice (Island, Town, etc) about 3 times per week.

If meaning the entire program, have you seen the PowerPoint presentation that the MCT folks have put together to exp,Ian the program? It was helpful for me, though it still didn’t let me envision the day-to-day. Honestly, that was a leap of faith in buying it and hoping I would figure it out, because so many people that used other materials we enjoyed were also using this one.

As for placement, I would generally start kids above third grade in the Town level. Island is a very gentle introduction, but is going to be too simple for most older kids. Town is when the writing instruction gets more interesting and when Caesar’s English starts.

[Clemsondana]

We love MCT at our house - older is on the 4th level, and younger is using the 2nd.  Hubby and I are STEM types, so while we can write well, our lit education wasn't all that strong and our later training strengthened out technical writing, not our appreciation of language.  So, this has been a great fit for our family.  If all that you want is the grammar, you just need the book with 'Grammar' in the title (Grammar Island, Grammar Town, etc) and then the book with 'practice' in the title.  If you get the complete package, it has everything that you need for one child.  The extra books are for if you want to have an additional child using the books at the same time, with everybody holding their own book to read from.  The practice books are meant to be consumable, with students writing the parts of speech, etc, in the books.  We don't use them that way - we do them orally - so it's not an issue.  You could also do them on a chalkboard as a family if you chose.  

We have done the series different ways in different years.  it's designed to always start with the grammar book, which is mostly completed before beginning the rest of the books.  Once we finish grammar, we do a 3-5 practice sentences each week.  As for the rest of the books - vocab, writing, and poetry - sometimes we do them sequentially, and sometimes we do each book 1-2 days/week.  It depends on whether kiddo is needing variety or whether I think they'll be better off focusing on one thing at a time.  I think that the first year, we did vocab and writing, and then added poetry once we finished whichever of those 2 we completed first.  Older still prefers a format like that - we finished vocab, and then added poetry while we're still working on writing.  Younger likes jumping back and forth, so we're doing that.  

This has worked wonders for my kids' understanding of language.  For younger, we also do The Critical Thinking Company's Language Mechanic, because kiddo doesn't make the jump from 'This is where commas go' to actually putting them there without practice.  Older doesn't seem to need th at, but is also doing more writing for history reports so we're getting practice there.  

ETA:  The implementation manual for Ceasar's English has the answers and quizzes at the back.  For many of the books, extra notes, quizzes, and practice exercises is the primary difference between the student manual and the implementation guide.  Sometimes there are teaching notes scattered through the implementation guide's text.  

We have never gotten the books in color - the black and white has worked fine for us.  

Edited February 14, 2019 by ClemsonDana

[Jackie]

7 hours ago, parent said:

The MCT website is very confusing.  I can't figure out which parts I would need for the "town" level.  Even if just getting Caesar's English, it is confusing.  Do I need both the implementation manual and the student book?  Is it worth it to get the student book in color?

I thought I found the easy way out with their packages.  But the packages aren't truly packages and things aren't included and the links seem to take you all over the place.  The complete package has a link to add flashcards and additional student books.   The incomplete package...  

 

If just getting Caesar’s English, you need the student books. The Implementation Manual didn’t add anything for us, though there are quizzes in it if you want those. We strongly prefer the color version because the book is loaded with photographs.

The packages include everything you *need*, plus a couple things that I consider nice to have but not truly necessary. Flash cards are an add-on, and only fairly recently available at all. The additional student books are if you have more than one kid writing in books. 

[Jackie]

45 minutes ago, parent said:

 I was just referred to Caesar's English on these boards last week and have now been researching MCT.  I am not sure yet if it is for us, though I do want to at least get a copy of Caesar's English.

I just read a blog review that said there are no schedules or lesson guidelines?  Is that difficult to organize?  I am apparently programmed to an idea of "1 lesson per day."  I have struggled with some curricula that have multi day lessons and probably often do too much in a single day.  I don't know how "no lessons" would work for me.  I tend to overdo things so maybe we would just move through the books quickly.

I'm changing language arts this coming year.  I'm feeling frantic to get everything settled and ordered soon.  I plan to order both Caesar's English and Vocab from Classical Roots to see if I prefer one or want to use both.  From there, maybe CE will give me an idea of how I would like the rest of MCT.

Otherwise, the top choice in grammar is Jr Analytical Grammar, and writing is either W&R (in lead) or IEW.

MCT seems nice to go with all one language arts publisher, but it is hard to fully commit and perhaps not care for it.  It does have a strike against it with the unorthodox diagramming, though we could diagram on another paper also.  Just another step, I suppose.

Is MCT secular? 

 

Yes, it is secular. I prefer the 4-level analysis to traditional diagramming. Caesar’s English doesn’t plan things day-by-day. There are 20 lessons, and I find it reasonable to plan one lesson per week, so there is some pacing. CE would give you a reasonable idea of how you would like the rest of the program.