As requested, here is the lesson walk-through with the Michael Clay Thompson grammar curriculum and how we use it in our homeschool space. The lesson plan starts at the 14:00 minute mark. I do want to note that I cut it off at the end when I was wrapping up the video, I mention Royal Firework Press includes a suggested lesson plan with the curriculum. This is only if you purchase the *entire* set of the level. That would include the student and teacher books for each unit- the grammar, the writing, the literature, the vocabulary, and the poetics unit.That was out of my price range and altogether unnecessary for our family. We use only the teacher manuals (and I explain why in the video) except for the four-level analysis practice sheets, of which I bought and use both teacher and student books for. Let me know in the comments if you guys are veteran MCT users, planning on implementing it into your schedules, or are just now hearing about it! Other than the little amount of information about it online, and how exclusive the price is, I really have very little negatively to say about the actual curriculum itself. It's been a wonderful way of learning grammar for us that we enjoy a ton better than learning via workbook.
I totally wish I would have learned grammar in this way as a kiddo. I'm learning more now with my third grader than I did through my entire grade school career! I'm glad you guys are enjoying it as well :)
I appreciate this video so much! I was so scared to dive into this program that I initially only purchase half the years worth of curriculum, but my daughter loved it so much I ended up getting the rest as well. I like how you structure your week. I have been trying to go through it completely winging it and it makes me a little stressed even though my daughter loves it for just that reason. Thanks for giving me some idea of how I can go about putting a bit of structure into it if only for mom’s sanity LOL.
I feel like that's my philosophy for approaching every subject- opening up the curriculum and winging it, until that doesn't work anymore 😆 I feel you momma! I do agree it's an intimidating curriculum to jump into, without there being any clear laid out lessons that come with it. I'm happy to hear this might help you out a little bit planning-wise!
Thank you for this! I’ve been interested but I was kind of unsure because it seems like everyone who uses it then includes IEW for writing and other vocabulary programs. I thought that this had a vocab section?
Full disclosure- this last year we did MCT and also IEW 😆😆 MCT Writing portion is much more creative writing and open ended. IEW has a procedure with a rubric that leads you through how to write essays and allows the student and parents to see exactly how it's to be structured with a hand-holding process. It teaches you HOW to write. MCT, as far as writing goes, is much more about what you can DO with writing, while writing "well" by utilizing correcting grammar. I used the first half of IEW the first half of my sons 4th grade school year we're now finishing up, and MCT Level 2 the second half. For IEW I only bought the writing portion, I did not buy Fix- It Grammar. You can absolutely purchase the vocabulary curriculum from MCT and it was my sons favorite part. I plan to review both it and the poetry from Level 1 soon :)
Hi, I know this is an old post, but I'm wondering if I could pick your brain about MCT. I have the chance to grab the Grammar Island, Practice Island and Sentence Island [all] student books for a great deal. Which of these do you recommend also getting the instructor guide for (if any)? I think I'd grab the ebook version for the teacher guides... Thanks :)
Oh that's great! Well, it's difficult for me to say which ones to choose teacher editions for, as I only chose teacher editions versus the student ones. The instructor guides are going to be the ones that lead you through teaching the material and any lesson planning. If you can't choose all of them, I suppose the Practice island for sure, as you'll need to be able to correct their sentences. Also, I would choose Sentence Island over Grammar Island, because it goes more in depth and has more to it than Grammar Island. Though, it would be difficult, I would think, to go through Grammar Island without the answers highlighted like within the instructor guide. Those are tough decisions! Hopefully my response was more help than hindrance 😅
@@MindfullyLivthank you!! I think I’ll probably grab them 😅. One more question… would Sentence Island be too much to do in addition to another writing program such as IEW or similar? Or could it be used as a supplement so to speak?
@@homeschoolandme you could probably supplement with sentence Island for sure! We've also done IEW, it was a VERY rigorous load, if done the way it's laid out in the curriculum. That would be a lot to do MCT at the same time. I could see doing every other week with Sentence Island and another structured writing program, or one right after the other. Sentence Island is definitely not a year-long piece! It's shorter and could be done in a month or two if you went right through it.
Wow! Royal Fireworks should sponsor you as this was SO much more helpful than anything I’ve been able to find on their site. We just purchased mostly teacher manuals of several levels to implement with my 2 learners (so expensive!). Also found several used copies online for much less. It’s unfortunate how many kiddos miss out on a good curriculum like this due to the astronomical pricing, especially for homeschooling families with several learners. Anyway, just want to say how much I appreciate your walk-thru, I feel much more confident in how to implement this after watching.
Thank you so much. I'm really happy when we purchased it that it wound up working so well for our family, because it was pretty difficult to get a great look inside of it prior to buying. Especially because it isn't set up in an incredibly easy format to apply to lessons. Unfortunately I received an email from RFP earlier in the summer saying they were raising their prices on the MCT Language Arts, and I wholeheartedly agree- I feel as if a lot of families are going to be missing out on such a thorough and in depth curriculum because of how out of reach the pricing will be for so many. I hope the curriculum works great for you guys!!
@@MindfullyLiv Yes it’s very classist imo. At least they’ve offered the cheaper ebook option now. That’s all I purchased from them. Though I did have to spend a significant amount of paper and ink printing them out (bc me and my learners can’t do digital reading very well due to the eye strain).
Thank you. Would you be willing to do a video about the poetics book when you get to it? My daughter is six and I want to use this course, but her favourite part of read out louds is poetry.
If we get into the poetry component I will definitely update! In general the course is worth it in my opinion for the rest of the grammar and writing instruction that it offers, but I know poetry can be so fun and offer so much for art and language in a home.
This was very helpful! Thank you for doing this video. I thought that this was an open and go program I guess I need to do more prep for my coming year. Bummer I thought I was done with prep work.
Once you get the hang of how it works best for your household, it really doesn't take long at all to plan out and put it to work! I hope you guys enjoy it and have an easy time working with it.
I was curious if you tried to combine MCT with B&R reading? I love the B&R student journals and the book selections but didn’t know if that would be overload with also doing MCTs full language arts curriculum.
Hi Anna! What age is your learner you are thinking of doing MCT with? We did levels 2 and 3 through B&R for Language Arts. I would say at least in my home, there's definitely not a replacement for great literature in a school environment. For sure the biggest part of education for me! If you screen B&R readers and think they fit your family, I totally suggest keeping them and incorporating them into your routine and I don't think that in itself would add too much to the MCT load. As far as the student journal, I do remember there being grammar mixed in with the copywork, and you could absolutely do away with that, MCT is much more thorough. I think the word lists can be a short activity that wouldn't add a whole lot of time, you can really make vocabulary as heavy as you need it to be. For us I had my son read through the words once and that was it, we didn't do the "playing with" portion. I did do dictation because I think it helps with spelling and that took us about 5ish mins. The literature journal portion can be really thought provoking and I did make time for that- I would say try to fit it in on a lighter writing day if combining with MCT!
@@MindfullyLiv they are 5, 7, 9 and 11! They are all veracious readers and gifted in LA (they went through the enormous amount of testing) so I’m trying to find enough work for them but I need to combine levels so I don’t drive myself crazy attempting to teach 1 million different curriculums at 1 million different levels.
@@Grannaml Schooling multiple littles is such a juggle game! I think any of those older three ages could start at the Island Level of MCT, it can be as rigorous or as light as you need it to be. As far as combining with B&R Language Arts, I believe it can be done as well because she gives you so many options to customize it to fit in what you need from it during the week. I hope you find something that works for you!
Are you looking to teach just one age of multiple learners at a time? Or are you wanting to teach all of your learners at the same time? I feel like I would utilize this in the exact same way I laid out in the instance of having multiple same-age learners (aka one set of twins.) You might find it more helpful to in that case purchase a set of student text as well, so that your kiddos can read along together from the student book as you read from teacher manual. That way you're not all sharing one copy.
I’m planning to use this with my second and fourth grade boys together.. do you think that combining them could be done? My second grader is advanced and my fourth grader, while he loves learning, has dyslexia. With teaching two, would you suggest adding the student book(s)? Btw, thanks so much for this video.. incredibly helpful!
Adding a student book for them to follow along with while you read it aloud might be helpful for you in that case. There's nothing extra in the student books, but I can see the advantage of all three of you not having to share one text. I think combining could for sure be done, it's just up to you to assess where your learner is at and take it as slow as you need :)
Hi, another TH-camr shared that if a parent is not strong in Language Arts than they should not use this MCT. I prefer Math over Grammar any day from your experience do you think any parent could use the curriculum?
I absolutely believe a parent with hesitation in teaching language arts could thrive with this curriculum. It's INCREDIBLY thorough. The parent doesn't have to teach any of it, it's definitely all included within the materials. It just depends on the learner how much you get through within a day. Like I mentioned in the video, I would start with 15 minutes of reading and then reviewing the concepts you went over, as well as utilizing the activities in the back of the book! I think the struggle is finding a way to use MCT, which after this video I hope I gave a good starting point for those who are unsure of where to begin using it. You can take it as slow as you need to.
I like grammar, but there have been several things I have learned through reading even just the student books. It is a perfect place to start, if you don’t know a lot of grammar.
Thank you so much for this walk-through of your lessons! I’ve been really on the fence about trying less but now I feel like it can actually talk talk to my daughter about it and describe it in a way that she might be able to understand. I really don’t Want to spend the money and have her not like it. She might like this better than her current structured lessons. @MindfullyLiv I tried listening a few times but I couldn’t understand what you were saying. What is the name of the notebook that you are using? It’s green and says third grade on the cover.
It's by SchoolNest! You can find her products on Amazon. She has many different options in so many colors.This is called the, "Third Grade Composition Journal." I typed in "Third Grade SchoolNest" on amazon and a couple of options popped up for me :) I'm so glad this video was helpful for you!
As requested, here is the lesson walk-through with the Michael Clay Thompson grammar curriculum and how we use it in our homeschool space. The lesson plan starts at the 14:00 minute mark. I do want to note that I cut it off at the end when I was wrapping up the video, I mention Royal Firework Press includes a suggested lesson plan with the curriculum. This is only if you purchase the *entire* set of the level. That would include the student and teacher books for each unit- the grammar, the writing, the literature, the vocabulary, and the poetics unit.That was out of my price range and altogether unnecessary for our family. We use only the teacher manuals (and I explain why in the video) except for the four-level analysis practice sheets, of which I bought and use both teacher and student books for. Let me know in the comments if you guys are veteran MCT users, planning on implementing it into your schedules, or are just now hearing about it! Other than the little amount of information about it online, and how exclusive the price is, I really have very little negatively to say about the actual curriculum itself. It's been a wonderful way of learning grammar for us that we enjoy a ton better than learning via workbook.
We started using MCT this last fall and I just love it! My 9yo son really likes it too!
I totally wish I would have learned grammar in this way as a kiddo. I'm learning more now with my third grader than I did through my entire grade school career! I'm glad you guys are enjoying it as well :)
Thank you! Super helpful!
you're welcome!
I appreciate this video so much! I was so scared to dive into this program that I initially only purchase half the years worth of curriculum, but my daughter loved it so much I ended up getting the rest as well. I like how you structure your week. I have been trying to go through it completely winging it and it makes me a little stressed even though my daughter loves it for just that reason. Thanks for giving me some idea of how I can go about putting a bit of structure into it if only for mom’s sanity LOL.
I feel like that's my philosophy for approaching every subject- opening up the curriculum and winging it, until that doesn't work anymore 😆 I feel you momma! I do agree it's an intimidating curriculum to jump into, without there being any clear laid out lessons that come with it. I'm happy to hear this might help you out a little bit planning-wise!
This is by far the best explanation. Thank you for some clarification
I'm so glad this was helpful for you!
Thank you for this! I’ve been interested but I was kind of unsure because it seems like everyone who uses it then includes IEW for writing and other vocabulary programs. I thought that this had a vocab section?
Full disclosure- this last year we did MCT and also IEW 😆😆 MCT Writing portion is much more creative writing and open ended. IEW has a procedure with a rubric that leads you through how to write essays and allows the student and parents to see exactly how it's to be structured with a hand-holding process. It teaches you HOW to write. MCT, as far as writing goes, is much more about what you can DO with writing, while writing "well" by utilizing correcting grammar. I used the first half of IEW the first half of my sons 4th grade school year we're now finishing up, and MCT Level 2 the second half. For IEW I only bought the writing portion, I did not buy Fix- It Grammar. You can absolutely purchase the vocabulary curriculum from MCT and it was my sons favorite part. I plan to review both it and the poetry from Level 1 soon :)
Hi, I know this is an old post, but I'm wondering if I could pick your brain about MCT. I have the chance to grab the Grammar Island, Practice Island and Sentence Island [all] student books for a great deal. Which of these do you recommend also getting the instructor guide for (if any)? I think I'd grab the ebook version for the teacher guides... Thanks :)
Oh that's great! Well, it's difficult for me to say which ones to choose teacher editions for, as I only chose teacher editions versus the student ones. The instructor guides are going to be the ones that lead you through teaching the material and any lesson planning. If you can't choose all of them, I suppose the Practice island for sure, as you'll need to be able to correct their sentences. Also, I would choose Sentence Island over Grammar Island, because it goes more in depth and has more to it than Grammar Island. Though, it would be difficult, I would think, to go through Grammar Island without the answers highlighted like within the instructor guide. Those are tough decisions! Hopefully my response was more help than hindrance 😅
@@MindfullyLivthank you!! I think I’ll probably grab them 😅. One more question… would Sentence Island be too much to do in addition to another writing program such as IEW or similar? Or could it be used as a supplement so to speak?
@@homeschoolandme you could probably supplement with sentence Island for sure! We've also done IEW, it was a VERY rigorous load, if done the way it's laid out in the curriculum. That would be a lot to do MCT at the same time. I could see doing every other week with Sentence Island and another structured writing program, or one right after the other. Sentence Island is definitely not a year-long piece! It's shorter and could be done in a month or two if you went right through it.
Wow! Royal Fireworks should sponsor you as this was SO much more helpful than anything I’ve been able to find on their site. We just purchased mostly teacher manuals of several levels to implement with my 2 learners (so expensive!). Also found several used copies online for much less. It’s unfortunate how many kiddos miss out on a good curriculum like this due to the astronomical pricing, especially for homeschooling families with several learners. Anyway, just want to say how much I appreciate your walk-thru, I feel much more confident in how to implement this after watching.
Thank you so much. I'm really happy when we purchased it that it wound up working so well for our family, because it was pretty difficult to get a great look inside of it prior to buying. Especially because it isn't set up in an incredibly easy format to apply to lessons. Unfortunately I received an email from RFP earlier in the summer saying they were raising their prices on the MCT Language Arts, and I wholeheartedly agree- I feel as if a lot of families are going to be missing out on such a thorough and in depth curriculum because of how out of reach the pricing will be for so many. I hope the curriculum works great for you guys!!
@@MindfullyLiv Yes it’s very classist imo. At least they’ve offered the cheaper ebook option now. That’s all I purchased from them. Though I did have to spend a significant amount of paper and ink printing them out (bc me and my learners can’t do digital reading very well due to the eye strain).
Thank you. Would you be willing to do a video about the poetics book when you get to it? My daughter is six and I want to use this course, but her favourite part of read out louds is poetry.
If we get into the poetry component I will definitely update! In general the course is worth it in my opinion for the rest of the grammar and writing instruction that it offers, but I know poetry can be so fun and offer so much for art and language in a home.
Thank you for doing this! Definitely helpful!
I'm glad it was helpful for you :)!!
This was very helpful. Thank you for posting this!
You're very welcome! I'm happy it could help :)
This was very helpful! Thank you for doing this video. I thought that this was an open and go program I guess I need to do more prep for my coming year. Bummer I thought I was done with prep work.
Once you get the hang of how it works best for your household, it really doesn't take long at all to plan out and put it to work! I hope you guys enjoy it and have an easy time working with it.
I was curious if you tried to combine MCT with B&R reading? I love the B&R student journals and the book selections but didn’t know if that would be overload with also doing MCTs full language arts curriculum.
Hi Anna! What age is your learner you are thinking of doing MCT with? We did levels 2 and 3 through B&R for Language Arts. I would say at least in my home, there's definitely not a replacement for great literature in a school environment. For sure the biggest part of education for me! If you screen B&R readers and think they fit your family, I totally suggest keeping them and incorporating them into your routine and I don't think that in itself would add too much to the MCT load. As far as the student journal, I do remember there being grammar mixed in with the copywork, and you could absolutely do away with that, MCT is much more thorough. I think the word lists can be a short activity that wouldn't add a whole lot of time, you can really make vocabulary as heavy as you need it to be. For us I had my son read through the words once and that was it, we didn't do the "playing with" portion. I did do dictation because I think it helps with spelling and that took us about 5ish mins. The literature journal portion can be really thought provoking and I did make time for that- I would say try to fit it in on a lighter writing day if combining with MCT!
@@MindfullyLiv they are 5, 7, 9 and 11! They are all veracious readers and gifted in LA (they went through the enormous amount of testing) so I’m trying to find enough work for them but I need to combine levels so I don’t drive myself crazy attempting to teach 1 million different curriculums at 1 million different levels.
@@Grannaml Schooling multiple littles is such a juggle game! I think any of those older three ages could start at the Island Level of MCT, it can be as rigorous or as light as you need it to be. As far as combining with B&R Language Arts, I believe it can be done as well because she gives you so many options to customize it to fit in what you need from it during the week. I hope you find something that works for you!
do you have a link for the green draft/lined notebook for Sentence Island??
link added! They're the grade level notebooks by SchoolNest. They come in a rainbow of colors for each grade level, found on amazon :)
Any idea if you would adapt this in some way to work with multiple kids at once? I have twins... and more twins.
Are you looking to teach just one age of multiple learners at a time? Or are you wanting to teach all of your learners at the same time? I feel like I would utilize this in the exact same way I laid out in the instance of having multiple same-age learners (aka one set of twins.) You might find it more helpful to in that case purchase a set of student text as well, so that your kiddos can read along together from the student book as you read from teacher manual. That way you're not all sharing one copy.
Thank you thank you!
you're welcome!
I’m planning to use this with my second and fourth grade boys together.. do you think that combining them could be done? My second grader is advanced and my fourth grader, while he loves learning, has dyslexia. With teaching two, would you suggest adding the student book(s)? Btw, thanks so much for this video.. incredibly helpful!
Adding a student book for them to follow along with while you read it aloud might be helpful for you in that case. There's nothing extra in the student books, but I can see the advantage of all three of you not having to share one text. I think combining could for sure be done, it's just up to you to assess where your learner is at and take it as slow as you need :)
@@MindfullyLiv Thank you!!
@@racheleldred8346 you're welcome!
Is it similar to grammarland ?
I've actually never heard of Grammarland before. I wouldn't be able to compare the two!
Hi, another TH-camr shared that if a parent is not strong in Language Arts than they should not use this MCT. I prefer Math over Grammar any day from your experience do you think any parent could use the curriculum?
I absolutely believe a parent with hesitation in teaching language arts could thrive with this curriculum. It's INCREDIBLY thorough. The parent doesn't have to teach any of it, it's definitely all included within the materials. It just depends on the learner how much you get through within a day. Like I mentioned in the video, I would start with 15 minutes of reading and then reviewing the concepts you went over, as well as utilizing the activities in the back of the book! I think the struggle is finding a way to use MCT, which after this video I hope I gave a good starting point for those who are unsure of where to begin using it. You can take it as slow as you need to.
I have a math brain, and I have learned a lot. Definitely recommend.
I like grammar, but there have been several things I have learned through reading even just the student books. It is a perfect place to start, if you don’t know a lot of grammar.
Thank you so much for this walk-through of your lessons! I’ve been really on the fence about trying less but now I feel like it can actually talk talk to my daughter about it and describe it in a way that she might be able to understand. I really don’t Want to spend the money and have her not like it. She might like this better than her current structured lessons.
@MindfullyLiv I tried listening a few times but I couldn’t understand what you were saying. What is the name of the notebook that you are using? It’s green and says third grade on the cover.
It's by SchoolNest! You can find her products on Amazon. She has many different options in so many colors.This is called the, "Third Grade Composition Journal." I typed in "Third Grade SchoolNest" on amazon and a couple of options popped up for me :)
I'm so glad this video was helpful for you!
This was incredibly helpful! Thanks for sharing!
you are welcome!!