April 17, 2025 • 25 mins
🎙️ Deep Dive: 7th Grade Language Arts | Michael Clay Thompson Level 4 in Our Homeschool
Let’s break down our 7th grade language arts curriculum! This year, we’re using Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts Level 4—the Classic Literature Level—in our secular homeschool. If you’ve been wondering how this curriculum works, what makes it unique, and if it’s the right fit for your homeschool, I’ve got you covered!
🔥 What’s inside this episode?
✔️ A full look at Michael Clay Thompson Level 4 (Classic Literature)
✔️ What works, what’s challenging, and how we adapt it to fit our homeschool
✔️ Is it too much? Let’s talk about it!
If you’re looking for a rigorous, literature-rich language arts program that prioritizes deep understanding over busywork, this curriculum is worth a look. But is it the right fit for every homeschool? Let’s get into it!
📢 Do you use MCT in your homeschool? Drop a comment and let’s chat! Don’t forget to follow, rate, and share for more deep dives into our homeschool journey.
#DeepLook7thGradeLanguageArts #MakingEverydayMagic #MichaelClayThompson #SecularHomeschool #HomeschoolCurriculum
My Use Strategy: Start the Year with: Grammar (1 Chap Weekly), Writing (1 Chap Weekly), Vocabulary (1 Chap Ever 2 Weeks), & Readers Follow Grammar with Pratice Sentence Daily Second Semester Add Poetry (1 Chap Weekly)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I honestlydon't know why more people don't know
about the Michael KlayThompson Language Arts program.
So today, let's jump in and talkabout what we're using
for seventh grade at Language Arts.
Welcome back to Making Everyday Magic.
My name is Shanna.
And if you are new herewe are a homeschooling family of four.
You're in our eighth yearof homeschooling, and today
(00:21):
I just want to take you alongand share with you an in-depth
look at what we are using for languagearts.
For my second grader guide
for Language Arts for my seventh grader.
Guys, before we go any further, pleasescroll down, hit the big red subscribe
button, turn on the bell for notificationsand give this video a thumbs up.
(00:44):
As always,
you can find me right on
down in the comments or over on Instagramat Making Everyday Magic.
So the Michael Klay Thompson program, I'mgoing to give you
just a few little snippets of information
because I recently sharedabout the program with my third grader,
and I feel like a lot ofthe basics are pretty the same.
So I'm going to bullet point prettyquickly if you need any more explanation.
(01:08):
Anything like that.
I will have it link down
below in the description box,but I also probably have a video on it
here if you are interestedif you need more information.
So really quicklyit is by Michael Klay Thompson.
It is a focus on grammar and writing.
It is also an appreciationfor the written word.
It is billed as language Artsfor the gifted and talented.
(01:32):
I would argue that that doesn'tquite apply when you homeschool.
You can find Michael Thompson's productsfor sale
through the Royal Fireworks Press website.
They also offer many other things as well.
As well as not only the print curriculum,but also tutoring
and classes and workshopsavailable for the print curriculum.
(01:53):
You can see right here I have it actuallytheir website pulled up on my computer.
I don't know if this is me
be my final film spot,but this is where we are filming today,
so I personally really
like the Michael Thompsonapproach to language arts.
It is for your children
after they have started readingso they are no longer learning to read.
(02:16):
We are reading to learn.
So for my oldest, we actually picked it upa little late, but I made a point
to go back and start, at the beginningbecause that was important for me.
For my youngest, we actually startedwith the most recently released
introductory level, which starts beforelevel one and is narrative style books.
There are now six of them.
(02:38):
The sixth one I am not familiar with thatfocus on poodle and his friends
teaching the basic concepts of grammar,phrases, comma usage, things like that.
They're really colorful,
very entertaining, and we have enjoyedthem very much in our home.
So that so I have nowused all of the levels
the introductory first, second, third,and we are now in
and today discussing the fourth level,which is the classic literature level.
(03:02):
I can tell you
that my daughter's only complaint,and this was actually the focus
of her first point paper,is that there are not any novels.
None of the official novelsall the way up are
highlighting a female author,and she takes great offense to that.
There are many selections presentedfrom female authors, female poets.
(03:26):
That as far as the readings,
there are none written by a female author.
So that is her big complaint.
I personally love this approachto language arts, and I wish people more
people knew about it.
It is about discussionand about an appreciation
for the written word, a love of the word.
(03:48):
A focus on academic writing,
but not in a formulaic way, in a waythat makes it makes sense.
And the way that this is presentedand highlighted is through
historical essaysand through actual poetry,
and through classic novelsand through, vocab.
(04:08):
Hilary, that traces back to the stems thatare presented in level one, as well as,
the, thewords that are used in classic literature.
So that is where the vocabulary is comingfrom.
The perfect way to explain this approachto understanding
grammar and writing,and an appreciation of the word and
and literature study and all of that,I feel like it is a perfect example is
(04:33):
we opened up the poetry book, which
starts off with, you have two waysthat you can use this book.
So plan Ais that you give it to your students,
and you just let them report to you thatthey have read it when they are finished,
so that they can absorbso that they can understand, so that they
(04:54):
can appreciate what they're learningin their own time, in their own way.
And then plan B is that you douse that as more of a study.
We have opted for plan C, which if youfollowed along for any period of time,
you know that I will use thingsthe way that I see fit, and I will make
a graphic like I did for my third graderof how we are using this program.
And I will also walk you through andtype it out down in the description box.
(05:17):
But we are opting for plan C,which is we read it together
and discuss it, butit's not any kind of like formal aside.
We're not doing any kind of
assignment, anything related to poetry.
So really fast.
Let me pause right here and talk abouta couple more of the logistics.
It is 14 books, 14 books.
(05:38):
I'm not kidding.It's always so many books.
They have so many differentpurchase options.
And you actually receivethe implementation guide.
If you purchasea complete homeschool package.
I don't use it, but I get it becauseI like to purchase the full package.
Now you can do all booksinstructor and student,
which is what I do,which is complete homeschool package.
Or you can do ebooks for everyoneor you can do a mix.
(06:02):
So you could do ebooks for instructorprint books for student,
or you can do just a student set of booksif all you need is kind of the next round
of your student, which is what I haveI purchased for my third grader.
So as you're reusing it, you can just buywhat you need, which is really great.
Now they do have an implementation guidewhich is again
(06:22):
specificfor the complete homeschool package.
And they do send it to you.
And I'm not going to tell you what that isbecause that's their
proprietary information.
So I will not be doing that.
I will just tell you
that it does take a little of thisand a little of this and a little of this,
and you're using them allat the same time.
And that just didn't work for us.
We didn't enjoy the programwhen we used it that way.
(06:42):
Now, something that I have donedifferently in this fourth level
is that instead oftaking the grammar portion
and then the writing portionand then the poetry portion,
I actually have extendedthe writing portion to all year.
And that is because this writing portionthis year is so meaty.
Something that I absolutely loveabout the fourth level
(07:04):
is that the practice sentencesthat your student is completing
when they are doing their four levelsentence analysis, which is something
that I think is incredibly useful for me,will circle back in just one moment
is that the sentences used are sentencesfrom classic literature
that are referenced throughout the entireprogram, and I personally love that.
It's giving you an opportunityto really dissect the author's word.
(07:28):
So Michael Klay Thompson
does do a four level
sentenceanalysis and analysis on each sentence.
So instead of like sentence diagraming,
you take a sentence and beneathit are four blank lines.
And the first lineis for the part of speech.
So noun verb,whatever the next line is for a part
(07:48):
of a sentence, subject,verb, direct object, and so forth.
The third line is for any clausesprepositional gerund.
I'm sorry for any phrasesprepositional gerund, phrase participle,
any of those kinds of phrases.
And then the fourth line is for clausesis it independent?
Is it dependent?
Is it coordinating?
Is it all of those thingsis for the fourth line.
(08:09):
So I really like this approach.
I love that it's teachingthe love of the written word.
So instead of being incredibly formulaicin the explanation of writing
where you know, you have a five sentenceintroductory paragraph followed by A35
sentence body paragraphs,it really lets your kids know that as
long as they are conveying their messageand they are getting their point
(08:32):
across a paragraph,an entire paragraph can be one line.
If it does it well.
And this is all about doing it well.
So it does start in the beginningwith teaching your children
how to form a good sentence.
And then from there,the next level is a good paragraph.
And from therethe next level is a basic essay.
And now we have moved on to point papersand focusing
(08:55):
on, for example,in the writing curriculum.
It is stressing the end effect.
And so we'll have two paragraphsfrom again a famous literature selection.
And they have smashed them together.
And they want your children to read themand understand
where the paragraph breakis that the author put
so that they can understand the effecton the end of a sentence.
(09:19):
So the the hard consonants,
the big words that convey a big meaningand drop off to silent.
So that they appreciatewhere that transition is happening.
Now, again,this is a kind of a wild approach, right?
It is not formulaic.
We are not teaching, readingand writing to our children in an effort
for themto be able to get the maximum straw score
(09:40):
on a standardized test,and I am at peace with that.
I honestly prefer it.
I would prefer that they loved reading,that they loved writing, that they enjoyed
wallowing in the word,then that they could just reproduce
an essay on demand and have it bejust like little genius essay next door.
So for me, I personally love that.
(10:01):
Now let's talk about investmentbecause it's huge.
Okay? It is huge.
First of all, it is a big investmentjust of time on your part
because there is a lot of reading aloud.
I quite enjoy it where I'm reading thingsI never knew that I, I had never read.
It's a bit of time.
It is also quite a bit of an investment.
We are talking hundreds of dollarsfor just this language arts program.
(10:24):
However, the language artsprogram does cover grammar, vocabulary
and writing and poetics,so it does cover a large portion of that.
It does not cover spelling.
Give me one. I'mgoing to give you the exact number. Okay.
So the complete set paperback package,
all instructor, all 14 instructor books.
(10:45):
And once that 14 actually, I think it is
11 instructor booksbecause you don't get an
and you get like one instructorguide for all of the novels,
but not two copies of each novel,if that makes sense.
And all 14
student
textbooks, as well as the implementationguide, is $280. Now
(11:08):
it's a big investment.
Again, there are many different kindsof format options,
and there are also workshopsand online classes.
So if you watch all of these videosand you're like, man, that is daunting
and crazy,which genuinely is part of the reason
that I like to come here and share
not only about the piecesthat we're using,
but how we're using them,because I have tweaked almost everything
(11:32):
is becauseif you look at the implementation guide
or you look at some of these videos outhere,
even their own videos, Royal FireworksPress, own implementation videos,
which they do have on their siteexplaining to you how to use this program.
I was so confused.
So I'm just going to tell you simply,and I will put a graphic on this screen
the way that we have used this levelfor Michael
(11:55):
Thompson Language Arts programfor my seventh grader is
we started the year by re by readingand you go over every year.
You start with grammar.
So we started with reading grammar. Now
I knew that
the writing portion,which I usually follow
the grammar book with, was very long,had a lot of activities
(12:15):
and I wanted to space them out,get more of them done in an easier manner.
So we started with grammarand we also started with the writing.
But creating it togetheras well as vocabulary.
Now, the way that we are using these,I like to read
one chapter a week from the grammar book.
(12:37):
Okay, I like to do vocabulary.
We will read the chapter together.
The reading portions this week.
Every day she will doone of the vocabulary activities.
She will do this for two weeksat the end of the second week,
because there are only ten lessonsat the end of the second week,
she will take a test over those terms
(12:58):
that she's learned up to that point,and that is how we are getting through.
The vocabulary portiontakes about 20 weeks.
Okay, so the grammar bookand also the writing book, now
the writing book,what I've done is we read
and there's so much reading, there's
so much reading in the writing book,especially from chapter one.
So I did break that up longer,so we would read a good chunk of it,
(13:20):
and then once we had finishedreading the portions,
she would do one writing assignment a day.
And what it is, like I said,there's like two paragraphs together
and you just read it and figure outwhere the paragraph break is.
At the end of all four chaptersof the writing assignment,
there is a point paper,and that is a paper that is written.
(13:42):
She's got an essay she has to write.
So I usually give her a week or twoon that essay.
Now, this writing donethis way is taking the full year.
Honestly, at this point have we arejust now kind of at the end of third
quarter start a fourth quarter and we are
we still haven'tmade it to our second point paper,
but we have taken our incredibly slowtime.
But also chapter one
(14:02):
is much longer than two, three and four,so it should go much faster from here.
And as other thingsdrop off, we'll go from there.
So starting grammar, starting writingand starting vocabulary all at once.
Now the three novels we will read
the novels with the
exception of level one,are not dependent on anything.
So we will read them, and discuss.
(14:25):
So these three novels, specificallyThe Hound of the Baskervilles,
we read as a family as just a read aloudDoctor Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde. She had already read.
We'd already read as a read aloud.
And so she read that oneon her own and room.
She actually just wrapped up,
and she read it out loud over the courseof about a week to her sister.
So they read that at bedtime together.
(14:48):
And that is how we are doing those novels.
Let me discuss them, becausewe've all read them and they're great fun.
After we finish
grammar,the grammar portion of of the study,
as soon as we finish that book,we pick up one practice and it's a day.
So on her average day,she's doing one vocab exercise,
one writing
(15:09):
exercise, and one for levelsentence analysis on any average day,
with the exception of Mondays,when we're usually reading
a large portion of the of the testso it's not too hard.
She was only responsible for completingtwo of the three novels this year.
She slacked a bit on getting roomwork started,
so we gave her some hard deadlines,but then she chose
to read out loud to her sisterand it worked out really well.
(15:30):
Now we put off because normally
I put writing in between grammarand poetics, but I didn't this year.
So we finished grammar in the falland we took quite a big break.
So once we've come back and really gottenstarted in the spring semester,
we have now added back in poetics,which again
we are just reading aloud and discussingand that's it.
(15:51):
So I really like this format.
She did finish.
Like I said,her first point paper was about women's,
novels being selected for
the required reading in this course. And
I am not
confident at the levelto officially grade these papers.
(16:13):
I don't have any training in this,so what I did is I read it over
and marked it up with my red penfor what I thought fell out of place.
I had my husband, who was much better
at grammar, also read over itfor what he thought was out of place.
And then I copy pasted the entire textand put it in ChatGPT
to give me an evaluationand ChatGPT gave me an evaluation.
(16:34):
I told it to,you know, use the MLA parameters,
all of those things,and give me some feedback.
And it gave it a score of 85%
with very specific feedback,which I thought was quite good.
So then instead of having hergo back and correct it because I think 85
is pretty good, especially for herfirst point paper of the year,
(16:56):
and don't forget, my personal approachhas been that we don't teach formal
writing for quite a while,so keep that in mind as well.
I felt like 85 was quite good,so instead of having her go back and redo
anything with the exception of a few
like simple editing, capitalization,misspelling of a word, things like that,
then we just discussed the paperand that was it.
So that is how that has been working.
(17:17):
Now let's pop over.
I'm going to give you a look intosome of the books to give you an idea.
Not all of them, because again,we are nearing the end of the year,
we are actively homeschoolingand we've moved.
I don't know where they are.
I do not, full disclosure,know where they are,
but I would like to give you a look insideof some of these books.
So let's pop overand I'll give you a look.
(17:38):
Okay guys.
So here is a look inside
the many, many books of our MichaelJohnson level four.
However, not all of thembecause I don't know
where they're don't forget,we've moved to be kind to me.
So this is just a small stack.
I also could not findmy implementation guide.
And there's a couple things in hereactually need to grade from today.
(18:00):
So, let me just give youthe quick rundown.
If you didn't know, there's actuallya QR code in the front of the books
with a code where you can log onand print off the test materials.
So be sure to do that to take advantage.
These are from the vocabulary.
Okay.
(18:20):
So let me show you some of the readers.
I don't know where the other one is.
It's on a shelf somewhere.
So this is where I had marked offwhat she needed to read when.
Now this is what the readers look like.
And this is why I buythese specific books,
is because they will definethe terms down in the bottom.
(18:41):
If it's a term that your kiddoneeds to know, they also will
highlight any specific book.
Okay, interesting language portions.
So I like that.
I like having these specific copies,
that are
part of the program.
(19:01):
They also give you a quick
little author's bio in the front,which I think is really fun.
A little explanation on why it's good.
And then it doescome with the parent manual, which covers
all three books, as well as just gives yousome things that you need to know.
Some questionsyou can follow up on a little bit further,
(19:25):
a little bit
further writing,if that's what you would like to do.
Now let's look here.
So instructor manual.
Student manual.
So the instructor manualhas a bit more information.
And it explains how to get started.
And let me just take you through.
So for example here is lesson two.
It has the words defined.
And I like thatit's following up like flashing
(19:47):
back to the previous two levels.
And then it has an essay about Jane Austen
or each specific,
author.
And it's got original works by MichaelKlay Thompson.
It has different activitiesthat you can do,
(20:07):
which in the instructormanual are answered for you,
and it goes throughseveral different activities
before moving on to the next lesson.
Now this is what the same thing
and the, student book looks like.
So same the same lesson.
Okay.
(20:28):
As you can see, it is not telling you what
the words,the way the words are used here.
It also is not bolded hereto let them know which answer.
These are not entirely filled out.
I really just love the repetition
of you know you are diagraming or not.
Diagraming I'm sorry you're doingthe four level analysis in your practice.
(20:53):
You're doing the same kind of partof speech
identification in your vocabulary.
I like the repetition.
Now this is poetry of literature
and where we talked aboutyou can just plan A or plan B.
I like the subtle color changesthat you will see throughout
(21:14):
the entire program, so that he canhighlight what he wants you to know.
So for example, we just read over
the, repeating
s sounds of.
Moby-Dick.
So it makes it sound
(21:37):
like the sea, and I like that very much.
Now let's see, we've got our practice now,
this is what my studentswork will look like,
and I will just come over hereand check her sentence for her.
So I'm going to pause really, really fast.
(22:01):
It really is that easy.
And I love that. These are sentences
from classic literatureand it tells you where it's from.
I love that. I absolutely love that.
Now she is currently obsessedwith this end of fact
paragraph practicebecause there is no wrong answer.
It is just improvingon the last line of the paragraph
(22:24):
to give it the end effect,which is what they're
currently studyingin the writing of literature.
And again, as you can see, the instructormanual
has the answers in it,whereas the student text is not the.
And we are
just going to zip right on alonguntil her next point paper
and then hopefully get this wrapped upin a timely manner.
(22:46):
Now the grammar of literaturewe did already finish.
Now all of the Michael KlayThompson programs start with grammar.
And it spells it out.
I love the colored bubblesthat help you understand them.
How it is split apart.
And again, all of these are answeredin the instructor manual
and not in the student workbook.
(23:11):
Okay.
Let me show you with the books you start.
Here I'll show you with the
instructor's guide.
We started with grammar
writing.
And vocabulary okay.
(23:31):
As well as the first of our three readers.
And the readers are just read an orderindependently of the rest of the program.
That is how I'm using these. Okay, now,
both of these will run the entire time.
When we are finishedwith the grammar of literature,
we went ahead and addedin practice sentences
(23:52):
and then after Christmas
we went ahead and startedthe poetry of literature.
Normally I would go one, two, three.
However, there's so much meatin the writing I wanted to give it.
It's it's full justice.
And so we are taking it all year.
So this, this, this start
at the beginning at leisure
(24:14):
followed thethe grammar with the practice.
Okay.
And then added in the poetry of literaturefor the second half of the year.
That's it guys. That's it.
That's my look my end up.
Look how we are using them.
Like Klay Thompson at Languagearts program for our seventh grader.
The level four,which is the classic literature level.
If you have any questions at all,I am happy to answer
(24:37):
if you want any of the ideasand how we're doing it.
Again, I did put an infographicand I will type it out
down below in the description box.
So I hope that you found any of thishelpful, entertaining or informative.
If you did, please scroll downand hit that big red subscribe button.
Turn on the bell for notificationsand give this video a thumbs up.
As always,
you can find me right on down
in the comments or over on Instagramat Making Everyday Magic.
(24:59):
Please keep in mind I would like youto do three things for me.
If you are considering Michael KlayThompson, please
do not let the use of it scare you away
because I got really intimidated myselfand then I found how it could work for us.
Please do not let the cost of itscare you away.
(25:22):
It is very valuable.
I think it is incredibly worth it,
and it is honestly pretty comparableto some of the other programs we've used.
Like most us, for example.
And do not let
the term gifted scare you away
because again, I would argue that it isjust meeting your kid where they are,
so don't let those things scare you awayfrom looking further into this program.
(25:45):
If you feel likeit could be a good fit for you.
I honestlydon't know why more people don't know
about the Michael KlayThompson Language Arts program.
So today, let's jump in and talkabout what we're using
for seventh grade at Language Arts.
Welcome back to Making Everyday Magic.
My name is Shanna.
And if you are new herewe are a homeschooling family of four.
You're in our eighth yearof homeschooling, and today
(00:21):
I just want to take you alongand share with you an in-depth
look at what we are using for languagearts.
For my second grader guide
for Language Arts for my seventh grader.
Guys, before we go any further, pleasescroll down, hit the big red subscribe
button, turn on the bell for notificationsand give this video a thumbs up.
(00:44):
As always,
you can find me right on
down in the comments or over on Instagramat Making Everyday Magic.
So the Michael Klay Thompson program, I'mgoing to give you
just a few little snippets of information
because I recently sharedabout the program with my third grader,
and I feel like a lot ofthe basics are pretty the same.
So I'm going to bullet point prettyquickly if you need any more explanation.
(01:08):
Anything like that.
I will have it link down
below in the description box,but I also probably have a video on it
here if you are interestedif you need more information.
So really quicklyit is by Michael Klay Thompson.
It is a focus on grammar and writing.
It is also an appreciationfor the written word.
It is billed as language Artsfor the gifted and talented.
(01:32):
I would argue that that doesn'tquite apply when you homeschool.
You can find Michael Thompson's productsfor sale
through the Royal Fireworks Press website.
They also offer many other things as well.
As well as not only the print curriculum,but also tutoring
and classes and workshopsavailable for the print curriculum.
(01:53):
You can see right here I have it actuallytheir website pulled up on my computer.
I don't know if this is me
be my final film spot,but this is where we are filming today,
so I personally really
like the Michael Thompsonapproach to language arts.
It is for your children
after they have started readingso they are no longer learning to read.
(02:16):
We are reading to learn.
So for my oldest, we actually picked it upa little late, but I made a point
to go back and start, at the beginningbecause that was important for me.
For my youngest, we actually startedwith the most recently released
introductory level, which starts beforelevel one and is narrative style books.
There are now six of them.
(02:38):
The sixth one I am not familiar with thatfocus on poodle and his friends
teaching the basic concepts of grammar,phrases, comma usage, things like that.
They're really colorful,
very entertaining, and we have enjoyedthem very much in our home.
So that so I have nowused all of the levels
the introductory first, second, third,and we are now in
and today discussing the fourth level,which is the classic literature level.
(03:02):
I can tell you
that my daughter's only complaint,and this was actually the focus
of her first point paper,is that there are not any novels.
None of the official novelsall the way up are
highlighting a female author,and she takes great offense to that.
There are many selections presentedfrom female authors, female poets.
(03:26):
That as far as the readings,
there are none written by a female author.
So that is her big complaint.
I personally love this approachto language arts, and I wish people more
people knew about it.
It is about discussionand about an appreciation
for the written word, a love of the word.
(03:48):
A focus on academic writing,
but not in a formulaic way, in a waythat makes it makes sense.
And the way that this is presentedand highlighted is through
historical essaysand through actual poetry,
and through classic novelsand through, vocab.
(04:08):
Hilary, that traces back to the stems thatare presented in level one, as well as,
the, thewords that are used in classic literature.
So that is where the vocabulary is comingfrom.
The perfect way to explain this approachto understanding
grammar and writing,and an appreciation of the word and
and literature study and all of that,I feel like it is a perfect example is
(04:33):
we opened up the poetry book, which
starts off with, you have two waysthat you can use this book.
So plan Ais that you give it to your students,
and you just let them report to you thatthey have read it when they are finished,
so that they can absorbso that they can understand, so that they
(04:54):
can appreciate what they're learningin their own time, in their own way.
And then plan B is that you douse that as more of a study.
We have opted for plan C, which if youfollowed along for any period of time,
you know that I will use thingsthe way that I see fit, and I will make
a graphic like I did for my third graderof how we are using this program.
And I will also walk you through andtype it out down in the description box.
(05:17):
But we are opting for plan C,which is we read it together
and discuss it, butit's not any kind of like formal aside.
We're not doing any kind of
assignment, anything related to poetry.
So really fast.
Let me pause right here and talk abouta couple more of the logistics.
It is 14 books, 14 books.
(05:38):
I'm not kidding.It's always so many books.
They have so many differentpurchase options.
And you actually receivethe implementation guide.
If you purchasea complete homeschool package.
I don't use it, but I get it becauseI like to purchase the full package.
Now you can do all booksinstructor and student,
which is what I do,which is complete homeschool package.
Or you can do ebooks for everyoneor you can do a mix.
(06:02):
So you could do ebooks for instructorprint books for student,
or you can do just a student set of booksif all you need is kind of the next round
of your student, which is what I haveI purchased for my third grader.
So as you're reusing it, you can just buywhat you need, which is really great.
Now they do have an implementation guidewhich is again
(06:22):
specificfor the complete homeschool package.
And they do send it to you.
And I'm not going to tell you what that isbecause that's their
proprietary information.
So I will not be doing that.
I will just tell you
that it does take a little of thisand a little of this and a little of this,
and you're using them allat the same time.
And that just didn't work for us.
We didn't enjoy the programwhen we used it that way.
(06:42):
Now, something that I have donedifferently in this fourth level
is that instead oftaking the grammar portion
and then the writing portionand then the poetry portion,
I actually have extendedthe writing portion to all year.
And that is because this writing portionthis year is so meaty.
Something that I absolutely loveabout the fourth level
(07:04):
is that the practice sentencesthat your student is completing
when they are doing their four levelsentence analysis, which is something
that I think is incredibly useful for me,will circle back in just one moment
is that the sentences used are sentencesfrom classic literature
that are referenced throughout the entireprogram, and I personally love that.
It's giving you an opportunityto really dissect the author's word.
(07:28):
So Michael Klay Thompson
does do a four level
sentenceanalysis and analysis on each sentence.
So instead of like sentence diagraming,
you take a sentence and beneathit are four blank lines.
And the first lineis for the part of speech.
So noun verb,whatever the next line is for a part
(07:48):
of a sentence, subject,verb, direct object, and so forth.
The third line is for any clausesprepositional gerund.
I'm sorry for any phrasesprepositional gerund, phrase participle,
any of those kinds of phrases.
And then the fourth line is for clausesis it independent?
Is it dependent?
Is it coordinating?
Is it all of those thingsis for the fourth line.
(08:09):
So I really like this approach.
I love that it's teachingthe love of the written word.
So instead of being incredibly formulaicin the explanation of writing
where you know, you have a five sentenceintroductory paragraph followed by A35
sentence body paragraphs,it really lets your kids know that as
long as they are conveying their messageand they are getting their point
(08:32):
across a paragraph,an entire paragraph can be one line.
If it does it well.
And this is all about doing it well.
So it does start in the beginningwith teaching your children
how to form a good sentence.
And then from there,the next level is a good paragraph.
And from therethe next level is a basic essay.
And now we have moved on to point papersand focusing
(08:55):
on, for example,in the writing curriculum.
It is stressing the end effect.
And so we'll have two paragraphsfrom again a famous literature selection.
And they have smashed them together.
And they want your children to read themand understand
where the paragraph breakis that the author put
so that they can understand the effecton the end of a sentence.
(09:19):
So the the hard consonants,
the big words that convey a big meaningand drop off to silent.
So that they appreciatewhere that transition is happening.
Now, again,this is a kind of a wild approach, right?
It is not formulaic.
We are not teaching, readingand writing to our children in an effort
for themto be able to get the maximum straw score
(09:40):
on a standardized test,and I am at peace with that.
I honestly prefer it.
I would prefer that they loved reading,that they loved writing, that they enjoyed
wallowing in the word,then that they could just reproduce
an essay on demand and have it bejust like little genius essay next door.
So for me, I personally love that.
(10:01):
Now let's talk about investmentbecause it's huge.
Okay? It is huge.
First of all, it is a big investmentjust of time on your part
because there is a lot of reading aloud.
I quite enjoy it where I'm reading thingsI never knew that I, I had never read.
It's a bit of time.
It is also quite a bit of an investment.
We are talking hundreds of dollarsfor just this language arts program.
(10:24):
However, the language artsprogram does cover grammar, vocabulary
and writing and poetics,so it does cover a large portion of that.
It does not cover spelling.
Give me one. I'mgoing to give you the exact number. Okay.
So the complete set paperback package,
all instructor, all 14 instructor books.
(10:45):
And once that 14 actually, I think it is
11 instructor booksbecause you don't get an
and you get like one instructorguide for all of the novels,
but not two copies of each novel,if that makes sense.
And all 14
student
textbooks, as well as the implementationguide, is $280. Now
(11:08):
it's a big investment.
Again, there are many different kindsof format options,
and there are also workshopsand online classes.
So if you watch all of these videosand you're like, man, that is daunting
and crazy,which genuinely is part of the reason
that I like to come here and share
not only about the piecesthat we're using,
but how we're using them,because I have tweaked almost everything
(11:32):
is becauseif you look at the implementation guide
or you look at some of these videos outhere,
even their own videos, Royal FireworksPress, own implementation videos,
which they do have on their siteexplaining to you how to use this program.
I was so confused.
So I'm just going to tell you simply,and I will put a graphic on this screen
the way that we have used this levelfor Michael
(11:55):
Thompson Language Arts programfor my seventh grader is
we started the year by re by readingand you go over every year.
You start with grammar.
So we started with reading grammar. Now
I knew that
the writing portion,which I usually follow
the grammar book with, was very long,had a lot of activities
(12:15):
and I wanted to space them out,get more of them done in an easier manner.
So we started with grammarand we also started with the writing.
But creating it togetheras well as vocabulary.
Now, the way that we are using these,I like to read
one chapter a week from the grammar book.
(12:37):
Okay, I like to do vocabulary.
We will read the chapter together.
The reading portions this week.
Every day she will doone of the vocabulary activities.
She will do this for two weeksat the end of the second week,
because there are only ten lessonsat the end of the second week,
she will take a test over those terms
(12:58):
that she's learned up to that point,and that is how we are getting through.
The vocabulary portiontakes about 20 weeks.
Okay, so the grammar bookand also the writing book, now
the writing book,what I've done is we read
and there's so much reading, there's
so much reading in the writing book,especially from chapter one.
So I did break that up longer,so we would read a good chunk of it,
(13:20):
and then once we had finishedreading the portions,
she would do one writing assignment a day.
And what it is, like I said,there's like two paragraphs together
and you just read it and figure outwhere the paragraph break is.
At the end of all four chaptersof the writing assignment,
there is a point paper,and that is a paper that is written.
(13:42):
She's got an essay she has to write.
So I usually give her a week or twoon that essay.
Now, this writing donethis way is taking the full year.
Honestly, at this point have we arejust now kind of at the end of third
quarter start a fourth quarter and we are
we still haven'tmade it to our second point paper,
but we have taken our incredibly slowtime.
But also chapter one
(14:02):
is much longer than two, three and four,so it should go much faster from here.
And as other thingsdrop off, we'll go from there.
So starting grammar, starting writingand starting vocabulary all at once.
Now the three novels we will read
the novels with the
exception of level one,are not dependent on anything.
So we will read them, and discuss.
(14:25):
So these three novels, specificallyThe Hound of the Baskervilles,
we read as a family as just a read aloudDoctor Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde. She had already read.
We'd already read as a read aloud.
And so she read that oneon her own and room.
She actually just wrapped up,
and she read it out loud over the courseof about a week to her sister.
So they read that at bedtime together.
(14:48):
And that is how we are doing those novels.
Let me discuss them, becausewe've all read them and they're great fun.
After we finish
grammar,the grammar portion of of the study,
as soon as we finish that book,we pick up one practice and it's a day.
So on her average day,she's doing one vocab exercise,
one writing
(15:09):
exercise, and one for levelsentence analysis on any average day,
with the exception of Mondays,when we're usually reading
a large portion of the of the testso it's not too hard.
She was only responsible for completingtwo of the three novels this year.
She slacked a bit on getting roomwork started,
so we gave her some hard deadlines,but then she chose
to read out loud to her sisterand it worked out really well.
(15:30):
Now we put off because normally
I put writing in between grammarand poetics, but I didn't this year.
So we finished grammar in the falland we took quite a big break.
So once we've come back and really gottenstarted in the spring semester,
we have now added back in poetics,which again
we are just reading aloud and discussingand that's it.
(15:51):
So I really like this format.
She did finish.
Like I said,her first point paper was about women's,
novels being selected for
the required reading in this course. And
I am not
confident at the levelto officially grade these papers.
(16:13):
I don't have any training in this,so what I did is I read it over
and marked it up with my red penfor what I thought fell out of place.
I had my husband, who was much better
at grammar, also read over itfor what he thought was out of place.
And then I copy pasted the entire textand put it in ChatGPT
to give me an evaluationand ChatGPT gave me an evaluation.
(16:34):
I told it to,you know, use the MLA parameters,
all of those things,and give me some feedback.
And it gave it a score of 85%
with very specific feedback,which I thought was quite good.
So then instead of having hergo back and correct it because I think 85
is pretty good, especially for herfirst point paper of the year,
(16:56):
and don't forget, my personal approachhas been that we don't teach formal
writing for quite a while,so keep that in mind as well.
I felt like 85 was quite good,so instead of having her go back and redo
anything with the exception of a few
like simple editing, capitalization,misspelling of a word, things like that,
then we just discussed the paperand that was it.
So that is how that has been working.
(17:17):
Now let's pop over.
I'm going to give you a look intosome of the books to give you an idea.
Not all of them, because again,we are nearing the end of the year,
we are actively homeschoolingand we've moved.
I don't know where they are.
I do not, full disclosure,know where they are,
but I would like to give you a look insideof some of these books.
So let's pop overand I'll give you a look.
(17:38):
Okay guys.
So here is a look inside
the many, many books of our MichaelJohnson level four.
However, not all of thembecause I don't know
where they're don't forget,we've moved to be kind to me.
So this is just a small stack.
I also could not findmy implementation guide.
And there's a couple things in hereactually need to grade from today.
(18:00):
So, let me just give youthe quick rundown.
If you didn't know, there's actuallya QR code in the front of the books
with a code where you can log onand print off the test materials.
So be sure to do that to take advantage.
These are from the vocabulary.
Okay.
(18:20):
So let me show you some of the readers.
I don't know where the other one is.
It's on a shelf somewhere.
So this is where I had marked offwhat she needed to read when.
Now this is what the readers look like.
And this is why I buythese specific books,
is because they will definethe terms down in the bottom.
(18:41):
If it's a term that your kiddoneeds to know, they also will
highlight any specific book.
Okay, interesting language portions.
So I like that.
I like having these specific copies,
that are
part of the program.
(19:01):
They also give you a quick
little author's bio in the front,which I think is really fun.
A little explanation on why it's good.
And then it doescome with the parent manual, which covers
all three books, as well as just gives yousome things that you need to know.
Some questionsyou can follow up on a little bit further,
(19:25):
a little bit
further writing,if that's what you would like to do.
Now let's look here.
So instructor manual.
Student manual.
So the instructor manualhas a bit more information.
And it explains how to get started.
And let me just take you through.
So for example here is lesson two.
It has the words defined.
And I like thatit's following up like flashing
(19:47):
back to the previous two levels.
And then it has an essay about Jane Austen
or each specific,
author.
And it's got original works by MichaelKlay Thompson.
It has different activitiesthat you can do,
(20:07):
which in the instructormanual are answered for you,
and it goes throughseveral different activities
before moving on to the next lesson.
Now this is what the same thing
and the, student book looks like.
So same the same lesson.
Okay.
(20:28):
As you can see, it is not telling you what
the words,the way the words are used here.
It also is not bolded hereto let them know which answer.
These are not entirely filled out.
I really just love the repetition
of you know you are diagraming or not.
Diagraming I'm sorry you're doingthe four level analysis in your practice.
(20:53):
You're doing the same kind of partof speech
identification in your vocabulary.
I like the repetition.
Now this is poetry of literature
and where we talked aboutyou can just plan A or plan B.
I like the subtle color changesthat you will see throughout
(21:14):
the entire program, so that he canhighlight what he wants you to know.
So for example, we just read over
the, repeating
s sounds of.
Moby-Dick.
So it makes it sound
(21:37):
like the sea, and I like that very much.
Now let's see, we've got our practice now,
this is what my studentswork will look like,
and I will just come over hereand check her sentence for her.
So I'm going to pause really, really fast.
(22:01):
It really is that easy.
And I love that. These are sentences
from classic literatureand it tells you where it's from.
I love that. I absolutely love that.
Now she is currently obsessedwith this end of fact
paragraph practicebecause there is no wrong answer.
It is just improvingon the last line of the paragraph
(22:24):
to give it the end effect,which is what they're
currently studyingin the writing of literature.
And again, as you can see, the instructormanual
has the answers in it,whereas the student text is not the.
And we are
just going to zip right on alonguntil her next point paper
and then hopefully get this wrapped upin a timely manner.
(22:46):
Now the grammar of literaturewe did already finish.
Now all of the Michael KlayThompson programs start with grammar.
And it spells it out.
I love the colored bubblesthat help you understand them.
How it is split apart.
And again, all of these are answeredin the instructor manual
and not in the student workbook.
(23:11):
Okay.
Let me show you with the books you start.
Here I'll show you with the
instructor's guide.
We started with grammar
writing.
And vocabulary okay.
(23:31):
As well as the first of our three readers.
And the readers are just read an orderindependently of the rest of the program.
That is how I'm using these. Okay, now,
both of these will run the entire time.
When we are finishedwith the grammar of literature,
we went ahead and addedin practice sentences
(23:52):
and then after Christmas
we went ahead and startedthe poetry of literature.
Normally I would go one, two, three.
However, there's so much meatin the writing I wanted to give it.
It's it's full justice.
And so we are taking it all year.
So this, this, this start
at the beginning at leisure
(24:14):
followed thethe grammar with the practice.
Okay.
And then added in the poetry of literaturefor the second half of the year.
That's it guys. That's it.
That's my look my end up.
Look how we are using them.
Like Klay Thompson at Languagearts program for our seventh grader.
The level four,which is the classic literature level.
If you have any questions at all,I am happy to answer
(24:37):
if you want any of the ideasand how we're doing it.
Again, I did put an infographicand I will type it out
down below in the description box.
So I hope that you found any of thishelpful, entertaining or informative.
If you did, please scroll downand hit that big red subscribe button.
Turn on the bell for notificationsand give this video a thumbs up.
As always,
you can find me right on down
in the comments or over on Instagramat Making Everyday Magic.
(24:59):
Please keep in mind I would like youto do three things for me.
If you are considering Michael KlayThompson, please
do not let the use of it scare you away
because I got really intimidated myselfand then I found how it could work for us.
Please do not let the cost of itscare you away.
(25:22):
It is very valuable.
I think it is incredibly worth it,
and it is honestly pretty comparableto some of the other programs we've used.
Like most us, for example.
And do not let
the term gifted scare you away
because again, I would argue that it isjust meeting your kid where they are,
so don't let those things scare you awayfrom looking further into this program.
(25:45):
If you feel likeit could be a good fit for you.
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