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Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts

Publisher: Royal Fireworks Press
Author: Michael Clay Thompson
Review last updated: March 2010		 Instant KeyPublishers InfoPricingProduct Photos

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Classical educators have brought attention to a language arts program that might otherwise have had little visibility in the homeschool marketplace. Michael Clay Thompson’s language arts program should be viewed as collections of five books to be used for each level beginning about third or fourth grade level. Although written with gifted students in mind, these might be used for a much broader range of students up through high school, adjusting the choice of levels appropriately. The program covers grammar, composition, poetics (poetry), and vocabulary, all at more challenging levels than are typically found in other texts for comparable grade levels. Each book (or series) could stand on its own, but the integration of the five books for each level creates a synergistic effect: the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. The catalog shows the six levels divided in half with the first three levels designated “elementary” and the second three levels “secondary.” However, “secondary” books are suggested for grades six and up. Despite the grade level recommendations, I would suggest starting at the beginning of the series in most situations since there is a cumulative “building” process that occurs with these books that might be difficult to plug into midstream.

Each book has both a student text and a teacher manual. However, in some cases you might be able to get away with purchasing only the Teacher Manual if you are teaching one student since the manual includes the student’s text. Students always need to see the pages since artwork and layout are often as much a part of a lesson as the text. Thus, a student and teacher might work together in a book if need be, but the student DOES need access to each book. (Students definitely need to write in the Practice books, but these are the only ones that function like workbooks.) Teacher information is often separated into a section at the back of the Teacher Manual, but some of the Teacher Manuals have small boxes and circles with teaching suggestions overprinted on student pages. These are unobtrusive enough that you can still have a child reading from the book. (Less expensive Home School Parent Answer Manuals can be purchased instead of Teacher Manuals for The Word Within the Word and The Magic Lens series as well as for Advanced Academic Writing 2.)

Thompson’s approach especially appeals to classical educators for a number of reasons. Most obvious is vocabulary study based upon Latin and Greek stems. (An interesting twist is Thompson’s occasional references to Spanish vocabulary and grammar since Spanish, too, draws on Latin roots and is a “living” language with which students might easily connect.) Use of classical literary examples as lesson material and composition assignments based upon literature are just a few examples of the incorporation of literature. Thompson frequently uses a Socratic approach for teaching—using questions to help students discover answers or concepts for themselves. Socratic questions are really just a part of a comprehensive teaching methodology that both expects and demands students to be mentally engaged with the learning process at a high level. It is very respectful of the student, but it will not work well for the unmotivated student.

Another critical element, sometimes missing in other so-called classical resources, is poetics. Poetry instruction is included at each level.

Although the five books for each level have different titles from year to year, they cover five “strands”: grammar, grammar practice, vocabulary, poetics, and writing (composition).

Grammar books (in sequential order by level) are titled Grammar Island, Grammar Town, Grammar Voyage, Magic Lens 1, Magic Lens 2, and Magic Lens 3. In all six grammar books, Thompson strives to simplify the presentation of grammar by using four “lenses” through which a sentence might be studied: parts of speech, parts of the sentence, phrases, and clauses. While grammar instruction is thorough, the core instruction happens at the beginning of each year, with practice and application happening the rest of the year. Thompson calls it “front-loading.” All eight parts of speech are covered each year, with the level of complexity gradually increasing from year to year. Similarly, parts of the sentence are studied, with even the first level (Grammar Island) including subject complements, prepositional phrases, and identification of clauses. Thompson varies the traditional approach with a strong vertical break between complete subject and complete predicate. Diagramming actually plays a minor role in comparison to “four-level analysis,” a technique used at all levels as students analyze sentences for parts of speech, parts of the sentence, phrases, and clauses. The four-level analysis is introduced in Sentence Island at the first level, then in all the grammar books for the rest of the levels. The Practice books for each level (titled Practice Island, Practice Town, Practice Voyage, 4 Practice 1, 4 Practice 2, and 4 Practice 3) provide pages with sentences for students to analyze at the four levels.

Writing is taught from a strong grammatical approach. Titles of the first three books—Sentence Island, Paragraph Town, and Essay Voyage—reflect the sequential development of composition skills. Advanced Academic Writing books 1, 2, and 3 (for the last three levels) teach students to write formal academic papers following MLA guidelines. Depending upon the ability of the student, two to four such papers might be written each year. (Note that Advanced Academic Writing 3 is listed but does not yet seem to be available.) Advanced Academic Writing Teacher Manuals each include a CD with a library of Michael Clay Thompson’s comments on student papers that he has accumulated over the years. These are comments that he has used repeatedly enough that he “recorded” them rather than rewrite them each time. A parent/teacher might use these comments and save time figuring out how to create his or her own comments.

Vocabulary study eschews the idea of grade level vocabulary. Instead, from the very beginning, students are introduced to interesting and challenging words such as “aqueduct, suburbs, spectacular, spectrum, introduction,” and “reduction.” The first book, Building Language, offers a gentle, artistic introduction to vocabulary by creating an analogy of architectural arches to word stems. This heavily illustrated book should be a fun “exploration” of language that includes reading, discussion, creative writing, oral review, and quizzes that might be done orally or in writing. Caesar’s English, books 1 and 2 ratchet up the academic challenge significantly with a number of interactive activities that challenge students to analyze and apply stems and words. Analogies play a prominent role. Vocabulary continues to transcend typical grade level lists with words such as “vulgar, undulate, tremulous, countenance, languor,” and “prodigious” in book 1 and “derision, vivacious, sanguine, inexorable, alacrity, magnanimous,” and “obsequious” in book 2. Spanish gets special attention in Caesar’s English.

The Word Within the Word (vocabulary books 1, 2, and 3 for the last three levels), emphasize the Latin and Greek roots of words and might be used for more independent study than the lower level vocabulary books. Many activities might be done independently or through group discussion. Some written activities need to be done independently. One such activity that appears in these books directs students to “translate the following ostentatious, ponderous passage into graceful, direct English.” Lengthy passages follow that include sentences such as, “He had seen it all: mendacious miscreants, peripatetic mendicants in dishabille, philandering officials, hedonistic values, pulchritudinous youths wallowing in puerile narcissism, venial sins, dissembling sycophants, refractory recidivists, querulous neighbors—a world replete with sins and problems” (WWW3, p. 123). You can see how this type of assignment really challenges a student to understand and apply vocabulary.

If you want to instill in your children a love of poetry but find most teaching resources less than inspiring, you will likely love Thompson’s approach that includes poetry study at every level. Poetry books are titled The Music of the Hemispheres; Building Poems; A World of Poetry; Poetry and Humanity; Poetry, Plato and the Problem of Beauty; and Poetry, Plato and the Problem of Truth. Even from the youngest level, students learn to appreciate the beauty of language and the skill of an outstanding poet who has carefully selected words not just for meaning and rhyme but also for the actual sounds the words make. All six books explore the technical and mechanical aspects of poetry as well as the aesthetical and emotional. The last three books, as you might surmise from their titles, delve further into philosophical questions such as the nature of man and whether beauty and truth are relative or absolute. Thompson presents the questions in a Socratic manner, encouraging thought without offering definitive answers. Those teaching a Christian worldview might want to expand such discussions within that context.

As I mentioned previously, all five books work together although all but the Practice books might be used on their own. However, grammar books provide an understanding of the structure of language used throughout all the books; poetry books feed the imagination for writing and allow students to experience the beauty of aptly chosen words they might have just learned in their vocabulary study; vocabulary study prepares students to explore a wider variety of literature with understanding; and all of this prepares students to be able to express ideas in their own writing. I suspect that most parents will be inspired by these books, just as I was, since they reveal aspects of language arts that offer beauty and meaning.

As companion books to the curriculum, the “Self Evident Truth” series studies the “Declaration of Independence,” Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech to learn how the choice of words, grammar, poetics, and social/historical context together can produce language that changes the world.

The Royal Fireworks Press website has Michael Clay Thompson's free ownloads, video clips and implementation slide shows to support parents and the publisher sponsors a Yahoo discussion group, MCTLA, for support and input from parents. Both the publisher and the author regularly contribute to this discussion group.

Following is a listing of the five titles for each level with suggested grade levels.

Level 1
Audience: 3rd grade and up

Grammar Island, Practice Island, Building Language, The Music of the Hemispheres, Sentence Island

Level 2
Audience: 4th grade and up

Grammar Town, Practice Town, Caesar’s English 1, Building Poems, Paragraph Town

Level 3
Audience: 5th grade and up

Grammar Voyage, Practice Voyage, Caesar’s English 2, A World of Poetry, Essay Voyage

Level 4
Audience: 6th grade and up

Magic Lens 1, 4 Practice 1, The Word Within the Word 1, Poetry and Humanity, Advanced Academic Writing 1

Level 5
Audience: 7th grade and up

Magic Lens 2; 4 Practice 2; The Word Within the Word 2; Poetry, Plato and the Problem of Beauty; Advanced Academic Writing 2

Level 6
Audience: 8th grade and up

Magic Lens 3; 4 Practice 3; The Word Within the Word 3; Poetry, Plato and the Problem of Truth; Advanced Academic Writing 3

Royal Fireworks Press offers either “complete” or “basic” homeschool packages at discounted prices through their website.

Pricing

Check the publisher's website for prices.

Instant Key

  • Audience: grades 3 and up
    Suitable for: one-on-one or group with some independent work
    Educational Approach: Classical
    Religious perspective: secular

Publisher's Info

  • Royal Fireworks Press

    First Avenue, PO Box 399
    Unionville, NY 10988

    845-726-4444

  • www.rfwp.com


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