MCT: Vocabulary, Word Within The Word - Series by Royal Fireworks Press

This is the first of our middle and secondary level, vocabulary-building, curriculum that is complex, demanding, erudite and witty. It provides internalized, maximum, meaningful, impact at the time students take SSATs and SATs. It is a program that heavily uses etymology, not memorization. Words are presented as a system of thinking, a way of building, analyzing, spelling, pronouncing, using and choosing words. The beauty of this approach is that students will know far more than the list of words encountered in this course, the tens of thousands of words which are not listed, but which are expressions of the system.

Lessons are intended as a weekly effort; all the succeeding volumes build on a cumulative basis from Volume I. Every test reinforces every list. Through constant review, ever increasing familiarity is built. This is a tremendously wonderful undertaking that combines learning and fun.

Volume I covers lessons 1-30 with 500 word stems, both Greek and Latin, followed by 250 words made of those stems. The term "stem" includes all word pieces: prefixes, suffixes, and roots.

Lessons include: Stems List; Sentence Page designed to show how example words should be used; nalogies Page which promotes thinking and prepares students for SSAT's and SAT's; Mystery Spelling and Mystery Questions to show and to practice how it is not just the word one studies that one knows; Notes Page or Stem Close-up that takes a closer look at the list of stems and highlights special points or adds information; Ideas that expand the brain's contact with the stems through activities of synthesis, divergence, analysis, evaluation, intuition, emotion and esthetics; Inventions that give the opportunity to create words just as scientists, writers and others do; and Flip Side Tests which give the definition and ask the term.

Excellent for preparing students for SAT’s and SSAT’s

Here is a vocabulary building curriculum like no other. It is a system which heavily uses etymology not memorization. Words are presented as a system of thinking, a way of building, analyzing, spelling, pronouncing, using and choosing words. The beauty of this approach is that the student knows far more than the list of words encountered in this course; he or she knows the tens of thousands of words which are not listed, but which are expressions of the system.

This vocabulary study is intended as a weekly effort, built on a cumulative basis. Every test reinforces every list. Through constant review, ever increasing familiarity is built. This is a tremendously wonderful undertaking that combines learning and fun for the students.

There are 30 lessons covering 500 stems, both Greek and Latin, followed by 250 words made of those stems. (The term “stems” includes all word pieces: prefixes, suffixes, and roots.) Each lesson’s makeup includes: a Stems List; a Sentence Page which is designed to show how example words should be used; an Analogies Page which promotes thinking and prepares students for SSAT’s and SAT’s; Mystery Spelling and Mystery Questions pages designed to be enjoyable activities to show and to practice that it is not just the word one studies that one knows; a Notes Page or Stem Close-up Page that takes a closer look at the list of stems and highlights special points or adds information; an Ideas Page that expands the brain’s contact with the stems through activities of synthesis, divergence, analysis, evaluation, intuition, emotion and esthetics; an Inventions Page that gives the student the opportunity to create words just as scientists, writers and others do; and Flip Side Tests which give the definition and ask the term.

We are very proud of this complex, demanding, erudite and witty curriculum.

This book supplements the Student Manual. It does not replace it.

 Volume Two, extensively refined and improved in 2007, includes:

• a better (visual) way of indicating whether a stem is Greek or Latin
• flip-side questions on every weekly test
• word-creation exercises in every list
• explanations of the interaction of different kinds of thinking processes
• an exciting range of creative and imaginative activities
• extensive references to the language of classic literature
• guides to pronunciation
• Spanish word lists
• lots more fun ways to look at words and language but still in a rigorous curriculum context

Volume Two develops what was begun in Volume One. See above, and at the top of the page for details of the series.

This book supplements the Student Manual. It does not replace it.