THIS IS A TWO-SEMESTER COURSE.

Join author Michael Clay Thompson in the Island Level of the MCT language arts curriculum as he introduces students to grammar, vocabulary, writing, poetics, and literature. In Sentence Island, the writing book for this level, students will be taken to a new world where they will meet the beloved Mud the Fish and a host of other creative characters. They will learn grammar in Grammar Island, as well as the building blocks of our vocabulary in Building Language and the fundamentals of poetics in The Music of the Hemispheres. During the second semester, Michael will add the Mud Trilogy of novels to the curriculum.

Students in this course will get a strong, solid foundation in the language arts that is thorough and sophisticated and yet simple and comprehensible. Michael will provide plenty of practice, weekly online classes, and perhaps even a surprise or two! It is an experience that students will remember for years to come.

Class Meetings: Mondays at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Fall Semester: August 19 – December 16, 2024
Spring Semester: January 13 – May 12, 2025

There will not be a class meeting every week. The core of the course is the assignments and the extensive feedback given by Michael, with the class meeting being a voluntary enrichment for students who are able to attend. Students’ attendance of the class meetings has no effect on their grades. Students unable to attend a class meeting will be able to access a recording of the class.

Student Expectations: Students must be able to do assignments using a keyboard (no handwritten assignments).

Student Support: Michael is available via email.

Feedback/Assessment: Michael may reply to students’ answers with comments or questions, and he will want them to answer those emails.

Materials/Supplies: Students will need the Level 1 texts: Grammar Island, Practice Island, Building Language, Sentence Island, and The Music of the Hemispheres, as well as the Mud Trilogy novels: The Rescue at Fragment Crag, The Red Tide, and The Green-Face Virus.

PURCHASE THESE BOOKS AS A PACKAGE HERE.

NOTE: There is an audit and grading option available for this course. Students who choose this option will not be able to join the weekly class meetings, nor will they be able to ask Michael Clay Thompson any questions. Instead, on Friday of each week, there will be a video recording posted on the course website (to which they will have access) of that week’s class meeting with Michael that the students can watch. In addition, students who do the homework can have it graded by an experienced instructor of Michael’s choosing.