THIS IS AN AUDIT-ONLY COURSE!

This version of the MCT Level 4 course is appropriate for those students who cannot attend the live class meetings or who do not wish to turn on their cameras during the live class meetings.

Students who take this course will not join the weekly class meetings. Instead, each week there will be a video recording posted on the course website for the students to watch of that week’s live class meeting with Michael. Students who do the homework can submit the grammar assignments to Michael to be graded.

THIS IS A TWO-SEMESTER COURSE.

The fourth level of the MCT language arts curriculum is an introduction to literature that is sophisticated and insightful at a level beyond what most students will encounter unless they are English majors at top universities. In MCT4, students will examine how the great writers use poetic techniques, subtle paragraph transitions, and sound in their classic novels. Through a vivid array of examples and practice, they will learn to recognize the extraordinary use of grammar, vocabulary, and poetic elements in these novels—the very things that have made them classics. During the second semester, students will read the Shadow Trilogy of literary novels.

No other curriculum comes close to this level of sophistication, and Michael is the ideal guide to lead students in exploring it.

Dates: The week of August 18th to the week of December 15th, 2025, and the week of January 12th to the week of May 11th, 2026
* Note that there will not be a class meeting—and therefore a recording of it—every week. Michael gives a small number of breaks during the semester to allow students to immerse themselves fully in the work.

Student Expectations: Students are not required to do the assignments.

Assessment: If they wish, students can submit the grammar assignments to Michael to be graded and returned to them by him.

Materials: Students will need the Level 4 texts: The Grammar of Literature, 4Practice for Literature, The Vocabulary of Literature, The Writing of Literature, and The Poetry of Literature, and as well as the Shadow Trilogy novels: The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

PURCHASE THESE BOOKS AS A PACKAGE HERE.