Caesar's English 1 - Teacher's Manual Author:Michael Clay Thompson Vocabulary, Elementary Program by Michael Clay Thompson — Michael Clay Thompson’s Building Language, and the two Caesar's English volumes, can be used as stand-alones or as part of a vocabulary program for young students. — They also set the stage as preparatory complements to the more advanced Word Within The Word<... more »/em> Vocabulary program that should come in middle or high school.
Building Language and Caesar's English:
reveal the age of the English language with its Roman beginnings
teach students the most prevalent Latin stems, providing an intellectual key for young students to understand that big words aren't necessarily hard
discard the specious confines of teaching age-graded vocabulary, on the observation that even little children can give the species names of dinosaurs-a clear proof that they can learn and understand bigger words than they are usually asked to learn
aim to sow the seeds of intellectuality by introducing students to the drama and romance of ancient Rome, to the names of its thinkers, and to some of the fascinating facts of its history.
show the Latin-English-Spanish connection, indicating clearly how the two great languages of the United States are members of the same family.
develop a sense of anticipation about reading classic literature in the future. In all three volumes the authors have chosen examples of the use of words and their stems in the best sentences they could find--even if a sentence was from books to be more likely read in high school rather than in elementary school. Included are children's authors such as Sir Walter Scott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Kenneth Grahame, and Robert Louis Stevenson, but also the Brontes, Jane Austen, Defoe, Milton, Morrison and Shelley.