It's NOT Greek to Me! From Ready to Teach Review

 

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

The last few weeks my son has been using It's NOT Greek to Me! Expanding English Vocabulary with Greek Morpheme Analysis from Ready to Teach. This has been a good time too as he is getting closer to taking the ACT. Whether you are doing it for the ACT or vocabulary this is a nice resource.

The set comes with an Instructor’s Manual, Student Workbook, Flash drive with PowerPoint Slides to accompany the program.  The vendor also sent a hole punch and a metal ring. This is the 4^th Edition.

The curriculum is a vocabulary program using over 200 Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

Instructor’s Manual is a softback book with a total of 126 pages. The book is broken up into 5 sections:

Introductions are essential that you read it. It has background information about the program and how to use it in your homeschool. 

A suggested detailed 5 days a week lesson plan schedule along with concise information. It breaks down the information on what to do by day. There are icons you can refer to that will help you recall the steps easily. The Assignments are clearly stated with A, B, etc… Another feature you can do is create an ongoing display board with a Greek man to color and use on a wall or bulletin board. It gives you some basic information to implement this.

This includes your answer keys for all the lessons along with notes and important information for the lessons are included. Each lesson has a dedicated page for each of the lessons for the morphemes, meanings, and words to work. There are also reviews matching exercises. Answer keys for all the review activities, created words, funny definitions, crossword puzzles, and a sample of the serial mystery story.

This has all your tests which include one test per lesson. There are three multi-lesson and answer keys. A rubrics for calculating grades.

 Appendix for all the morphemes used in the program in alphabetical order.

At the back of the book, there are Premade Study cards for all the morphemes. The cards are thicker cardstock paper.

Student Workbook is a consumable workbook and can be used with one student. A total of twelve lessons. In each lesson, you will cover a total of 16 words. 

At the back of the workbook, you have color-coded flashcards that you will need to cut out and hole punch. Your PowerPoint slides on the flash drive will help you create the study cards that you use throughout the lessons.

If you are using this as a high school credit you can plan on a half-semester at around 14 to 16 weeks and can easily qualify this for half credit.

Flash Drive has all your PowerPoint lessons with instructions on how to open the files. Basically, you will just put them in the "read-only mode". For those who don't feel intimidated by technology, it has pictures to show you each step. 

The PowerPoint slides are impressive. It does the teaching for you. It is filled with information and the layout is easy to follow on each slide. You don't have to guess if you are on the wrong slide!

My son has been working at a steady pace around 3-4 days a week throughout the review. A typical lesson has been around 15-20 minutes long. As we are heading into the new school year I plan on him doing the 5-day schedule. Everything is an open-and-go curriculum and there is no planning on my end. For the most part, he is working independently. I have been sitting in on his lessons to observe how it works. He will be working independently going forward.

Just an example of a few worksheets he has done. 

A typical schedule-Day 1: He looks over the PowerPoint and takes notes and working on his Student Workbook. Assignment A-working on the first half of the words. This includes learning the morphemes for that week and makes his flashcards. We cut out the flashcard blank ahead of time.

The next day is Assignment B he reviews the previous days' morphemes and works on the new ones along with any worksheets he needs to do. Day 3: Assignment C he reviews the words. He works on the sentences, creates words, definitions and writes context clues sentences. Day 4: Assignment D has him working with me to go over and explain words. He finishes up the rest of his Student Workbook lessons and he goes over the PowerPoint if he needs it before he takes his test the next day. That is a general overview of a typical lesson.

If I could change one thing about the set it would be with the Instructor’s Manual. It’s not that I don’t like it as it is very functional and relatively easy to use. I would love to see pages in the Instructor’s Manual that mirror the student pages with the completed answers. I know it’s me rushing but sometimes I found myself struggling to find the answers. I know it’s just me and my mind going way too fast trying to get everything done.  Having that would make this that much better and easier.

We have done a few Greek vocabulary programs throughout the years and this has by far been my son’s favorite and mine. It is put together in a way that makes learning Greek vocabulary to the point and enjoyable. It didn’t feel like a lot of extra busyness and it just works. When I first received this in the mail I was a bit worried at first glance that this would be a dud. I have been pleasantly surprised by everything. With that being said this is one of those curriculums that is a complete gem.  

A few other members of the Homeschool Review Crew have been using  It's NOT Greek to Me! Expanding English Vocabulary with Greek Morpheme Analysis from Ready to Teach.