Excellence in Lit vs. Lightning Lit American & British

[jibaker103]

Looking to start using one of these programs, in 10th grade, after ds completes LL8 and Lit Lessons from LOTR in 8th and Elegant Essay, Teaching the Classics, and Windows to the World in 9th.

 

Please give me pros and cons of each and how they differ from each other.

[SW in IL]

I was wondering if you could share a bit on LL8 and Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings. DS is doing his "pre-freshman" year (getting caught up and ready for high school level work) this year and we don't like our Lit program.

 

Do LL8 and LOTR mesh together fairly well? Did y'all do LL7? Do you need to do LL7 prior to LL8?

 

Thanks,

Sue

[Faithr]

I've used both the British Lit (Medieval and Christian) and the American Lit Lightning Lit programs. They are set up in the same way. There is an intro to the piece of literature that orients the student to its time and place, etc, then there is an intro to the writing topic that they want the student to focus on (for ex. Beowulf and foreshadowing or developing a theme in Uncle Tom's Cabin). There are comprehension questions that guide the student through the work of literature and then there are essay questions at the end of unit. There's other stuff too in there! There's an 11 yo boy birthday celebration going on behind me right now!!!! I can't really think! Anyway, I really liked the program. It is very challenging. I liked it because I could pick and choose what we did (we didn't do every work).

 

I'm planning on using the guides again for my current high schooler probably in 11th and 12th grades. We are doing Ancient Lit right now and will focus on church history next year so we do the Brit and Lit thing in later high school.

[jibaker103]

I was wondering if you could share a bit on LL8 and Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings. DS is doing his "pre-freshman" year (getting caught up and ready for high school level work) this year and we don't like our Lit program.

 

Do LL8 and LOTR mesh together fairly well? Did y'all do LL7? Do you need to do LL7 prior to LL8?

 

Thanks,

Sue

Sue ds started with LL8 and it is gentle in its approach. It's making my ds think about why not just firing off an answer and being done. LL7 is not a prerequisite to any of the others. Considering how easy LL8 is I believe your ds15 would benefit from starting with either LL8 or American Lit. I also recommend the books Lori D. posted to help your ds learn lit analysis. We used Figuratively Speaking and it was invaluable!!

 

As far as Lit Lessons from LOTR we haven't started yet. We will start in February, when we start Medieval History, after completing the chapter on the Hobbit. Ds has already read the Hobbit and LOTR Trilogy several times so we will be concentrating on the notes for each chapter and the unit studies. Then we will finish up our 3 remaining chapters in LL8 (we hs year-round)

[jibaker103]

:lurk5:Anyone else please?!?!?

[Melissa B]

Excellence in Literature

 

Have you had a chance to look through the sample unit (Unit 3) on the IEW website? Every unit is layed out in nearly the same way. There is one primary book, one additional honors book and the context materials. There is usually an author profile, a short paper of some sort and a longer paper for each unit. You can pick and choose the units you use, but the papers get longer and more difficult as you progress. (This really isn't difficult to modify.) There are no worksheets or answers. There are a few broad discussion questions for each unit to be considered throughout the book.

 

I found this to be a perfect program for us, but it has the drawbacks of the parent grading the essays (there is a rubric in the back of the book) and having to read the books if you want to engage the student in discussion. (Although all of the books are classics and probably have free cliff note type pages online.)

 

I have found the books and discussion questions to be suitable to all ages. We have found nothing objectionable anywhere in the program. We are still working through the first level - although I have read through all three levels currently available. It is not difficult to skip a unit if you've covered the books already or simply don't want to. We are going to save Fahrenheit 451 for when dd is older and just skip that unit. The American and British programs can be matched with history as they progress fairly chronologically.

 

This is a program that probably works better for a motivated reader/literature student. It doesn't require a less motivated student to dig deep into the novels the way a program with specific questionaires or discussion questions would do. Yet, while a less motivated student would get less out of the program, it is broad and would expose any student to a large number of classic works, their authors and other art/music of the time period.

 

Sorry this is a bit vague, if you have any more specific questions just let me know!

Edited December 14, 2009 by Melissa B

[jibaker103]

Thank you Faith and Melissa for your insight into both these wonderful programs. So it sounds like which one I go with depends on how much Noah wants his hand held. Seems like LL guides you through each lesson more than EIL. On the other hand it doesn't sound like these programs do much duplicating outside of the introduction to the unit so maybe I should let him do both to pick and choose...hmmm