LL with a binge reader?

[Dmmetler]

If your child prefers to read a book all at once, how would Lightning Literature work? My DD has read all of Tom Sawyer at once, and somehow, making her go back and go through the comprehension questions, especially since they're mostly pretty basic recall level seems silly. Should I just jump to the writing assignments? I have the student guide, not the workbook. 

 

 

 

 

[maize]

I would jump to the writing assignments, I'm guessing you're not worried about her comprehension.

[Dmmetler]

Not really-she has tested post-high school on comprehension since age 5, and reads at any level she chooses for pleasure. I mostly just want her to read books that she might not otherwise choose to pick up and to write about topics that aren't snakes or neopets, and the LL lit selections looked like a good fit for that purpose.

 

 

 

[EndOfOrdinary]

The only reason I have DS do comprehension questions is so that he has direct examples to pull from when he writes his thesis for essay questions. It means he does not have to look back in the book - which takes him FOR.EV.ER. If she finds herself struggling for examples or text based evidence, showing her how to use chapter by chapter summaries and comp questions might be helpful.

 

Generally, I let DS try things his way. If it works, great. If it doesn't we discuss options.

[Space station]

Dmmettler, please post how it goes with LL. I was very tempted to do LL7 with my younger daughter, but didn't since she had already done Alice last year. I'm leaning towards LL8 for next year. She sounds a lot like your daughter, in that she sits down and reads a book cover to cover before I realize she has started it.

[Dmmetler]

She's already read Alice (in LL7) and The Hobbit (in LL8), but I figured that she hasn't written about the books yet, so it won't hurt to revisit them through that lens. I went ahead and ordered both guides because I don't know how long it will take her, and getting both got me free shipping.

[Space station]

That was smart. I didn't realize they gave free shipping. Did you get the pack, or just the student guide? teacher's guide? I guess I need to revisit it.

[Dmmetler]

I just got the student guides-I figured I could figure it out from there.

[bakpak]

I don't have experience with LL, but wanted to comment because it reminded me of my own middle school experience. I'd always read a book in one fell swoop and then we'd have quizzes on it in my gifted humanities class in PS for up to 6 weeks later. I was horrified when I missed so many fine detail questions. Obviously one problem was that I'd read dozens of other books during the interim, but the other problem for me was skimming. I've always been a skimmer, and already notice my 5-yr-old doing it. I had to retrain myself to slog back through and read the passages thoroughly before tests. At the time I thought it was ridiculous that I had to remember detail X or Y, but I realized later a lot of literary analyses relies on picking up on those subtle details and I would read much more carefully and use those skills more frequently once I got to high school and literary analysis cranked up.  

 

So I'm not sure I have any good suggestions, but just a note of caution that reading for comprehension is different from carefully analyzing a piece of work, and maybe those seemingly ridiculous questions serve a purpose other than to see if the student read the passage.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I don't have experience with LL, but wanted to comment because it reminded me of my own middle school experience. I'd always read a book in one fell swoop and then we'd have quizzes on it in my gifted humanities class in PS for up to 6 weeks later. I was horrified when I missed so many fine detail questions. Obviously one problem was that I'd read dozens of other books during the interim, but the other problem for me was skimming. I've always been a skimmer, and already notice my 5-yr-old doing it. I had to retrain myself to slog back through and read the passages thoroughly before tests. At the time I thought it was ridiculous that I had to remember detail X or Y, but I realized later a lot of literary analyses relies on picking up on those subtle details and I would read much more carefully and use those skills more frequently once I got to high school and literary analysis cranked up.  

 

So I'm not sure I have any good suggestions, but just a note of caution that reading for comprehension is different from carefully analyzing a piece of work, and maybe those seemingly ridiculous questions serve a purpose other than to see if the student read the passage.

 

I think this is a great point.  I'm trying to induce this epiphany and train this skill this year. We're reading The Hobbit and LOTR.  I'm fine if she reads ahead and devours the whole series, but then we are going back through it and discussing it - maybe not chapter by chapter for the whole series, but definitely in an intentionally slowed-down way. I'm using this as an exercise in close reading.  We're not doing comprehension questions, but discussion questions orally and a series of short writing assignments.  We'll have to see how it goes, but I think it's a really valuable skill to develop before high school, and it's good especially for fast/devouring-type readers to see the value of a more slow, deliberate re-reading process.

[Kathy G]

We do LL and DD reads in one swoop too.  We let her read it then we do the comprehension questions.  She usually has no problems with them.  If there is an area we need to reread then we do it.  Once done, we do the writing assignments.  I have found LL to be a good spine, but it is very easy to finish it in much less than a year, so have a plan for supplementation.  We often sidetrack to go deeper.

[boscopup]

I don't have experience with LL, but wanted to comment because it reminded me of my own middle school experience. I'd always read a book in one fell swoop and then we'd have quizzes on it in my gifted humanities class in PS for up to 6 weeks later. I was horrified when I missed so many fine detail questions. Obviously one problem was that I'd read dozens of other books during the interim, but the other problem for me was skimming. I've always been a skimmer, and already notice my 5-yr-old doing it. I had to retrain myself to slog back through and read the passages thoroughly before tests. At the time I thought it was ridiculous that I had to remember detail X or Y, but I realized later a lot of literary analyses relies on picking up on those subtle details and I would read much more carefully and use those skills more frequently once I got to high school and literary analysis cranked up.  

 

So I'm not sure I have any good suggestions, but just a note of caution that reading for comprehension is different from carefully analyzing a piece of work, and maybe those seemingly ridiculous questions serve a purpose other than to see if the student read the passage.

 

This is what I'm afraid of happening with my oldest. He reads lightning fast, and I am sure he's missing some details due to that. We're using LL7 this year (though haven't done it in a few weeks... I haven't had energy for full school lately), and when we do Tom Sawyer next, I'll have him read and discuss per the curriculum. It's fine if he reads it through once (actually, I just read it aloud to everyone, and we finished it tonight), but I told him he can read it again slower, so he'll pick up more details. Thankfully, he doesn't mind reading books again. He's probably read the Harry Potter series 10 times since January. I'm sure he's picking up new details each time he reads them. ;)

[Chrysalis Academy]

This is totally OT, but last night I told Shannon it was bedtime, and she said, "Oh, can I just finish this one part, it's so exciting."  I said sure.  then I asked what she was reading.

 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  For at least the 7th time.  And yep, it's still just as exciting as the first time!  :lol:

[boscopup]

I bought the HP series for DS's Kindle, as I was sick of having to check it out from the library so often. :)

[ElizaG]

I was just looking through some early 20th century books about teaching literature, and got the impression that these sorts of simple questions were originally seen as a type of "retelling exercise," like a mini-narration.   They were always meant to be answered in complete sentences, either orally or in writing.   There does seem to be a great deal of value in this task, both for developing verbal fluency and for giving the children practice in organizing their thoughts.   

 

At some point in the next few decades, teachers apparently lost track of the original purpose of the exercises, and started using short-answer and multiple-choice questions as an efficient way to make sure the students had read the book.  

 

Lightning Literature seems to have some questions from both categories.  Since we're trying to follow the more traditional approach of using literary study to develop the arts of expression (rather than the modern emphasis on "reading for appreciation"), my inclination would be to assign just a few of them, with an emphasis on the ones that lend themselves to an interesting or challenging retelling.

[EndOfOrdinary]

Adler talks about comprehension in his book, "How to Read a Book."  He speaks of it as one of the initial levels of understanding so that the reader later has a place to develop deeper meaning.  The act of going through comprehension forces the reader to recognize how much of the story they really read and how much of it they made assumptions or judgements about based on their personal life.  Almost like a conversation - did you really hear what the other person was expressing, or do you filter it all through your life experiences and thus missed what they were trying to completely say?

 

Thinking about it that way completely changed the way I talk about literature with my son as well as how I read it myself.

[minuway]

How is it going? I was looking at doing this with my dd9, because I talked to the folks at Online3g.com at the SENG conference this year and was very impressed with the teacher. She had already read all the book for LL7 and didn't want to reread them, so we were going to try LL8 in the spring.  I would love to hear your experiences. She tends to be a serial book gobbler, so I'm wondering how this will work...