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Question for those who've used Lightning Lit 7/8th


Julie in MN
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For those who've used Lightning Lit 7/8th, have you done every single book/story? I would really like ds to enjoy all of the short stories and a few full-length studies, but I don't want him to have to analyze every book he reads, or to have no choice in any of his reading.

 

Would I be creating problems if I skipped sections of LL? I'm thinking of skipping Alice in Wonderland & James Herriot in the 7th set, and/or skipping A Christmas Carol and Treasure Island (and possibly Mockingbird for now) in the 8th set. My son is 13 and will be turning 14, and is a talker, not a reader :)

 

Will the literature analysis skills become disjointed?

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I used it in one semester with my dc, so we eliminated some of the books. I did have them read the literary lessons that went with the sections we skipped just so they would be introduced to them. I don't think anything was lost that way.

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The sections are pretty much self-contained and not dependent on each other. Especially with LL8 we didn't do every bit, just because we were doing both LL8 and a pretty hefty book group schedule, and while there was some overlap (that is, while I engineered some overlap... LOL), it would have been a lot to get through if I'd insisted on every little thing. We skipped Mockingbird, and changed the order, and let two of the books be discussed at book group instead of doing all the LL work. And it worked fine. :)

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It's really so few books -- I'm not sure why it would even *seem* like you had to analyze "everything" a child read that year. Do you have the program yet? The TM contains a weekly schedule for the year, and there are many, many weeks when all one is doing is reading a few chapters. For instance, weeks and weeks of just reading 4 chapters of Tom Sawyer each week... For most 7th grade readers, there should be plenty of time to read lots of other literature and not have to analyze that...

 

We haven't used LL7 yet -- we'll be doing it in the fall -- but I've been working on our schedule for the year week-by-week including all of the reading and writing assignments (from LL7 and History Odyssey level 2 Middle Ages and adding in a few additional history/lit readings that I didn't want to miss), and it really doesn't appear that it will be overwhelming...

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It's really so few books -- I'm not sure why it would even *seem* like you had to analyze "everything" a child read that year. Do you have the program yet? The TM contains a weekly schedule for the year, and there are many, many weeks when all one is doing is reading a few chapters. For instance, weeks and weeks of just reading 4 chapters of Tom Sawyer each week... For most 7th grade readers, there should be plenty of time to read lots of other literature and not have to analyze that...

 

:iagree:

 

We completed LL7 this year and it was not difficult or time-consuming and ds had plenty of time for history and free reading. You don't analyze "everything", they just point out 1-2 things in each book. FWIW, Alice was ds's least favorite and All Creatures was ds's favorite.

 

I understand that LL8 is a bit more demanding, so I won't comment on that other than to say I just finished Treasure Island and it is a quick and exciting read. I'm working on Christmas Carol now, and I could skip that one for the rest of my life. As I remember it, To Kill a Mockingbird was the only high school English book that I enjoyed. I'm looking forward to it.

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Thank you. You guys are helping me think through this. It helped to hear several different times that skipping didn't cause any problems, so I'll probably do that.

 

Abbeyej, reading a chapter a day in a full-length book is a big accomplishment for ds, and I want to save other reading for other classes. Plus, many of our early weeks of school are 4-days as it is (we follow a local public school calendar). He's a good reader, just doesn't like the isolation or learn well visually (opposite of me).

 

Lolly, I like the idea of just reading thru the unit on the books I skip.

 

Sue, thanks for the specifics on the books. Sounds like I'm on the right track except Treasure Island. I do want ds to read Mockingbird, but I'm thinking he'll get more out of it in high school.

 

Now I have to decide which year to choose, or whether to do parts of both. I actually have them both because I ordered 7th last year & used Progeny instead, and then our school orders one non-religious thing for us each year, and I went insane and ordered the 8th too because now he'll be in 8th... I cause my own problems <sigh>

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For those who've used Lightning Lit 7/8th, have you done every single book/story? I would really like ds to enjoy all of the short stories and a few full-length studies, but I don't want him to have to analyze every book he reads, or to have no choice in any of his reading.

 

Would I be creating problems if I skipped sections of LL? I'm thinking of skipping Alice in Wonderland & James Herriot in the 7th set, and/or skipping A Christmas Carol and Treasure Island (and possibly Mockingbird for now) in the 8th set. My son is 13 and will be turning 14, and is a talker, not a reader :)

 

Will the literature analysis skills become disjointed?

 

 

 

No, it will not become disjointed if you skip some books; each unit is pretty much self-contained. There are only occasional, single sentence references to previous units, such as "remember when you read Tom Sawyer..."

 

Quite honestly though, LL7 and LL8 are SO gentle -- just introducing literary elements without a lot of discussion -- they are mostly about reading some classic works. It is not at all like heavy literary analysis. You can *easily* read other books throughout the year in addition to LL7 and LL8 books. Plus, the scheduling of the books is so easy -- especially with LL7, which only has 8 units, compared to LL8's 12 units -- you WILL finish before the end of the 36 weeks.

 

And another option is to just enjoy some of the books as fun family read alouds over the summer or in the evenings. I'd hate for you to miss Alice in Wonderland & James Herriot -- they were so FUN! And we all thoroughly enjoyed A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, and To Kill a Mockingbird -- all three I'd say are "don't miss" books, even if you just read them for enjoyment, not to analyze.

 

BEST of luck, whatever you decide! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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Abbeyej, reading a chapter a day in a full-length book is a big accomplishment for ds, and I want to save other reading for other classes. Plus, many of our early weeks of school are 4-days as it is (we follow a local public school calendar). He's a good reader, just doesn't like the isolation or learn well visually (opposite of me).

 

 

We did LL7 and LL8 aloud together -- reading aloud "popcorn style" ("you read a page, I read a page") and discussed as we went; it was awesome to share these great books together. We only did LL 4 days a week, and even doing it aloud together it took us less than 36 weeks to do LL7. We read about 30 min/day, 4 days/week. The first week of a new book we'd also spend 10 min/day reading through the student guide teaching info about the literary lesson, and after that, DS would spend 10-20 min/day, 3 days/week either doing the worksheets or working on the longer writing assignment at the end of the unit (we did those AS we read rather than AFTER reading the book.) So you're only looking at about 40-50 minutes a day, 4 days a week for LL all together.

 

 

I'm really glad we did LL7 aloud together -- younger DS who struggles a little with language arts would not have doe well trying to get through some of the LL7 books "solo reading":

 

- Helen Keller's Story of My Life = Victorian vocabulary and overly flowery, long, unusual sentences

- Tom Sawyer = a lot of vernacular; once we'd read aloud together (about half the book), he started to "get" the unique vocabulary and that odd spellings = accents

- All Creatures Great and Small = not a difficult book, but a lot of vet medical terminology at first to get used to, and similarly, the odd spellings = accents that took awhile to "get"

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No, it will not become disjointed if you skip some books; each unit is pretty much self-contained. There are only occasional, single sentence references to previous units, such as "remember when you read Tom Sawyer..."

 

Quite honestly though, LL7 and LL8 are SO gentle -- just introducing literary elements without a lot of discussion -- they are mostly about reading some classic works. It is not at all like heavy literary analysis. You can *easily* read other books throughout the year in addition to LL7 and LL8 books. Plus, the scheduling of the books is so easy -- especially with LL7, which only has 8 units, compared to LL8's 12 units -- you WILL finish before the end of the 36 weeks.

 

And another option is to just enjoy some of the books as fun family read alouds over the summer or in the evenings. I'd hate for you to miss Alice in Wonderland & James Herriot -- they were so FUN! And we all thoroughly enjoyed A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, and To Kill a Mockingbird -- all three I'd say are "don't miss" books, even if you just read them for enjoyment, not to analyze.

 

 

:iagree: This year I used LL7 & 8 for my 5th and 8th grader. I picked the books that went with each one's SL curriculum, we did poetry together, and The Christmas Carol during Christmas vacation as family. As Lori said, it is so gentle. Both my ds enjoyed. We have found Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages to be a favorite. Even my "just the facts" reader loves LL.

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We too have done LL7 for 1/2 the year, and DD found the student workbook pages light and refreshing and not at all demanding. The exercises use the reading as a spring board to learning literary elements and ideas.

 

Gosh, I'd be reluctant to skip To Kill a Mockingbird at your son's age.

 

I have a book of "classic," mostly contemporary short stories that has a TE guide put out by Holt that maybe to your liking. Characters in Conflict (ISBN 0-03-008463-6)

 

Some of the stories:

 

The Most Dangerous Game

To build a Fire The Birds

The cask of Amontillado

Antaeus

The Challenge

Red Dress

Rules of the Game etc.

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Lori, I appreciate the heads-up on reading aloud. I do sometimes read the first chapter aloud, in order for ds to "see" how it should be read. It seems like the LL version of Tom Sawyer is a little less heavy on the vernacular, so that might help, too. 40-50 minutes a day is okay I guess if it includes the reading time, too. We do need time for serious grammar this year. So, I suppose the movie versions of Alice and Christmas Carol wouldn't do the trick?!

 

Lisa, I'm glad you clarified, but I still want to know *more* about how you did 7th & 8th together. Are the "units" really interchangeable, so that you could plug one in anywhere, something like doing 6 different Progeny Press guides in any order (much less work, tho)?

 

Laura & Wildiris, I pretty much want to finish these in 8th. I'll keep the extra short story reference as "plan B" -- don't tempt me to buy another program yet :) But if he takes to short stories as I expect (knowing his personality),

 

Thanks, guys, keep talking! My dh thinks I'm crazy for wanting to discuss this stuff when we just finished 7th :tongue_smilie:

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We did all the books although I had planned to skip "Alice in Wonderland". My dc enjoyed it so much, though, I was surprised! Oh, wait, we didn't do Helen Keller. I am reading the James Herriot book out loud this summer and everyone is loving it. I just think the book comes more alive as a read-aloud. I am not sure what we will drop w/LL8 although I detest The Hobbit so will probably drop that one for sure.

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We did the following order:

 

1. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" (LL 7) - both 5th and 8th grader

This covers plot lines and was enjoyed by both boys.

 

2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (LL 7) 8th grader (part of SL 100)

Plot line in a novel and outlines. I went over the main and mini lessons w/ both ds.

 

Then 5th grader chose Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (LL 7) We talked about the plot line but worked on the lesson plans for creativity and nonce words. This dc would rather read about the protests in Tibet than Daughter of the Mountains yet this was his favorite book and lesson all year.

 

3. Rhyme in Poetry (LL 7) - Both ds.

Some of the poems were a challenge and that was fine. It was a reminder to me to have them read more written in older forms of English. They liked the unit, but poetry overall was a hit this year.

 

4. A Christmas Carol (LL 8) - we read this over Christmas break as a family. Both ds.

Character development and the narrator. IMHO, the lesson for character development is very good. Months later, the boys can still tell me the ways to develop characters.

 

5. Sound in Poetry (LL 7) - both

Oldest was studying Poe for SL Core 100.

 

6. To Kill a Mockingbird - (LL 8) 8th grader (part of SL 100)

Studied writing a literary analysis and conclusions

 

The Hobbit (LL8) - 5th grader (SL Core 5)

Studied conflict and genre fiction

 

Did we cover every element of literary analysis? No. Was what we covered in-depth and did my kids learn from it? Absolutely!

 

The youngest will continue with this as well as Jamestown's Best of... Series over the next 3 years. I like that LL covers complete works. I had asked Elizabeth Kamath, the author of LL, about mixing things up. She is easy to reach and has some good suggestions. However, jumping around wasn't an issue here.

 

Hope this helps.:001_smile:

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Sue, thanks for the specifics on the books. Sounds like I'm on the right track except Treasure Island. I do want ds to read Mockingbird, but I'm thinking he'll get more out of it in high school.

I agree about waiting for Mockingbird. I haven't convinced myself that I'll be hs'ing high school at this point, thus my eagerness to do it in 8th. ;)

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Wow, you guys are really helping me! Thank you for the very specific experiences with each book (an extra wow to Lisa!). I think I'm going to start with a few units from the 7th grade set for 1st semester & see how far I can push him.

 

I'm really wavering on Alice. Ds loves funny. But is the book *really* better than just watching the movie? As far as I'm concerned, it's the first pointless book written for a child's pure enjoyment, without a single moral involved. It has some literary merit just on that note, but is it worth weeks of study? My dd read the book & was in the play & watched the movie, so we've done it here, but ds was young. Sigh. I just want to choose well how ds spends his time, since he's not one to read any extra on his own volition.

 

And I will wait on Mockingbird because of ds's personality (unless we had time to read it aloud).

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I'm really wavering on Alice. Ds loves funny. But is the book *really* better than just watching the movie?

 

The movie is well-done, yes -- but it is a cinematic experience; it was also made FOR children and so simplifies and abridges from the book. The book is an extremely clever book accessible to children, but, with much there for adults as well -- and because it is WRITTEN vs. VISUAL, it also gives you a completely DIFFERENT experience. As both a film and literature major in college, I have to say that I find comparing film and book versions of the same work pretty much impossible -- you will never get the same kind of experience, as the two media of film and literature have such different strengths and weaknesses. You might as well ask "Are oranges *really* better than just apples?" [My little rant for the day! :tongue_smilie:]

 

 

 

 

As far as I'm concerned, it's the first pointless book written for a child's pure enjoyment, without a single moral involved. It has some literary merit just on that note, but is it worth weeks of study?

 

 

Pointless book? Not at all! I'd highly recommend getting the wonderful annotated version by Martin Gardiner, a mathematician. The volume contains both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland AND Through the Looking Glass. Gardiner brings out all the wonderful hidden depth that author Lewis Carroll, a mathematician, embedded in both books -- math and logic puzzles, riddles, vocabulary, clever chess moves, parodies, and political/historical allusions made through the original illustrations by Tenniel, etc.

 

As for weeks of study -- only you can make that call. Perhaps read the intro and literary info from LL7 (and skip the worksheets), and then read the annotated Alice over the summer as a family read aloud -- you'll have a wonderful time as a family finding out how much Carroll put into Alice and Looking Glass! :001_smile: Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited by Lori D.
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I'd highly recommend getting the wonderful annotated version by Martin Gardiner, a mathematician. The volume contains both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland AND Through the Looking Glass. Gardiner brings out all the wonderful hidden depth that author Lewis Carroll, a mathematician, embedded in both books -- math and logic puzzles, riddles, vocabulary, clever chess moves, parodies, and political/historical allusions made through the original illustrations by Tenniel, etc.

 

That sounds very interesting! I'm going to see if my library has that one... Thanks for your thoughts on a book that I probably can't evaluate well because it's not my "cup of tea" so to speak :)

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That sounds very interesting! I'm going to see if my library has that one.

 

 

You're welcome; hope you'll enjoy it. :001_smile:

 

 

Thanks for your thoughts on a book that I probably can't evaluate well because it's not my "cup of tea" so to speak :)

 

That's another reason why I love doing lit. programs like Lightning Lit -- they expose you to books you never would have thought of (for us, it was several titles in LL8), AND lit. programs give you an appreciation for books you never would have thought you would have enjoyed. :001_smile: Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited by Lori D.
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There is also a sequel to Annotated Alice, called More Annotated Alice. This contains other notes not in the original, and different illustrations. My son loved this book. However, Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition has both the annotations from the original and the sequel, and the extra chapter that was in the sequel. I would recommend obtaining a copy of the Definitive Edition.

Edited by Valerie in MI
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