Lightning Lit 8 Users...

[silliness7]

I'm thinking of condensing Lightning Lit 8 into an 18 week course by cutting out 18 weeks from the schedule. What were your favorite books/poetry units? Anything a DON"T MISS and anything you could really have done without?

 

Thanks!

[yslek]

We haven't used LL8 but dh is reading My Family and Other Animals, one of the included books, to B & T right now. It's entertaining, well written, and one I wouldn't leave out. :)

[silliness7]

That is good to know. I'm not familiar with that one though I did purchase it.

 

I'm wondering if To Kill a Mockingbird would be one to leave out. I LOVE this book but wonder if it would be better to read it as an older student.

 

Any other thoughts?

[Lori D.]

Ouch! That's a tough assignment, as I don't think anything in LL8 is "extraneous". We did LL8 twice, once each with each DS, and certainly enjoyed it twice, and did NOT cut anything and would have hated to *have* cut.

 

However, I would say if you feel you MUST cut -- and I am assuming from your thread elsewhere on the high school board that this is so you can fit in Windows to the World which focuses on short stories -- then from LL8, I would suggest cutting all 3 short stories (none of them are critical short stories to have covered), and then not cut, but just bump The Hobbit and My Family And Other Animals to become very enjoyable evening time family read-alouds or solo reads.

 

NOTE: whatever you decide to cut, I would at some point this year at least read through the literary lesson and mini writing lesson portions of those units, as there is some good information there on literary analysis which Windows to the World does NOT have. What WttW does well is teach annotation, and specific instruction on how to write a literary analysis -- not much on actual literary elements or how they work to analyze a work of literature. That's what LL8, especially in the workpages of the last 6 units of the program and as the literary lesson of the last unit, does very nicely. So, maybe also make sure you do some of the workpages of the last 6 units of LL8 where they practice aspects of literary analysis, even if you skip reading the literary work for that unit.

 

 

I would NOT recommend cutting the poetry units because it is hard to find literature programs that do a decent job of exposing you to/covering classic poetry. Because our DSs do not like poetry, we did manage to reduce time spent on those units down to 2 weeks per poetry unit -- week 1 was reading the literary lesson material in the student guide portion, along with 2-3 poems each day; week 2 was doing 2 worksheets a day from the student workpage portion. While we did read the mini writing lesson at the end of each unit at the end of week 2, because DSs don't care for poetry, we compromised and skipped doing any writing assignment at the end of the poetry units.

 

The "don't miss" works of literature, whether you cover them with LL8 or with the literary analysis from some other program:

- Treasure Island

- A Day of Pleasure

- A Christmas Carol

- To Kill a Mockingbird

- some classic poetry

 

The literary lessons I though were particularly good in LL8:

#2 = setting (Treasure Island)

#3 = vivid imagery (poetry unit)

#6 = character development (Christmas Carol)

#7 = figurative language (poetry unit)

#8 = conflict (The Hobbit)

#9 = symbolism ("Reflections")

#11 = meter in poetry (poetry unit)

#12 = writing a literary analysis (To Kill a Mockingbird)

 

 

Hope that is of help! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited September 27, 2010 by Lori D.

[silliness7]

Lori,

Thank you so very much for your thoughts. That helps a lot!! (Sorry about the double post) I'm very glad to have your comparisons of LL and Windows. Trying to get both done in 8th grade and move on to ToG is might be a logistical mess. Perhaps if I make a deal with him he'd be willing to do both programs 2nd semester. Maybe if I cut out some of the writing as you suggested.

 

Next year we'll be doing the literature in TOG year 4. I discovered last night (after I'd posted) that they read Mockingbird and Hobbit. Yeah!! So I will save those for later and glean some literary lessons from LL if necessary while we go through that.

 

We really are enjoying LL so far. He's finished with Treasure Island and will be working on a setting paper this week. I am not discontent with the program in any way, just wanting to squeeze Windows in somewhere.

 

Thanks again for your help!!

[Lori D.]

Well, quite honestly, the more I think about your questions and the idea of cutting, the more I think I would just use LL8 this year "as is". LL8 provides a good literary analysis foundation which WttW does not. (The strengths of WttW lie elsewhere.) And 8th grade is the perfect time to be getting that solid background in literary analysis so that in 9th grade you can really step into The Great Books read to think about/discuss/analyze them (TOG) with the skills you learned in 8th grade, and then write about The Great Books (WttW).

 

So, I guess this response is somewhat going counter to my answer from above, but my first answer was an attempt to help you cut; this answer is now that I've thought about it, why I'm not sure cutting is perhaps the best thing to do... :)

 

 

 

...Trying to get both done in 8th grade and move on to ToG is might be a logistical mess... Perhaps if I make a deal with him he'd be willing to do both programs 2nd semester... We really are enjoying LL so far... I am not discontent with the program in any way, just wanting to squeeze Windows in somewhere.

 

 

 

Hmmm... first, I cannot picture any kind of deal that would ever make our DSs willing, in essence, to double their work load, but then school has never been their primary interest in life... (Gee why not?! :tongue_smilie:)

 

Just for your consideration, so toss out what I'm about to say if you've already made a decision, BUT... If it were me, I would just stick with the LL8 as written this year. (BTW, I have 2 boys, and I have done LL8 and WttW; the only thing I haven't done that is in your game plan is TOG -- instead, we've done a lit.-heavy high school along the lines of TOG by doing our own variation on "The Great Books" ala WTM/WEM style.)

 

If you're both enjoying LL8, and learning from it, then stick with it. ("If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- and don't try to squeeze it more till you do break it". :tongue_smilie:) Especially since you are planning on doing a program that is heavy on lit. and literary analysis next year (TOG4), spend this year getting solid with a foundational literature program: LL8. You will get the basics of literary analysis and some of the literary elements used in literary analysis through LL8; you don't get that with WttW.

 

WttW is going to take you a fair amount of time, and you DON'T want to cut it short, either. The first section is on annotating. It requires you to read the same short story 2-3 times, with the second and third times making notes in the margins. No way that amount of work, writing and concentration would have flown with our DSs in 8th grade. They just weren't ready for it. (NOTE: you know your student best, so this has to be your call here, since every student matures at different speeds.)

 

Also, WttW does not really cover literary analysis -- it more assumes you already have a basic understanding of literary elements and how to use them to analyze literature (that's what you get in LL8 -- which is why you don't necessarily want to rush through/skip parts of LL8). The second portion of WttW then teaches you how specifically to write a literary analysis essay. Again, you need to have a solid, basic foundational understanding of literary analysis going in to WttW for being able to translate that thinking about/discussing literature into *writing about* literature -- and that writing about literature is really a high school level skill -- and maybe not even a 9th grade skill, but more like a 10th or 11th grade skill if you have a struggling writer who is still working to just get solid with basic writing skills in the first half of high school.

 

 

If you really feel you need to "add" to LL8, I'd suggest doing Figuratively Speaking which will expose you to more literary elements. It can easily be done orally together in about 10 min./day, 2 days/week, and once you've gone over them, you can practice looking for them informally in the lit. you're doing for LL8, or in anything else you're reading.

 

 

 

Next year we'll be doing the literature in TOG year 4. I discovered last night (after I'd posted) that they read Mockingbird and Hobbit.

 

 

Then NEXT year, you can take WttW (a 1-semester course) and spread it out over the whole year, taking your time with it, and allowing WttW to substitute for some of the lit. in TOG4 (you will have already done The Hobbit and To Kill a Mockingbird this year with LL8). I understand that there is so much in TOG, it would be a killer to try and do ALL of it -- so TOG is already designed to allow you to pick and choose your way through it in a way that LL8 and WttW are not.

 

I would NOT worry about trying to match up WttW time-frame wise with TOG4. Do WttW in the order it is written -- each short story read is "embedded" as the specific example for what is being taught in that lesson, and the lessons of WttW very much build on one another, so trying to skip some, or do them out of order would really destroy the continuity and flow of the building up of information and technique in WttW.

 

 

Just my 2 cents worth! (And I'm cross-posting this to your query about LL8/WttW on the high school board, so this will be attached to your original question.) BEST of luck, whatever you decide! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited September 27, 2010 by Lori D.

[abbeyej]

I would start by cutting down the *time* allowed for reading some of the books. The schedule provides *very* generous amounts of time for each novel, and you could probably cut out most of those 18 weeks simply by reading more quickly. I think each of the individual units is valuable, and I'd be hesitant to cut any of them.

[silliness7]

I would start by cutting down the *time* allowed for reading some of the books. The schedule provides *very* generous amounts of time for each novel, and you could probably cut out most of those 18 weeks simply by reading more quickly. I think each of the individual units is valuable, and I'd be hesitant to cut any of them.

 

Yes, you are right. There seems to be a lot of time to read and then just a couple of days for all the worksheets. I have tried to rectify that disparity somewhat by reading a bit faster. Thank you for responding to my query. I really appreciate it!

[silliness7]

Thank you again, Lori. :001_smile:

 

Here's more Kudos to add to the ones in that other thread.:party::thumbup::thumbup:

[abbeyej]

Yes, you are right. There seems to be a lot of time to read and then just a couple of days for all the worksheets. I have tried to rectify that disparity somewhat by reading a bit faster. Thank you for responding to my query. I really appreciate it!

 

BTW, I think you can also do some of the worksheets orally and get just as much from them. I wouldn't skip them all, but there are a couple here and there that aren't particularly necessary, and many others could be handled as discussions between parent and student, rather than as "Go off and write all of this" type assignments.

[shanvan]

I'm wondering if To Kill a Mockingbird would be one to leave out. I LOVE this book but wonder if it would be better to read it as an older student.

 

 

 

Well, I have decided it will be better left for my Ds when he is more mature, and that is one of the reasons I opted not to use LL8. We are using our own book choices alongside Figuratively Speaking and also adding some TOG literature selections.

 

Shannon

[Capt_Uhura]

I must interject here and say how wonderful it is that we have such a wonderful community of those so willing to help out others. Lori, your posts were so well thought out. I know each of us is trying to squeeze out every drop there is to the day, and it is wonderful that you took the time to do it. You are such an asset! I'm so looking forward to LL8! I have LL7 on deck for this year. I"ll have to file in my brain WttW later for when DS is older.

 

If I can ask a quick question? One of the books that I have planned for this year, Treasure Island, using my Teaching the Classics materials for it, is also in LL8. Could I do that portion of LL8 this year? I don't want to kill the book by doing too much with it but if it's a few things added that isn't in TtC, then it might be worth my buying LL8 now since I'll be needing it next year anyway. My DS really enjoys lit discussions so I'm not worried about killing the joy. Once we've had enough, we'll stop w/ that particular book.

 

Capt_Uhura

[abbeyej]

...One of the books that I have planned for this year, Treasure Island, using my Teaching the Classics materials for it, is also in LL8. Could I do that portion of LL8 this year?

 

Sure, I think that would work just fine. :)

[Capt_Uhura]

Thanks Abbeyej. That was my original plan but I haven't found LL8 used yet. If anyone has one to sell, drop me an email. :001_smile: