Please talk to me about how you use Lightning Lit

[amyco]

After much discussion and "negotiations," my dd will be staying home for school after all!! Yay! It's a big relief to me. But, one thing I promised is that I would do some things differently. Case in point: literature. We'd been sort of doing literature the WTM way, that is to say, I'd hand her a book, tell her to read it, try to read it myself but get bogged down and behind, and then have her talk to me about it and have her write about it using the suggested questions.

 

All that to say, it's not really working for us.

 

I'm pretty sure I want to use Lightning Lit 7 and 8 after reading good things about it here. So! Does it really take a whole year to do one level?

 

Do you have your dc do other lit reading that isn't included, and if so, what kind of work/discussion/writing do you assign? Would it be possible for us to do most if not all of LL7 this spring? (It would be okay if it isn't. One thing I am learning is that I am not a slave of a calendar--it's ironic that it's taken me 6 years to figure that out).

 

Thank you in advance!!

[Arch at Home]

Lightning Lit 7 is pretty light so it would be possible to double up or even triple up on lessons in a week if only reading is required. The weeks with workbook requirements tend to be more intense though the writing weeks are again lighter. For us doing LL7 as written gives us an opportunity to do structured Literature and Writing without taking over the rest of our program. What I mean to say is that you can double up but most likely something else will need to give.

[Mom22ns]

I agree LL7 is light, but if she is reading other books, it is probably enough time spent on analysis for the year.

 

The way I use it: We sonlight, so we read a lot. We use LL to introduce literature analysis. I have used LL7 & LL8 so far. LL gives an introduction to the story, a lesson and a mini lesson for each chapter. The lesson and mini lesson both use the reading selection as an illustration. There are definitions and plot summary questions which we skip. There are worksheets which help apply the lessons, teach grammar and give some short writing work. We do most of these, although ds skips the crossword puzzle & word search (dd will do those because she loves them). Then there is a writing assignment at the end of each chapter. This too relates to the lessons that were learned. There are always choices on the writing assignment. Sometimes I narrow ds's choices, but I like that they provide several choices to start with so we can find something we like. The choices vary in difficulty too.

[tjarnold]

:bigear:

[abbeyej]

Very possible to double up if you need to. The "just reading" weeks tend to be very light, so you could easily read through the books more quickly than the given schedule. As a PP pointed out, the weeks with workbook pages tend to require more time than the reading and writing weeks. (It's also possible, of course, to prioritize some workbook pages over others -- I made the couple of word-searches and crossword puzzles included optional, though both students chose to do them anyway, and a few of the pages can work well as discussion starters instead of written work, if you wish to do that.) I think most good readers could get through both levels in a year, depending on how much other reading you're doing as well (we took a school year plus the summer to do both, but during the school year the kids were also doing all of their History Odyssey readings plus additional historical fiction and a fair amount of reading on their own). I felt LL, while indeed "light", was a good way to introduce literary discussions (beyond the mostly comprehension and "what did you think" type conversations of earlier years) while still giving us plenty of time for other books. ... I'm not nearly as happy with the high school level courses from LL, but I'll be doing 7/8 again later with my younger dd...

[amyco]

Thanks everyone! Lots of great ideas!

 

 

Abbeyej, why are you not as happy with the high school LL?

[Wildiris]

If I had to do it over again, which I will in a few years, I'd skip LL7. The reading selections are dull. I don't think the student loses anything by skipping this level.

 

We do not follow the reading schedule----it movvveeesss tooooo ssslllooowww. Nonetheless, I do think LL8 has some worthwhile literary analysis to teach. We started LL8 in September and will finish it next month.

[abbeyej]

...I'd skip LL7. The reading selections are dull...

 

Oh, see, and we didn't agree with that at all! :) The kids (ds and a female friend of ours did LL7 together in 6th grade) enjoyed all of the selections except Helen Keller's autobiography, which they merely tolerated. We all thought Tom Sawyer, Alice (which, sure, they'd read when they were younger, but it's one that bears rereading), and All Creatures were delightful.

 

I do agree about the incredibly slow reading schedule. It worked for us because the kids were reading so much else -- it was sort of nice to take a lot of time with the LL selections -- but on its own... Well... I think most kids reading on grade level in 6th or 7th grade could do the readings quite a bit faster.

 

(I'll come back and write about my frustration with LL Early-Mid 19th Cent British and American later this afternooon -- gotta grade some 3rd grade math now!) :)

[abbeyej]

Abbeyej, why are you not as happy with the high school LL?

 

Well, I was really looking for a step up -- deeper conversations, more information, more challenging writing assignments... And we're not getting that.

 

We've finished Early-to-Mid-19th-Century British Lit and are just beginning American for the same era. I've found that the reading is quite challenging, but the support isn't there. For instance, the vocabulary is much more challenging than what's encountered in the readings for 7/8, but there is no longer any vocabulary glossed for the reading. Now, perhaps that's because high school students are expected to look up all challenging words on their own, but there's no discussion of that... The introductions to each reading are still pretty much "here's a brief biography of the author and one thing to think about as you read", and the lessons are no more in-depth than what we encountered in 7/8. The questions are all comprehension questions, just like 7/8. And the writing assignments! Yikes! They're just as light, just as haphazard as the ones in 7/8 -- lots of easy, creative assignments, no instruction at all in writing a critical academic paper...

 

So on the one hand, there was a lesson where kids were expected to read an essay by Carlisle -- and it was dense, difficult, confusing, filled with obscure references that even most well-educated adults of today would find challenging -- but there were no notes or explanations to help them along. And then they were asked to do piddly little writing assignments.

 

We're using these for 7th grade. So it's okay. I've pulled in other resources to help us have better conversations about the lit assigned and because ds is younger, I haven't fretted about his doing these mostly "light" writing assignments (though the other mom and I agreed that when the kids have to choose 2 writing assignments for a lesson, at least one of them must correspond directly to the reading they've done)... If I had bought this course for an actual high school student, I'd be much more frustrated.

 

I'm not honestly sure what we'll use for 8th grade and beyond. I'm considering maybe Windows to the World for 8th along with simply reading lots of 1850-present literature on our own (with WTM guidelines) for 8th... I'm not sure though.

 

But much as LL7/8 met our needs for 6th/7th, I just couldn't recommend the high school courses. A good student would need more depth and more challenging discussions and writing assignments. A poorer student would need more support to get through some of the readings. An average student might be frustrated by both of these...

Edited January 3, 2011 by abbeyej
Adding missing letters! Sure I've still missed some... I can't get used to how sticky this new-to-me keyboard is!

[8filltheheart]

Well, I was really looking for a step up -- deeper conversations, more information, more challenging writing assignments... And we're not getting that.

 

We've finished Early-to-Mid-19th-Century British Lit and are just beginning American for the same era. I've found that the reading is quite challenging, but the support isn't there. For instance, the vocabulary is much more challenging than what's encountered in the readings for 7/8, but there is no longer any vocabulary glossed for the reading. Now, perhaps that's because high school students are expected to look up all challenging words on their own, but there's no discussion of that... The introductions to each reading are still pretty much "here's a brief biography of the author and one thing to think about as you read", and the lessons are no more in-depth than what we encountered in 7/8. The questions are all comprehension questions, just like 7/8. And the writing assignments! Yikes! They're just as light, just as haphazard as the ones in 7/8 -- lots of easy, creative assignments, no instruction at all in writing a critical academic paper...

 

So on the one hand, there was a lesson where kids were expected to read an essay by Carlisle -- and it was dense, difficult, confusing, filled with obscure references that even most well-educated adults of today would find challenging -- but there were no notes or explanations to help them along. And then they were asked to do piddly little writing assignments.

 

We're using these for 7th grade. So it's okay. I've pulled in other resources to help us have better conversations about the lit assigned and because ds is younger, I haven't fretted about his doing these mostly "light" writing assignments (though the other mom and I agreed that when the kids have to choose 2 writing assignments for a lesson, at least one of them must correspond directly to the reading they've done)... If I had bought this course for an actual high school student, I'd be much more frustrate.

 

I'm not honestly sure what we'll use for 8th grade and beyond. I'm considering maybe Windows to the World for 8th along with simply reading lots of 1850-present literature on our own (with WTM guidelines) for 8th... I'm not sure though.

 

But much as LL7/8 met our needs for 6th/7th, I just couldn't recommend the high school courses. A good student would need more depth and more challenging discussions and writing assignments. A poorer student would need more support to get through some of the readings. An average student might be frustrated by both of these...

 

:iagree: with Abbey's assessment. I purchased one of the high school courses last yr after having taught LLfLOTR. I was incredibly disappointed with the level of analysis.

 

I have found a lit program that I am happy with for now. OM's 9th grade lit course that my ds is using is meeting his needs. It is light in # of novels, so it is leaving lots of room for me to add in extras and personalize the course to fit our needs (as in allowing for time to expand on other topics or add in other novels that I really would like him to be exposed to.) Yet, the analysis and support it offers is far superior to any other lit program I have found so far (other than LLfLOTR).

 

The disadvantage of OM is the lit selections themselves. I have used Kolbe and GBA for my kids that I have wanted to go the classical route. This ds, however, that was not the direction I wanted to go. FWIW.....OM's guides are vastly superior to Kolbe's. If I could find guides like OM's to accompany classical lit, I would be thrilled!

[Wildiris]

8FillTheHeart~I should probably know all the abbreviations by now, but what are OM, GBA, and FWIW?

 

abbeyej~Thanks for responding in detail about Lightning Literature (LL) for high school. It helps!

 

My DD has read almost all the reading selections for the high school books already. This was the problem with LL7 for her. Re-reading the books is a fine idea, but I was hoping for something more from LL7 for a 7th grader who reads several books a week.

[abbeyej]

...Re-reading the books is a fine idea, but I was hoping for something more from LL7 for a 7th grader who reads several books a week...

 

Yes. I was glad we used 7/8 for 6th (and the summer after) rather than for the grades listed. I'm sure it depends entirely on the child, but for avid readers, I think they're best used down a grade or so. We were lucky in that Alice was the only title ds has read before (other than poetry and short stories).

[8filltheheart]

8FillTheHeart~I should probably know all the abbreviations by now, but what are OM, GBA, and FWIW?

 

abbeyej~Thanks for responding in detail about Lightning Literature (LL) for high school. It helps!

 

My DD has read almost all the reading selections for the high school books already. This was the problem with LL7 for her. Re-reading the books is a fine idea, but I was hoping for something more from LL7 for a 7th grader who reads several books a week.

 

Sorry about that.

 

OM= Oak Meadow

GBA= Great Book Academy

FWIW= for what it's worth

 

With OM, do NOT purchase their English textbook and just completely eliminate those weeks out of your schedule. :tongue_smilie: They only cover 4 novels, but the questions are definitely more along the lines of critical thinking than simple recall. http://www.oakmeadow.com/curriculum/high-school-english.php

 

oops.....meant to add.......these courses would be very easily adapted to solid middle school students.

Edited January 4, 2011 by 8FillTheHeart

[amyco]

Thank you abbeyej and 8FillTheHeart!! That's very helpful to me.

 

I feel like I have a much better handle on it now. :)

[Sunshine State Sue]

...I'd skip LL7. The reading selections are dull....

I will also disagree. We enjoyed the variety of the works in LL7.

 

I agree that the books can be read much quicker than the schedule shows. And some of the workbooks pages can be skipped, especially puzzles and word searches. If you wanted to cram LL7 into a semester, you could also skip a selection or two. Our favorite was All Creatures.

 

We were reading other books for history as well, so the schedule worked fine for us.

[Trish]

Lightning Lit selections were not dull for us at all. With the exception of Helen Keller, although we still found the material covered in that chapter worthwhile. I consider it a 1-semester course. We will be finishing soon, and will hold off on LL8 until fall of next year.