What to use for high school writing?

[momtofive]

I plan on using SL Core 100 next year for my upcoming 9th grader.  I'm on the fence about using the literature/writing portion, though.  In the past we've not really liked the layout of the SL language, and have always opted to use other resources in it's place.  So I'm not sure if I'll like it or not.  I love the looks of the books for literature, and have kicked around using Lightning Literature for some of them. 

 

My question is what to use for writing/composition?  Can you give me some thoughts on what's out there at this level that really good?  This is our first venture into homeschooling high school, so I'm a bit new to this level of curriculum, so any help and advice is much appreciated!

 

Thanks! ;)

[Mom22ns]

We love Excellence In Literature. It has writing assignments and examples, but no explicit instruction.

 

My oldest was in 7th grade when he did Core 100. He read all the books, but he also added Lightning Lit 7 for some Lit analysis. You could add one or might Lightning Lit units.

 

If you completely skip the literature in Core 100 there really isn't much left. The history is weak without the correlated literature. If it were me I would still read all or most of their books and just add some outside reading that is a higher level and offers some good writing assignments.

[KellyMama]

We are planning to use either Excellence in Literature, Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings, or Lightning Lit 8. We are really enjoying LL7 this year for my 8th grader (who came out of private school with ZERO experience in literary analysis).

[momtofive]

We love Excellence In Literature. It has writing assignments and examples, but no explicit instruction.

 

My oldest was in 7th grade when he did Core 100. He read all the books, but he also added Lightning Lit 7 for some Lit analysis. You could add one or might Lightning Lit units.

 

If you completely skip the literature in Core 100 there really isn't much left. The history is weak without the correlated literature. If it were me I would still read all or most of their books and just add some outside reading that is a higher level and offers some good writing assignments.

 

 

Oh yes, I wouldn't be throwing out the lit books from SL!  I really like the looks of those, and know they'll add so much to the course!  I was thinking if I did Lightning Lit along with this core, I might be able to find it for books we already have within this core.  I could sub some out and replace with whatever LL uses for lit books.  I even thought about reading *some* of SL's lit books aloud.

 

Does LL include a fair bit of writing?  If so, would it be enough for high school writing?  I clearly need to go check this out further at their site! ;)

 

Off to go look  . . . .

[KellyMama]

Does LL include a fair bit of writing?  If so, would it be enough for high school writing?  I clearly need to go check this out further at their site! ;)

 

This kind of depends on how you use it. We choose one of the writing assignments per book. Not typically a long one because we are also working through IEW SWI-B and doing some written narrations for history. I feel like I want SOME written output but I don't require a lot because it's not our main writing program. I think you could make it "enough" writing maybe by doing more of the writing assignments - maybe 2 of the 3 (they are varying lengths - not like research papers). I still think you would want to do some historical writing at a high school level to correlate with your Sonlight Core, otherwise you might not feel like you have enough "output" for history? I'm certainly as new or newer to this as you since we only have an 8th grader this year but I'm beginning to plan for 9th grade and I'm still unsure of how to fit the "requirements" into the curriculum I'd like to use! ;)

[momtofive]

This kind of depends on how you use it. We choose one of the writing assignments per book. Not typically a long one because we are also working through IEW SWI-B and doing some written narrations for history. I feel like I want SOME written output but I don't require a lot because it's not our main writing program. I think you could make it "enough" writing maybe by doing more of the writing assignments - maybe 2 of the 3 (they are varying lengths - not like research papers). I still think you would want to do some historical writing at a high school level to correlate with your Sonlight Core, otherwise you might not feel like you have enough "output" for history? I'm certainly as new or newer to this as you since we only have an 8th grader this year but I'm beginning to plan for 9th grade and I'm still unsure of how to fit the "requirements" into the curriculum I'd like to use! ;)

 

This is where I've been at with my thoughts, too!  I don't know if it would be too much writing to do some of this along with another writing curriculum. I maybe could mesh the two and pick and choose writing assigments.  That still leaves me with trying to decide what to use for high school writing curriculum.  I need to do some more research to find out what there is to choose from, and what's good.

 

Thanks for sharing how your using LL.  I appreciate your thoughts! ;)

[Julie in MN]

I have a strong opinion about high school writing.  I don't think a "program" is useful unless you see a particular weakness and find a program that boosts that particular weakness.  Otherwise, I think high school writing means (a) the student writes and (b ) someone reads it and explains how well the student has communicated.

 

Maybe I'd add © to prepare for college, a lot of this writing should be nonfiction and, somewhere in the 4 years, include the essay, with a thesis, supporting evidence, and documented resources.  Some of those college courses will require a lot of essays!  If that's a rusty skill, there are a lot of short essay instructions online or in print.

 

Julie

[teeterbunch]

Check out bravewriter.com .

[SandyKC]

We used a combination of Lightning Lit (LL) and the IEW "Student Writing Intensives" followed by IEW's Advanced Composition course.  Loved the LL for the literature parts and IEW helped really solidify my guys' writing abilities.  My Youngest, by the way, when he took English 101 and 102 through dual enrollment (junior & senior years), scored 100% on every single composition he wrote!  That was amazing to me since DS has dysgraphia and hates writing.. He's good at it, but he doesn't like it.  He was very "well trained." ;-)

[momtofive]

We used a combination of Lightning Lit (LL) and the IEW "Student Writing Intensives" followed by IEW's Advanced Composition course.  Loved the LL for the literature parts and IEW helped really solidify my guys' writing abilities.  My Youngest, by the way, when he took English 101 and 102 through dual enrollment (junior & senior years), scored 100% on every single composition he wrote!  That was amazing to me since DS has dysgraphia and hates writing.. He's good at it, but he doesn't like it.  He was very "well trained." ;-)

 

For some reason, I was thinking that the SWI courses from IEW were for middle school on down.  I didn't realize that they have high school level courses, too.  I should look again over there and see what they have.  Thanks for suggesting it! ;) 

 

Thanks to all of you for your great suggestions.  I'll be checking them all out and doing some more research on what would work best for my ds.  Thank you! :)

[SandyKC]

For some reason, I was thinking that the SWI courses from IEW were for middle school on down.  I didn't realize that they have high school level courses, too.  I should look again over there and see what they have.  Thanks for suggesting it! ;)

 

Thanks to all of you for your great suggestions.  I'll be checking them all out and doing some more research on what would work best for my ds.  Thank you! :)

 

Yes, they have a lot of high school courses.  You would want the "Level C" of the Student Writing Intensives--the first one and the "Continuation Course".  The Advanced Communication Series and the High School Essay Intensives are the other main two courses for high school.  Good luck! 

[momtofive]

Yes, they have a lot of high school courses.  You would want the "Level C" of the Student Writing Intensives--the first one and the "Continuation Course".  The Advanced Communication Series and the High School Essay Intensives are the other main two courses for high school.  Good luck! 

 

Thanks Sandy!  I was just over there looking, and see that they actually do have a lot to choose from for high school level courses.  I'll be leaning heavily on choosing the IEW SWI-C course.  It looks like a good fit so far.  Thanks for recommending it! ;)