LIghtning Literature for High School Question

[NatYoung17]

Hello!

My dd is currently in 8th grade and is using Lightning Literature for the 2nd year and really enjoys it... My problem is that they seem to focus on 19th century lit for high school and have no 20th century literature at all...I was surprised when I realized this and now I'm not sure if I want to use it for HS...?? Has anyone successfully used it? Did you supplement? It also bothers me that their World Literature is focused on Asia and Africa only, no European writers (other than British) at all...

Can anyone recommend a different Literature program for 9-12th grade? I'm just trying to look ahead, so there's no rush for me to decide, but I'm really surprised to find this...

I appreciate your time!

 

[Lori D.]

re: using LL in high school
DSs used and enjoyed LL7 & 8 in middle school. At that time, we were also slowly ramping up a more DIY style Great Books study, ala WTM. (So by high school, we were not using Literature programs (other than Windows to the World) -- so I can't help with personal experience with high school lit. programs, but can link you to some programs to look at.) The Lightning Lit. high school programs differ a bit from the middle school programs in that there are no work pages. I understand from others who have used them that the LL high school programs are not much more in-depth or rigorous than the middle school programs -- just cover "harder" works.

re: 20th century lit
Most standard high school literature programs do not have contemporary works in their programs -- frequently, there will be a few 20th century "standards", with the most recent of those having been published in the 1950s-60s. So even those programs with "modern" works are covering books that are over 50 years old. 

re: World Lit
Because so many World Lit. programs DO focus on Western (European) literature, I would guess that LL's 2 World Lit. programs are an attempt to provide balance by focusing on Eastern Hemisphere literature (African, Asian), plus some Latin American literature. Most high school students do a year of British Lit and another of American Lit, so that would explain why a lot of World lit. programs don't include works from those nations.

Below are several programs and textbook programs that might work for you, and below that are ideas if you want to "DIY" (Do It Yourself). BEST of luck as you plan for high school! Warmest regards, Lori D.

___________________

Excellence in Literature: World Literature
1 year, 9 units, variety of works/nations; see more at the publisher, and samples at Christian Book

• ancients - The Odyssey (Greece), Antigone (Greece), Aeneid (Rome)
• medieval - Inferno (Italy), Don Quixote (Spain)
• early modern/modern - Les Miserables (France), Russian selections (Russia), Faust (German), Out of Africa (Denmark/Kenya)

___________________

LLATL (Learning Language Arts Through Literature): Gold: World Lit
1 year, 5 units, variety of works/nations; see more at the publisher's website, and more sample pages at Christian Book

• 1. early lit: myths, fairytales, folktales, fables (world); African proverbs/parables (Africa); Epic of Gilgamesh & the Bible (Middle East); sacred texts; Tanka poetry/haiku (Asia); ancient poetry
• 2. epic poetry: Odyssey (Greece); Mahabharata/Ramayana (India); Aeneid (Rome); Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon); Song of Roland (France); Nibelungenlied (Nordic)
• 3. medieval/renaissance: 1001 Arabian Nights, Ghazal & The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Middle East); Canterbury Tales, sonnets, Romeo and Juliet (England); Don Quixote (Spain)
• 4. enlightenment/romanticism: Pilgrim's Progress (England); Divine Comedy (Italy); Gulliver's Travels (Ireland); Faust (German); Les Miserables (France); Importance of Being Earnest (England); 9 short stories (France, England, US)
• 5. 20th century: The Little Prince (France); Cry The Beloved Country (South Africa)

___________________

textbooks with teaching material
Prentice Hall Literature World Masterpieces (1996 edition) -- table of contents listed at that link
World Literature (Rinehart & Holt) -- lit. excerpts, analytical questions, intro info, author bios
Classics in World Literature (Scott Foresman) -- historical background; author bios, discussion questions, writing prompts, explanation of literary terms, breakaway sections that cover types of writing or literary elements common to that time period

year-long guide
How to Teach World Literature: A Practical Teaching Guide (Marlow) -- includes various European authors/works

DIY with an Anthology
Norton Anthology of World Literature -- see contents -- wide variety of Western and Eastern authors/works
Other Voices, Other Vistas -- Eastern Lit. focus; short story anthology; 5 each from: Africa, Latin America, China, Japan, India

___________________

DIY World Lit -- lots of European lit. ideas
Works from the past 200+ years -- PREVIEW, as many of the 20th/21st century works  are mature/intense:

1800-1850
Denmark -- fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen -- short story
France -- Count of Monte Cristo; or other (Dumas) -- novel
France -- Cyrano Debergerac (Rostand) -- play
Germany -- Faust (Goethe) -- novel
Germany -- fairy tales by the brothers Grimm -- short story
Russia -- "Queen of Spades", or other (Pushkin) -- short story
Russia -- The Nose; The Government Inspector; or other (Gogol) -- short story

1850-1900
France -- Les Miserables; or other (Hugo) -- novel
France -- "Fight With a Cannon" (Hugo) -- short story
France -- Madame Bovary (Flaubert) -- novel
France -- Around the World in Eighty Days; or other (Verne) -- novel
France -- "The Storm" (Verne) -- short story
France -- "The Necklace"; or other (de Maupassant) -- short story
Ireland -- Dracula (Stoker) -- novel
Japan/Greece/Ireland -- "Reflections", or other (Hearn) -- short story
Norway -- A Doll's House; Peer Gynt; Hedda Gabler; or other (Ibsen) -- play
Germany -- something by Friederich Nietzsche
Russia -- Fathers and Sons (Turgenev) -- novel 
Russia -- War and Peace; or other novel (Tolstoy) -- novel
Russia -- "How Much Land Does a Man Need"; or other (Tolstoy) -- short story
Russia -- Crime and Punishment; or other (Dostoevsky) -- novel
Russia -- The Grand Inquisitor section from the novel, The Brothers Karamotzov (Dostoyevski) -- novel, or the excerpt
UK/Hungary -- The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy) -- novel

1900-1950
Armenia -- The Road From Home (Kherdian) -- biography of a victim of the Armenian genocide, by her Americanized son
China -- The Good Earth (Buck) -- novel by an American who grew up in China
Denmark -- Out of Africa (Blixen) -- novel by a Danish author who lived for a number of years in Kenya
Denmark -- Ordette -- (Munk) -- play
France -- The Wanderer (Alain-Fournier) -- novel
France -- Phantom of the Opera (Leroux) -- novel
France -- The Stranger; The Plague; or other (Camus) -- novel
Ireland -- "The Dead" (Joyce) -- short story
Japan -- "Rashomon" (Akutagawa) -- short story
Poland -- A Day of Pleasure (Singer) -- autobiographical sketches
Poland -- The Cinnamon Shops (Shultz) -- short story collection
Germany -- The Metamorphosis; The Castle; The Trial; or other  (Kafka) -- novella
Germany -- All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque) -- novel
Russia -- The Cherry Orchard; Three Sisters; or other (Chekov) -- play
Russia -- The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov) -- novel
Scotland -- The Lost Traveller (Todd) -- novel
UK/Greece -- My Family and Other Animals (Durrell) -- autobiographical sketches

1950-2000
Argentina -- "25th August, 1983"; or, other short story (Borges) -- short story
Chile -- House of the Spirits (Allende) -- novel
China -- Red Scarf Girl (Jiang) -- nonfiction/memoir
China/US -- Joy Luck Club (Tan) -- novel
Colombia -- One Hundred Years of Solitude, or, a short story (Marquez)
France -- In the Labyrinth (Robbe-Grillet) -- novel
Japan -- Artist of the Floating World (Ishiguro) -- novel
Japan -- The Samurai; or, Silence (Endo) -- novel
Japan -- Hiroshima (Hersey) -- non-fiction; by an American, but from interviewing survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast
India -- City of Joy (Lapierre) -- non-fiction; French priest living/working in the slums of Calcutta India
Italy -- The Name of the Rose (Eco) -- novel
Italy -- CosmiComics (Calvino) -- short story collection
Nigeria -- Things Fall Apart (Achebe) -- novel
Poland -- Solaris (Lem) -- novel
Romania -- Night (Wiesel) -- novella
South Africa -- Cry, The Beloved Country (Paton) -- novel
USSR -- a short story by Vladamir Nabokov
USSR -- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; or, The Gulag Archipelago (Solzhenitsyn) -- novel

2000-present
Afghanistan -- The Kite Runner; or, A Thousand Splendid Suns, or other (Hosseini) -- novel
Algiers -- The Swallows of Kabul (Khadra) -- novel
Botswana --No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (Smith) -- mystery/light novel
Canada -- Life of Pi (Martel) -- novel
China -- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Sijie) -- novel
Germany/Australia -- The Book Thief (Zusak) -- YA novel
India/Nepal -- Sold (McCormick) -- novel; human trafficking
Iran -- Persepolis (Satrapi) -- novel
Iran/USA -- Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi) -- novel
Japan -- choice of classic work of Manga -- graphic novel, as in "comic book" - illustration + story
Nigeria -- Say You're One of Them (Akpan) -- short story collection
Pakistan -- My Name is Malala: Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (Yousafzai) -- nonfiction/memoir
Sierra Leone = A Long Way Gone (Beah) -- nonfiction/memoir; boy trained to be a killer child soldier
South Africa -- Born a Crime (Noah) -- nonfiction/memoir of the boyhood of comedian Trevor Noah

20th century USA (minority viewpoints)
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston) -- African American woman (U.S., 1930s)
- Black Like Me (Griffith) -- African American / Civil Rights & Deep South era (late 1950s)
- The Chosen (Potok) -- immigrant Jewish sub-culture within 1940s U.S.
- I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Craven) -- Pacific Northwest Native peoples (or possibly Canadian First Peoples)

Fantastical Short Stories from around the world:
- Black Water (anthology; Edited by Alberto Manguel) -- short stories
- Black Water 2 (anthology; Edited by Alberto Manguel) -- short stories

MORE IDEAS:
"World Literature That High School Students Actually Want to Read" -- public school teacher list
"World Literature" -- old thread, but check out Eliana's SEVERAL posts in this thread, with a ton of ideas of authors around the world/through the ages

Edited September 12, 2018 by Lori D.

[CAJinBE]

We liked Oak Meadow's A Hero's Journey for 9th and then used Excellence in Literature loosely for 10th grade World Lit. I felt the same way about LL. For 11th we used the literature that comes with Notgrass Exploring America and that was so-so.

[Juliegmom]

On 9/12/2018 at 6:51 PM, NatYoung17 said:

Hello!

My dd is currently in 8th grade and is using Lightning Literature for the 2nd year and really enjoys it... My problem is that they seem to focus on 19th century lit for high school and have no 20th century literature at all...I was surprised when I realized this and now I'm not sure if I want to use it for HS...?? Has anyone successfully used it? Did you supplement? It also bothers me that their World Literature is focused on Asia and Africa only, no European writers (other than British) at all...

Can anyone recommend a different Literature program for 9-12th grade? I'm just trying to look ahead, so there's no rush for me to decide, but I'm really surprised to find this...

I appreciate your time!

 

I'm in the same boat. I have a child that enjoys LL. I'd love to see LL add another guide that covers 20th century literature to compliment world history.

[NatYoung17]

On 9/12/2018 at 2:16 PM, Lori D. said:

re: using LL in high school
DSs used and enjoyed LL7 & 8 in middle school. At that time, we were also slowly ramping up a more DIY style Great Books study, ala WTM. (So by high school, we were not using Literature programs (other than Windows to the World) -- so I can't help with personal experience with high school lit. programs, but can link you to some programs to look at.) The Lightning Lit. high school programs differ a bit from the middle school programs in that there are no work pages. I understand from others who have used them that the LL high school programs are not much more in-depth or rigorous than the middle school programs -- just cover "harder" works.

re: 20th century lit
Most standard high school literature programs do not have contemporary works in their programs -- frequently, there will be a few 20th century "standards", with the most recent of those having been published in the 1950s-60s. So even those programs with "modern" works are covering books that are over 50 years old. 

re: World Lit
Because so many World Lit. programs DO focus on Western (European) literature, I would guess that LL's 2 World Lit. programs are an attempt to provide balance by focusing on Eastern Hemisphere literature (African, Asian), plus some Latin American literature. Most high school students do a year of British Lit and another of American Lit, so that would explain why a lot of World lit. programs don't include works from those nations.

Below are several programs and textbook programs that might work for you, and below that are ideas if you want to "DIY" (Do It Yourself). BEST of luck as you plan for high school! Warmest regards, Lori D.

___________________

Excellence in Literature: World Literature
1 year, 9 units, variety of works/nations; see more at the publisher, and samples at Christian Book

• ancients - The Odyssey (Greece), Antigone (Greece), Aeneid (Rome)
• medieval - Inferno (Italy), Don Quixote (Spain)
• early modern/modern - Les Miserables (France), Russian selections (Russia), Faust (German), Out of Africa (Denmark/Kenya)

___________________

LLATL (Learning Language Arts Through Literature): Gold: World Lit
1 year, 5 units, variety of works/nations; see more at the publisher's website, and more sample pages at Christian Book

• 1. early lit: myths, fairytales, folktales, fables (world); African proverbs/parables (Africa); Epic of Gilgamesh & the Bible (Middle East); sacred texts; Tanka poetry/haiku (Asia); ancient poetry
• 2. epic poetry: Odyssey (Greece); Mahabharata/Ramayana (India); Aeneid (Rome); Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon); Song of Roland (France); Nibelungenlied (Nordic)
• 3. medieval/renaissance: 1001 Arabian Nights, Ghazal & The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Middle East); Canterbury Tales, sonnets, Romeo and Juliet (England); Don Quixote (Spain)
• 4. enlightenment/romanticism: Pilgrim's Progress (England); Divine Comedy (Italy); Gulliver's Travels (Ireland); Faust (German); Les Miserables (France); Importance of Being Earnest (England); 9 short stories (France, England, US)
• 5. 20th century: The Little Prince (France); Cry The Beloved Country (South Africa)

___________________

textbooks with teaching material
Prentice Hall Literature World Masterpieces (1996 edition) -- table of contents listed at that link
World Literature (Rinehart & Holt) -- lit. excerpts, analytical questions, intro info, author bios
Classics in World Literature (Scott Foresman) -- historical background; author bios, discussion questions, writing prompts, explanation of literary terms, breakaway sections that cover types of writing or literary elements common to that time period

year-long guide
How to Teach World Literature: A Practical Teaching Guide (Marlow) -- includes various European authors/works

DIY with an Anthology
Norton Anthology of World Literature -- see contents -- wide variety of Western and Eastern authors/works
Other Voices, Other Vistas -- Eastern Lit. focus; short story anthology; 5 each from: Africa, Latin America, China, Japan, India

___________________

DIY World Lit -- lots of European lit. ideas
Works from the past 200+ years -- PREVIEW, as many of the 20th/21st century works  are mature/intense:

1800-1850
Denmark -- fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen -- short story
France -- Count of Monte Cristo; or other (Dumas) -- novel
France -- Cyrano Debergerac (Rostand) -- play
Germany -- Faust (Goethe) -- novel
Germany -- fairy tales by the brothers Grimm -- short story
Russia -- "Queen of Spades", or other (Pushkin) -- short story
Russia -- The Nose; The Government Inspector; or other (Gogol) -- short story

1850-1900
France -- Les Miserables; or other (Hugo) -- novel
France -- "Fight With a Cannon" (Hugo) -- short story
France -- Madame Bovary (Flaubert) -- novel
France -- Around the World in Eighty Days; or other (Verne) -- novel
France -- "The Storm" (Verne) -- short story
France -- "The Necklace"; or other (de Maupassant) -- short story
Ireland -- Dracula (Stoker) -- novel
Japan/Greece/Ireland -- "Reflections", or other (Hearn) -- short story
Norway -- A Doll's House; Peer Gynt; Hedda Gabler; or other (Ibsen) -- play
Germany -- something by Friederich Nietzsche
Russia -- Fathers and Sons (Turgenev) -- novel 
Russia -- War and Peace; or other novel (Tolstoy) -- novel
Russia -- "How Much Land Does a Man Need"; or other (Tolstoy) -- short story
Russia -- Crime and Punishment; or other (Dostoevsky) -- novel
Russia -- The Grand Inquisitor section from the novel, The Brothers Karamotzov (Dostoyevski) -- novel, or the excerpt
UK/Hungary -- The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy) -- novel

1900-1950
Armenia -- The Road From Home (Kherdian) -- biography of a victim of the Armenian genocide, by her Americanized son
China -- The Good Earth (Buck) -- novel by an American who grew up in China
Denmark -- Out of Africa (Blixen) -- novel by a Danish author who lived for a number of years in Kenya
Denmark -- Ordette -- (Munk) -- play
France -- The Wanderer (Alain-Fournier) -- novel
France -- Phantom of the Opera (Leroux) -- novel
France -- The Stranger; The Plague; or other (Camus) -- novel
Ireland -- "The Dead" (Joyce) -- short story
Japan -- "Rashomon" (Akutagawa) -- short story
Poland -- A Day of Pleasure (Singer) -- autobiographical sketches
Poland -- The Cinnamon Shops (Shultz) -- short story collection
Germany -- The Metamorphosis; The Castle; The Trial; or other  (Kafka) -- novella
Germany -- All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque) -- novel
Russia -- The Cherry Orchard; Three Sisters; or other (Chekov) -- play
Russia -- The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov) -- novel
Scotland -- The Lost Traveller (Todd) -- novel
UK/Greece -- My Family and Other Animals (Durrell) -- autobiographical sketches

1950-2000
Argentina -- "25th August, 1983"; or, other short story (Borges) -- short story
Chile -- House of the Spirits (Allende) -- novel
China -- Red Scarf Girl (Jiang) -- nonfiction/memoir
China/US -- Joy Luck Club (Tan) -- novel
Colombia -- One Hundred Years of Solitude, or, a short story (Marquez)
France -- In the Labyrinth (Robbe-Grillet) -- novel
Japan -- Artist of the Floating World (Ishiguro) -- novel
Japan -- The Samurai; or, Silence (Endo) -- novel
Japan -- Hiroshima (Hersey) -- non-fiction; by an American, but from interviewing survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast
India -- City of Joy (Lapierre) -- non-fiction; French priest living/working in the slums of Calcutta India
Italy -- The Name of the Rose (Eco) -- novel
Italy -- CosmiComics (Calvino) -- short story collection
Nigeria -- Things Fall Apart (Achebe) -- novel
Poland -- Solaris (Lem) -- novel
Romania -- Night (Wiesel) -- novella
South Africa -- Cry, The Beloved Country (Paton) -- novel
USSR -- a short story by Vladamir Nabokov
USSR -- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; or, The Gulag Archipelago (Solzhenitsyn) -- novel

2000-present
Afghanistan -- The Kite Runner; or, A Thousand Splendid Suns, or other (Hosseini) -- novel
Algiers -- The Swallows of Kabul (Khadra) -- novel
Botswana --No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (Smith) -- mystery/light novel
Canada -- Life of Pi (Martel) -- novel
China -- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Sijie) -- novel
Germany/Australia -- The Book Thief (Zusak) -- YA novel
India/Nepal -- Sold (McCormick) -- novel; human trafficking
Iran -- Persepolis (Satrapi) -- novel
Iran/USA -- Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi) -- novel
Japan -- choice of classic work of Manga -- graphic novel, as in "comic book" - illustration + story
Nigeria -- Say You're One of Them (Akpan) -- short story collection
Pakistan -- My Name is Malala: Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (Yousafzai) -- nonfiction/memoir
Sierra Leone = A Long Way Gone (Beah) -- nonfiction/memoir; boy trained to be a killer child soldier
South Africa -- Born a Crime (Noah) -- nonfiction/memoir of the boyhood of comedian Trevor Noah

20th century USA (minority viewpoints)
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston) -- African American woman (U.S., 1930s)
- Black Like Me (Griffith) -- African American / Civil Rights & Deep South era (late 1950s)
- The Chosen (Potok) -- immigrant Jewish sub-culture within 1940s U.S.
- I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Craven) -- Pacific Northwest Native peoples (or possibly Canadian First Peoples)

Fantastical Short Stories from around the world:
- Black Water (anthology; Edited by Alberto Manguel) -- short stories
- Black Water 2 (anthology; Edited by Alberto Manguel) -- short stories

MORE IDEAS:
"World Literature That High School Students Actually Want to Read" -- public school teacher list
"World Literature" -- old thread, but check out Eliana's SEVERAL posts in this thread, with a ton of ideas of authors around the world/through the ages

Wow, thanks so much for this extensive post! I really appreciate it!!