Literature for a 9th grader to start mid year

[Homeschooling2or3]

I am new to these forums. I've been homeschooling my 2nd and 6th grade kids since the beginning of the year, but my 9th grade is only joining now (been in school until a month ago).

She is very bright (gifted), and likes to read but hates writing. Her writing is not where it should be in my opinion. Perhaps she was never properly ttaught.

We've figured out math and science for her. We will probably go with Wordsmith for writing and Fix It 1 for grammar. She will join what we are already doing with Bookshark G for history. The missing piece is literature, which is where I'm looking for recommendations.

She is going through a spell of mild anxiety and depression, and doesn't have the patience for "heavy lifting". I'd like the curriculum to be challenging enough to be interesting for her but not so "academic" as to bore or frustrate her. Ideally, it would be structured (by days, weeks). I'm not worried about credits at this point.

Given that there are only a few months left to the school year, I've been debating between:

- Lightning Lit, level 8 or perhaps one of the high school ones.

- Essentials in Literature level 9

- LLATL Gold

- a couple novel studies (hidthechocolate.com, Progency etc)

Any ccomment or recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[regentrude]

Why not simply have her read books and discuss them? I found literature "programs" a lot of busywork and not inspiring and don't see the need. 

[MamaSprout]

Probably the closest thing to what you are looking for that is on your list is the Lightning Lit. The 8th grade program is a full-year. I used the American level (both semesters) for a co-op class twice. I liked it well enough, but didn't assign all of the comprehension questions and did some picking and choosing on the assignments. We also had group discussions, which makes literature more fun.

The year dd and I didn't do co-op we did British Literature with an old anthology (American Reads) and a couple of separate books. I really made a point to read along and discuss with her.

Oak Meadow might work for what you need. They have a 1 semester "Composition 1: The Writer's Craft" that might be worth a look. You could also get a year long guide and have her pick which books look the most interesting to her. High School – Oak Meadow | Providers of Exceptional Homeschool Curriculum Again, try to incorporate some discussion if you can.

Good luck!

[Not_a_Number]

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

Why not simply have her read books and discuss them? I found literature "programs" a lot of busywork and not inspiring and don't see the need. 

That's what I'd do, with the occasional essay but mostly discussion as output. 

[Lori D.]

Welcome!

Since you are transitioning this student into homeschooling, and it sounds like you are only needing literature to finish out this school year (from your statement: "Given that there are only a few months left to the school year...") -- I lean towards @regentrude's suggestion. For the rest of the spring/school year, just pick some high interest books and just have fun discussing together a few times during the reading and then at the end.

I do differ, in that an individual lit. guide to go with the individual book can give you some ideas for background info on the author/times/work or questions to springboard you into discussion. But we only ever used excerpts from guides and discussed orally -- no pencil to paper. as there is no need for killing the enjoyment of the book with "busywork". 😉 

What type of literature is your student interested in? We could help you come up with a good booklist, plus some possible individual guides to help with information and ideas for discussion and/or activities... 😄 

If "DIY" is not a good option for you, and a literature program is preferred, I can provide some info or personal experience for some of your Lit. choices -- I will just add that if purchasing just to finish out the school year of 9th grade, LL8 or EiL9 are expensive to only use a portion of a full-year program...

Lightning Lit. 8
We used this with both DSs -- one did it in 8th, and the struggling writer did it in 9th. If you have a strong reader, you will definitely finish more quickly than the 36-week schedule. You can also just use selected units. If a student has never done any "digging deeper", LL is a very gentle guided intro into literary analysis and beginning formal literature study. If the student has done previous literary analysis/formal studies, then LL will probably feel light, and like busywork.

Each of the 12 units has an 8-10 page lesson with information about a literary element or literature topic, and then there are 10 work pages which put the literary lesson aspect into practice, or has some beginning analysis on a short excerpt from a classic work of literature. While each unit does contain 2 "busywork" pages (a crossword and a word search), and some work pages are not as clearly needed or helpful as others, some of the work pages are quite useful for the beginning guided analysis.

You could pick and choose which units you want to do -- the second half of the program has much more of the guided analysis in the work pages than the first half. Not that it means your student would be similar, but my DSs didn't care for the poetry units (neither is fond of poetry), and neither cared for the first 2 short stories. They really enjoyed all the rest of the literature and the program overall.

The program covers:
- 3 short stories = "A Crazy Tale", "Wakefield", "Reflections" 
- 3 unites of poetry, with about 5-6 poems per unit
- 6 longer works = The Hobbit (fantasy), A Christmas Carol (fantastical), Treasure Island (adventure), To Kill a Mockingbird (realistic), A Day of Pleasure (nonfiction/memoir), My Family and Others (nonfiction/memoir)


Essentials in Lit. 9
No personal experience, but compared to what I cover in my Lit. & Writing co-op classes what this program covers seems quite light. However, if you're just planning on using parts of it to finish out this year, then that could work. Just a quick skim of the sample videos, it seems like he includes talking about Writing as part of the Literature... Don't know how that fits in with what you need/want...  Over the course of the year, EiL9 covers the following (with daily video lessons of info -- so you may want to skip or just pull excerpts from those) :
- 7 short stories
- 5 nonfiction short selections
- 1 novel = The Hobbit
- 16 poems


LLATL Gold
We used just a few excerpts from the American Lit. and British Lit. programs. These programs were disappointingly very light to us. There is very little "teaching info" on literary devices or literature topics, only a few comprehension-type of questions per work, and almost no discussion-type of questions. There are suggested projects/activities for the student to pursue independently. When those suggestions are papers, there is no real guidance in how to go about the writing and there is no rubric to help the student in knowing what has to be in the paper, nor a grading rubric for parent. No personal experience with the World Lit. program, but from the table of contents, it looks a bit meatier in how much literature is covered -- don't know about if it has more instructional information or discussion questions. LLATL Gold is a program would best fit a student who likes to work independently and is self-motivated to do research and dig deeper on their own.

____________________________

Not to disrupt your decisions 😉 but you did ask for comments 😄 so here are a few other thoughts beyond your Literature... 

re: History
I totally understand the need for gentle due to the anxiety/depression, but what about something extra for your 9th grader to to do in addition to joining your younger students for Bookshark G? Some historical fiction of her own perhaps? Or a spine text that is a bit meatier than the gr. 1-5 level Story of the World vol. 1 and 2 (which I suspect she might find boring and babyish?)?

re: Writing
How comfortable are you with teaching writing? And, how will your DD receive feedback/scoring from you? I teach Writing & Literature at our homeschool co-op, and over and over I hear from parents that "she/he will write for you, but not for me". Or, "she/he can't receive any instruction or comments on her/his writing from me." At the tween/teen ages, writing becomes a big head-butting area for many families, as MANY students take parent comments as criticism of their personal thoughts put down into writing, rather than as needed feedback on the structure and the writing process -- so they often do better with an outsourced instructor for writing.

All that to say... one thing you might consider for writing next year is Lantern English -- very gentle, $60 for 8-week course, and they have a great series of courses to guide the student through essay writing. You might even consider starting this summer, as a "summer bridge" type of class. Sign up for the summer session opens May 24 and the classes run June 14-Aug. 2.

Another option, if you go with Essentials in Literature, is to also do their Essentials in Writing and sign up for their scoring service. That fills up quickly, so that would need to be a decision about writing that would need to be made soon. It looks like you could go with level 9, or possibly level 10, if she completes Wordsmith this year and it gets her up and running with solid paragraph and multi-paragraph writing.

Wordsmith
DS#1 used this one, and even at an easy pace he finished in less than 1 school year. Mostly independent (written to the student), but it is a pretty light -- geared for grades 6-8, but more on the remedial side for an 8th grader. The focus is on writing individual paragraphs of different types, and then moving into a few multi-paragraph essays at the end. It is definitely gentle, and if needing to get comfortable with writing regularly and writing a paragraph or more at a time, this could be a good fit for finishing out your year.

If Wordsmith seems like it would be lighter than you need, you might look at Jump In, which is like a meatier version of Wordsmith. While it is Christian, it is not pervasive, and is mostly mentioned in some of the suggestions for writing assignments. The program was very helpful for my struggling writer DS#2 in figuring out what to write and how to organize his thoughts.


BEST of luck as you transition a 3rd student into your homeschooling! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Lori D.

[Homeschooling2or3]

6 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Welcome!

Since you are transitioning this student into homeschooling, and it sounds like you are only needing literature to finish out this school year (from your statement: "Given that there are only a few months left to the school year...") -- I lean towards @regentrude's suggestion. For the rest of the spring/school year, just pick some high interest books and just have fun discussing together a few times during the reading and then at the end.

I do differ, in that an individual lit. guide to go with the individual book can give you some ideas for background info on the author/times/work or questions to springboard you into discussion. But we only ever used excerpts from guides and discussed orally -- no pencil to paper. as there is no need for killing the enjoyment of the book with "busywork". 😉 

What type of literature is your student interested in? We could help you come up with a good booklist, plus some possible individual guides to help with information and ideas for discussion and/or activities... 😄 

If "DIY" is not a good option for you, and a literature program is preferred, I can provide some info or personal experience for some of your Lit. choices -- I will just add that if purchasing just to finish out the school year of 9th grade, LL8 or EiL9 are expensive to only use a portion of a full-year program...

Lightning Lit. 8
We used this with both DSs -- one did it in 8th, and the struggling writer did it in 9th. If you have a strong reader, you will definitely finish more quickly than the 36-week schedule. You can also just use selected units. If a student has never done any "digging deeper", LL is a very gentle guided intro into literary analysis and beginning formal literature study. If the student has done previous literary analysis/formal studies, then LL will probably feel light, and like busywork.

Each of the 12 units has an 8-10 page lesson with information about a literary element or literature topic, and then there are 10 work pages which put the literary lesson aspect into practice, or has some beginning analysis on a short excerpt from a classic work of literature. While each unit does contain 2 "busywork" pages (a crossword and a word search), and some work pages are not as clearly needed or helpful as others, some of the work pages are quite useful for the beginning guided analysis.

You could pick and choose which units you want to do -- the second half of the program has much more of the guided analysis in the work pages than the first half. Not that it means your student would be similar, but my DSs didn't care for the poetry units (neither is fond of poetry), and neither cared for the first 2 short stories. They really enjoyed all the rest of the literature and the program overall.

The program covers:
- 3 short stories = "A Crazy Tale", "Wakefield", "Reflections" 
- 3 unites of poetry, with about 5-6 poems per unit
- 6 longer works = The Hobbit (fantasy), A Christmas Carol (fantastical), Treasure Island (adventure), To Kill a Mockingbird (realistic), A Day of Pleasure (nonfiction/memoir), My Family and Others (nonfiction/memoir)


Essentials in Lit. 9
No personal experience, but compared to what I cover in my Lit. & Writing co-op classes what this program covers seems quite light. However, if you're just planning on using parts of it to finish out this year, then that could work. Just a quick skim of the sample videos, it seems like he includes talking about Writing as part of the Literature... Don't know how that fits in with what you need/want...  Over the course of the year, EiL9 covers the following (with daily video lessons of info -- so you may want to skip or just pull excerpts from those) :
- 7 short stories
- 5 nonfiction short selections
- 1 novel = The Hobbit
- 16 poems


LLATL Gold
We used just a few excerpts from the American Lit. and British Lit. programs. These programs were disappointingly very light to us. There is very little "teaching info" on literary devices or literature topics, only a few comprehension-type of questions per work, and almost no discussion-type of questions. There are suggested projects/activities for the student to pursue independently. When those suggestions are papers, there is no real guidance in how to go about the writing and there is no rubric to help the student in knowing what has to be in the paper, nor a grading rubric for parent. No personal experience with the World Lit. program, but from the table of contents, it looks a bit meatier in how much literature is covered -- don't know about if it has more instructional information or discussion questions. LLATL Gold is a program would best fit a student who likes to work independently and is self-motivated to do research and dig deeper on their own.

____________________________

Not to disrupt your decisions 😉 but you did ask for comments 😄 so here are a few other thoughts beyond your Literature... 

re: History
I totally understand the need for gentle due to the anxiety/depression, but what about something extra for your 9th grader to to do in addition to joining your younger students for Bookshark G? Some historical fiction of her own perhaps? Or a spine text that is a bit meatier than the gr. 1-5 level Story of the World vol. 1 and 2 (which I suspect she might find boring and babyish?)?

re: Writing
How comfortable are you with teaching writing? And, how will your DD receive feedback/scoring from you? I teach Writing & Literature at our homeschool co-op, and over and over I hear from parents that "she/he will write for you, but not for me". Or, "she/he can't receive any instruction or comments on her/his writing from me." At the tween/teen ages, writing becomes a big head-butting area for many families, as MANY students take parent comments as criticism of their personal thoughts put down into writing, rather than as needed feedback on the structure and the writing process -- so they often do better with an outsourced instructor for writing.

All that to say... one thing you might consider for writing next year is Lantern English -- very gentle, $60 for 8-week course, and they have a great series of courses to guide the student through essay writing. You might even consider starting this summer, as a "summer bridge" type of class. Sign up for the summer session opens May 24 and the classes run June 14-Aug. 2.

Another option, if you go with Essentials in Literature, is to also do their Essentials in Writing and sign up for their scoring service. That fills up quickly, so that would need to be a decision about writing that would need to be made soon. It looks like you could go with level 9, or possibly level 10, if she completes Wordsmith this year and it gets her up and running with solid paragraph and multi-paragraph writing.

Wordsmith
DS#1 used this one, and even at an easy pace he finished in less than 1 school year. Mostly independent (written to the student), but it is a pretty light -- geared for grades 6-8, but more on the remedial side for an 8th grader. The focus is on writing individual paragraphs of different types, and then moving into a few multi-paragraph essays at the end. It is definitely gentle, and if needing to get comfortable with writing regularly and writing a paragraph or more at a time, this could be a good fit for finishing out your year.

If Wordsmith seems like it would be lighter than you need, you might look at Jump In, which is like a meatier version of Wordsmith. While it is Christian, it is not pervasive, and is mostly mentioned in some of the suggestions for writing assignments. The program was very helpful for my struggling writer DS#2 in figuring out what to write and how to organize his thoughts.


BEST of luck as you transition a 3rd student into your homeschooling! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Thank you for the wealth of information, the comments and the suggestions. All very appreciated!

About Literature:

Your comments on LLATL were spot on, so probably not a good choice for us. I like what I see of LL 8, but I am not sure how to get it in Canada (anyone knows?). So perhaps I will go with the individual books idea.

DD is interested in fantasy, mystery, and adventure books. She loved Harry Potter, Percy Jackson. She recently read an Agatha Christie and enjoyed it, she might be willing to read a Jane Austen, or the Hobbit. She hated the Animal Farm (they did it at school). I don't think she would want at this point to read anything with a very heavy subject matter. If I go with 2-3 books till the end of the year, what would you recommend? whose guides are better - https://stores.progenypress.com/ or https://blackbirdandcompany.com/? did anyone try https://www.hidethechocolate.com/book-club-landing-page/ ?

About history:

Very good point on needing something extra for her in addition to the Bookshark G. Any ideas what could work? for now, she is not very interested in the historical fictions that go with Bookshark G either (The Golden Goblet for example). Perhaps she will be more interested in future books.

About writing:

I am not very comfortable with grading her written work. I am a pretty good writer myself, considering I never learned to write formally (English is a second language for me). I can spot spelling, grammatical and styling errors, but cannot quite explain why they are wrong 🙂 So yes, an outside service would be a very good idea, or at least a curriculum that spells out how to grade.

Thank you for the tips on WordSmith and Jump In. I noticed Jump In is from Writing with Sharon Watson. How is the Illuminating Literature series by her? is it very Christian? (we are not.)

Thanks again!

 

[MamaSprout]

Avoid Sharon Watson if you are not very Christian (at least the products I've used- her high school writing and her punctuation book). There is no theology in it, but it has a definite worldview. It would probably be 90% okay, but it was curriculum that was the last straw for us as secular homeschoolers using Christian materials (and we're not even truly secular). It makes me sad because her curriculum is well done.

Wordsmith could be a good option. Can you buy their products as a download?

Since you are in Canada, maybe downloadable study guides?. I also agree with the others that just letting her choose some books to read is a good idea, but I know sometimes a little framework is nice. These guides don't have answers, but they do have a little background on the authors and give the students some lightweight activities to go along with some books: Glencoe Literature: Literature Library

ETA... if you're talking about this school year, I really would just let her read a couple books she chooses (maybe Jane Austen/ Hobbit? maybe?) and maybe write some "fan fiction" for you. It could be for those books or some she's already read, but reimagining characters in settings she's read about and has some enthusiasm for would be a good way to get her writing.

Edited April 5, 2021 by MamaSprout

[stripe]

I just found out recently about Write at Home and Lantern English from Lori D.; both have 8 week classes all year including the summer. WAH has 8 week classes starting this week still available. 

Bravewriter sells individual book guides. Also this IU High School course’s booklist:

Braun, Lilian. The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts. Jove Books, 1990. ISBN 9780515102659

Christie, Agatha. The A.B.C. Murders. Berkley Books, 2011. ISBN 9780062073587 

Du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca. Avon Books, 2002. ISBN 9780380778553

Fforde, Jasper. The Eyre Affair. Penguin Books, 2003. ISBN 9780142001806

Hillerman, Tony. A Thief of Time. HarperTorch, 2004. ISBN 9780061000041

Hillerman, Tony, ed. The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century. Edition. Houghton Mifflin, 2001. ISBN 9780618012718

Paige, Robin. Death at Bishop‘s Keep. Berkley Publishing Group, 1998. ISBN 9780425164358

Smith, Alexander. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Anchor Books/Random House, 2003. ISBN 9781400034772

[Farrar]

Seconding Lantern or just reading books and discussing them. If you need a lit guide to keep you on track, then that's totally fine. I'd look at the ones from the Glencoe Lit Library since they're free (note that there's a real mix of younger books like Island of the Blue Dolphins and books that are perfectly good for a 9th grader - My Antonia or The Tempest or To Kill a Mockingbird might be good picks from their lists). But there are lots of other novel guides. From what I've seen, the Hide the Chocolate ones are a bit young in their approach, even when they use high school appropriate books. But if that works for you, then you could consider it.

[Lori D.]

re: where to buy LL8
I do see that The Canadian Homeschooler website has a few online options for Canadians to buy/sell/swap curricula, so you might check there and see if you can buy/ship any of your programs used for cheaper.

Rainbow Resource is the only place I'm seeing the grade 7 & 8 levels of Lightning Lit. They do ship to Canada but it is NOT cheap. Shipping is 25% of net for orders up to $199 -- the Student Guide + Workbook + Teacher Guide = $82.50; those 3 items + the books = $139.95. So shipping would be steep -- between $20-$35. 😵

re: Progeny Press
PP guides are heavily Christian, with a section at the end of each "chunk of chapters" being covered that has the student look up Scripture and then compare/discuss Biblical themes with what is going on in the work of Literature. Also, the guides not cheap. The depth was also hit or miss, at least for us -- we got about 8 of the high school level guides, and even though I only use excerpts from any guide, only 2 of the guides I purchased really had enough in them of value for our use.

re: Blackbird & Co. / Hide The Chocolate
No personal experience with either of these.

re: individual books + matching guide
Two FREE online sources of guides (both secular) with background info + discussion questions:
- Glencoe Literature Library (middle school / high school titles)
- Penguin Teacher Guides (high school / college titles)

Several FREE online sources (all secular) of chapter summaries + analysis + explanations of key themes, characters, etc:
- Bibliomania Study Guides (high school / college titles)
- Sparknotes (high school / college titles)
- Cliff's Notes (high school / college titles)
- Pink Monkey (high school / college titles)
- Schmoop (high school / college titles)

I also really like the very meaty Garlic Press Discovering Literature Challenger Level (high school level) guides. They are secular, with great background info, "teaching info" on a number of literary devices and literature topics, discussion (NOT comprehension) questions for every chapter, plus writing assignment ideas, and resources and ideas for activities/projects. The only downside is that they only have guides for a small handful of titles -- 

re: History
Instead of ancient historical fiction, maybe she would enjoy some adaptations of ancient literature. Some of these are at late elementary/early middle school level, but they might be of interest because the ancient myths and epics tend to be very adventure-based and have a fantasy-type of element because of the gods/goddesses. Also, the Percy Jackson series is based on Ancient Greek gods/goddesses. 😉  A few ideas:

adaptations of the Epic of Gilgamesh (ancient Mesopotamian epic)
- Gilgamesh the Hero (McCaughrean) -- gr. 6-9

adaptations of Ancient Egyptian underworld mythology + folktales (including an ancient variation on Cinderella!)
- Tales of Ancient Egypt (Green) -- gr. 5-8

adaptations of the Ancient Greek epics by Homer, of The Iliad and The Odyssey:
- Black Ships Before Troy; The Wanderings of Odysseus (Sutcliff) -- gr. 6-9
- The Children's Homer (Colum) -- gr. 5-9
- The Trojan War (Coolidge) -- gr. 5-7

Ancient Greek myths:
- Wonder Book (Hawthorne) -- FREE at Gutenberg, online or download -- gr. 6-9
- Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne) -- FREE at Gutenberg -- gr. 6-9
- Bulfinch's Mythology (Bulfinch) -- FREE at Gutenberg -- gr. 6-9

adaptations of the Ancient Roman epic by Virgil, of The Aeneid:
- The Aeneid for Boys and Girls (Church) -- gr. 6-9
- In Search of a Homeland (Lively) -- gr. 5-8

Edited April 5, 2021 by Lori D.

[Laura S.]

Regarding purchasing Lightning Lit 8-

Hewitt Homeschool has a PDF download bundle of student & teacher materials in their website store. https://hewittlearning.org/product/lightning-lit-gr-8-set-of-tg-sg-sw-pdf/
I’d assume a download would likely work for Canada as well as the US & you would just need to purchase the books separately. 

I haven’t used 8, but I purchased the download bundle for Lightning Lit 7 (& books from Amazon) & I don’t feel like I’m missing anything receiving it that way. 

[Kendall]

I will put in another vote for just letting her read for literature and if you have time, read them yourself and have fun chatting about them with her.

I do these with my kids at some point in high school. We do lost of more traditional classics as well, but this is a fun set of books and would be a great transition from public school as you are finishing out a year.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins  (early modern example of detective/mystery novel Dickens contemporary)

Carry On, Jeeves by Wodehouse  (British humor, read a few of the stories more if she enjoys them, but enough to know who Jeeves is)

Three Men in a Boat - this is free online and she/you could read a few chapters and decide, not necessary before the next one, but funny and is refered to

 

And then they read 

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (The previous two before this one) A modern novel, time travel but reads more like historical fiction/mystery. Lots of literary and historical allusions.  My kids really enjoy this one and all of the above.

[Ausmumof3]

I’m not an expert as we are just hitting this stage now.  But I just wanted to share what we’ve been doing because it might fit.  I’ve been listening along to the Literary Life podcast by Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins.  They have a reading challenge for the year with a different one for the kids to adults - basically the challenge for kids include 19 different categories of books (for example, a book of myths, five poems by one author, reread a favourite, a 19th century classic) etc etc.  I have just been having my kids do the challenge.  There are books suggestions for the categories if you need them but you can also pick your own.  

https://www.theliterary.life/19-in-2021-reading-challenge/
 

The challenges are here - scroll down to the end for the kids one.

To add on to that I bought the kids the commonplace books to go with the challenge and am having them do the narrations, commonplacing etc.  You wouldn’t need the books though you could just have them use any notebook to do some journaling/book reviews etc about their reading.

It seems to be working really well.  It has the kids venturing outside their comfort zone but not being stuck wading through a lot of books they don’t like at all.
 
We are also doing writing with skill otherwise it may be a bit light but for half a year I think it might work ok.

[kiwik]

She is coming out of school now rather than waiting until the end of the year. Why? If she is struggling in any way I would deschool for the rest of the year or at least limit it to maths, lots of reading and discussing, exercise and  hobbies.  She can join when in with the other kids when she wants to or maybe just be in the same room doing something else.  If she is up to it I would enrol her for a Lantern English summer course because if the style works for you they have a complete English course that covers writing, vocab, grammar and literature, is fairly affordable and can be done independently with you as a supporter and helper rather than a critic.

[HollyDay]

You already have some great ideas and some good input.  I wanted to toss in a few ideas that worked well for us

Alpha Omega Press has literature packs for both American and British.  Each is designed to take a semester. This one worked particularly well for my oldest.  She was more a "just the facts" type learner.  Each lifepac was short and broken into short lessons with reading selections and questions.  Background on the authors was presented at the start of each section.  The authors/books are studied in chronological order. 

Drawn into the Heart of Reading has a middle school program that could be translated into 9th grade.  What I like about this program is that it allows you to select the book.  The program is laid out by genres.  You select the genre, then select what book you wish to study.  There is a list of questions and activities for each genre.  You can pick and chose what questions/activities you want to use.  The actives are divided into grade level so this one works well with multiple ages.  

Progeny Press has study guides for individual books.  Similar concept to DITHR but you can only chose from the guides they already have published.  Another similar company is Total Language Plus.