Question about Lighning Literature

[Honeysuckle]

I'm thinking of using this for 8th grade and up. Does this program actually teach how to write a literary analysis? This program looks as if it would be a good fit for us and not too overwhelming, but I'm hoping it will teach the writing of literary analysis. Here is what I was thinking of using for all of language arts for 8th grade:

 

grammar-Abeka

Spelling/vocab-Abeka

Writing-IEW SICC-B (2nd year of two-year plan)

Lightning Literature

 

 

I've also been looking at Windows to the World from IEW. Would that also be a good choice to use instead of Lightning Lit? Then for 9th, maybe do Lightning Lit 9?

 

Does anyone have any advice they could offer on my plan for 8th grade? Would IEW SICC and LL8 be too much writing if used together?

 

Do you feel that LL is college prep?

 

Thanks very much!

[Peggy in Va]

Not too long ago I was asking questions about lit. analysis, not LL specifically, just a general what's out there. The links below are responses I received. The 2nd link is specifically about LL and how LoriD used the program. You might find them helpful. The ladies on these boards have a wealth of info.

 

One question I didn't ask was whether they thought LL was a college prep program, so I am very curious what kind of response you get.

 

The other thing you might consider is x-posting your question on the high school board.

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88792

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88982

 

HTH

[Honeysuckle]

I just went to the high school board and asked a few questions. Thanks so much for the link. I have been reading Lori D's posts and they are very helpful.

[Lori D.]

I'm thinking of using this for 8th grade and up. Does this program actually teach how to write a literary analysis?

 

 

No, LL8 does not teach how to write a literary analysis. The focus is learning about specific literary elements, beginning to see them in the classic works read, and then just beginning to see how they work to support a theme in the work. The focus of LL8 is more of a gentle, general overview into reading classic literature and beginning literary analysis. The worksheet pages help you begin to put the literary elements discussed into practice.

 

Windows on the World has an extremely specific section on writing literary analysis. The program is heavily based around annotating as you read, and then using those "notes in the margins" that you made to begin to formulate your argument for your literary analysis paper and to also use your annotations for the examples from the text to suppport your argument.

 

 

 

This program looks as if it would be a good fit for us and not too overwhelming, but I'm hoping it will teach the writing of literary analysis. Here is what I was thinking of using for all of language arts for 8th grade:

 

grammar-Abeka

Spelling/vocab-Abeka

Writing-IEW SICC-B (2nd year of two-year plan)

Lightning Literature

 

Does anyone have any advice they could offer on my plan for 8th grade? Would IEW SICC and LL8 be too much writing if used together?

 

 

Sounds like a great plan! :001_smile:

 

That looks very similar to what we've done for 8th grade English, with LL8 for the literature portion, and then separate programs for grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and writing. Just as a guide for time-planning, LL8 took us about 40-50 min/day, 4x/week. And we were doing all of the reading aloud together. (30 min/day = reading; 10-20 min/day = reading student guide information, or doing student workpages, or working on a longer writing project).

 

The only concession we made was with the writing; sometimes we dropped the longer writing assignment at the end of each of the 12 units of LL8; or if we did the longer writing assigment, we would set aside our writing program for that week.

 

Otherwise, it is really pretty easy to include LL8 with other writing, grammar, and spelling programs -- AND other reading, as well!

 

 

 

I've also been looking at Windows to the World from IEW. Would that also be a good choice to use instead of Lightning Lit? Then for 9th, maybe do Lightning Lit 9?

 

 

Just my 2 cents worth, but my suggestion would be to hold off on Windows on the World (WW). Literary analysis is the *hardest* type of writing to do. To get the most out of WW, I wanted our student to feel comfortable with the mechanics of writing -- keyword outlines, supporting their contentions, writing longer papers, understanding how to write persuasive essays, etc. -- first, so that they wouldn't be struggling with writing in general *while* tackling the difficult task of finding deeper meaning in a piece of literature and figuring out how to support what they found with examples from the text.

 

An idea: you could do both WW AND some other literature program in 9th grade. In fact, I really would suggest it, as WW only covers 6 short stories; you'd really want to also cover some novels and poetry for a complete literature portion of an English credit in high school. And that way you'd also get the great information on annotating and writing a literary analysis that WW contains.

 

You could even spread WW out over 2 years, as we are doing this year. We're using WW right now with our 9th and 10th grade boys. The 9th grader is doing LL8 as well, and the 10th grader is doing a lit. program we designed for him ("Worldviews in Sci-Fi and Gothic Lit", using 9 classic works from the 19th and 20th century).

 

I'm glad we waited on WW for high school, as I see both boys understanding much more clearly *how* to think about and write about literature than they could before doing LL7, LL8, and Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings in middle school years. I also see trying to do a once a week timed essay from an actual past SAT prompt question is also helping them understand how to *write* about and *support* an argument/analysis type of essay.

 

(In case you're interested, here's the website where you can download/print past SAT questions: http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/sat-test-prep.html -- scroll down 3/4ths of the way down the page for the clickable links to various past tests. We are still just taking 15 minutes, instead of the official 25, and we all do an essay, and then read/critique them together. It's been very helpful for all of us!)

 

 

Hope something here is of help! Warmest regards, Lori D.