Question about Lightning Literature

[swimnactmom]

I am considering this program for my soon to be 7th grader.

 

I was able to look at some samples of the schedules online. Would it be possible to finish LL 7 & 8 in one year? The reason I say that is because it looks like they plan for you to spend lots of lessons reading a book before you have to answer questions. I'm thinking we could knock those books out a lot faster than what's listed in the schedules that I have access to.

 

Is there something I'm missing? Would this be possible? What do you think?

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

We did LL7 this year. Yes, you can get through the books a lot faster than the schedule lays out. We didn't do every writing assignment because we use IEW, but even if we had, dd would probably have still finished in maybe 6-7 months. We were in no rush either as dd has a lot of irons in the fire. I wouldn't go as far to tell you yes for sure you can do it because I have no experience with LL8. But I will say that LL7 is very easy to tweak to meet your needs.

[Peggy in Va]

I am considering this program for my soon to be 7th grader.

 

I was able to look at some samples of the schedules online. Would it be possible to finish LL 7 & 8 in one year? The reason I say that is because it looks like they plan for you to spend lots of lessons reading a book before you have to answer questions. I'm thinking we could knock those books out a lot faster than what's listed in the schedules that I have access to.

 

Is there something I'm missing? Would this be possible? What do you think?

 

I am also planning on using LL next year and have asked several questions about using it. Lori D. has been very helpful, below are links to her posts.

 

There have been many posts recently about LL. If you do a search on the K-8 board for LL you should be able to find more info. if you need it.

 

Scroll down to Lori D.'s post

 

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

 

Scroll down to Lori D.'s post

 

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

 

HTH

[Pegasus]

Wow, maybe we're slackers but DD got through only half of LL7 this year. She could have easily read through all the books pretty quickly but she was doing all of the questions, worksheets, and writing assignments as well. She didn't do LL7 every day though and writing assignments tend to slow her down.

 

I think you could run through LL7 pretty quickly if you just read the books and answer the comprehension questions. I guess it depends on what you are trying to get out of the program.

 

Pegasus

[Sunshine State Sue]

I PM'ed you.

[sandra in va]

I PM'ed you.

 

I'm interested, too...can you share with the rest of us? :D

 

We've used LL7 this year, and because we started in Jan, we only had half a year. I think we will come fairly close to finishing b/c my dd read much faster than the schedule in the teacher's guide. We didn't do every worksheet or writing assignment (though we have tried hard to do one writing assignment per chapter). Also, we didn't do the vocab. I'm hoping to have more time for these things next year since we'll have the whole year. Personally, I felt rushed. I'd rather have it spread out with more time to think about/discuss the books. (We also use IEW, so we stay pretty busy with the writing assignments from there. We take a break from IEW to do the LL assignments.)

 

That said, I think it is a very easy program to tweak and adjust to your needs. I think I have read on the Hewitt yahoo group of others who do speed the LL7 and LL8 programs up and complete it in much less time than written. You could definitely try to do both in one year and then adjust down the road if you want/need more time.

Edited April 26, 2009 by sandra in va

[mamaof2andtwins]

If we did the whole program as written it would have taken us all year to do the LL&C 7 this year. We only do the novels and use CLE reading for short stories and poems. As it is we did not do the James Harriot book.

 

Jennie

[Sunshine State Sue]

I'm interested, too...can you share with the rest of us? :D

 

I PM'ed you, too. :)

[HollyDay]

We did LL 7 in just over half a year. I would think you could pick and chose from the 2 and make up your own schedule.

[Mom22ns]

I PM'ed you, too. :)

 

Copy that PM one more time and send it my way would you Sue?

[Peggy in Va]

I PM'ed you, too. :)

 

As I stated above, I am also planning on using LL7 next year with dss 6th/7th grades. If you don't mind, and have it in you to do one more pm, I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

Thanks

[Sunshine State Sue]

Copy that PM one more time and send it my way would you Sue?

 

As I stated above, I am also planning on using LL7 next year with dss 6th/7th grades. If you don't mind, and have it in you to do one more pm, I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

Thanks

 

Done. :bigear:

[swimnactmom]

more quickly is this:

 

1. We will be using other resources for vocabulary,writing, and grammar. After looking at the sample lessons on the LL website, I think that I could skip most of the extra work (games and puzzles) without consequence. My focus will be comprehension and literary analysis.

 

2. I would not assign just reading a few pages of a book a day as an assignment. There is no doubt we would get through the actual reading at a faster pace than what's published in the schedule.

 

3. Although the sample curriculum of this program looks good to me, many people here have commented that LL7 is too light. That being said, and given my son's enthusiasm for picking apart literature, I do expect to get through LL7 at an accelerated pace and would transition right into LL8 at that point. I don't know if we will finish both in one year, but I thought I would get some input on how LL users view that concept.

 

4. My other child is in a competitive private school where all students are taking AP english from the beginning of 11th grade. Perhaps my home schooled child would appreciate a similar pattern of study. He remains interested and as long as he is not discouraged by the pace of our literature studies, I figure why not.

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

given my son's enthusiasm for picking apart literature, I do expect to get through LL7 at an accelerated pace and would transition right into LL8 at that point.

 

Could you just let him just start LL8 if he already has skills and you think LL7 might be too light?

[swimnactmom]

I'm starting with 7 because I just want to be sure that I don't leave holes in his learning.

 

We've been doing the Discovering Literature guides for 2 years now, supplementing with some Literature Units and a few other guides for extra work in comprehension. We've done very little poetry, which he loves. LL just looks like a nice mix of different kinds of reading and it would be fun to read lots of books and talk about them. We've been reading one chapter at a time and summarizing it. I think I'd like him to read bigger chunks of the book and then discuss.

[Lori D.]

I am considering this program for my soon to be 7th grader.

 

I was able to look at some samples of the schedules online. Would it be possible to finish LL 7 & 8 in one year? The reason I say that is because it looks like they plan for you to spend lots of lessons reading a book before you have to answer questions. I'm thinking we could knock those books out a lot faster than what's listed in the schedules that I have access to.

 

Is there something I'm missing? Would this be possible? What do you think?

 

 

Having done both LL7 and LL8, I don't think it would be a good idea to do ALL of both programs in one year -- you'd just be racing through the works and not really digging into them. Part of the reason I say that is because LL8 is a third LONGER than LL7. LL8 has twelve units to LL7's eight units:

LL7 = 2 short story units; 2 poetry units; 4 novels

LL8 = 3 short story units; 3 poetry units; 1 novella; 5 novels

That would be a LOT of literature to cover in just one year!

 

 

As far as being able to go through a LL faster than a year -- yes, I think you can. I could see getting through both programs in possibly 18-20 months. The included schedule has you read the book, and then when finished reading, you:

- read the teaching information in the student guide

- and then after that do the worksheets

- and then read the "mini writing lesson" information

- and then after that do the end-of-unit writing assignment

 

We telescoped that and did those 4 other parts WHILE reading. Also, because we did the reading aloud together, we covered any vocabulary in the moment, skipped the comprehension questions, and did any discussing while reading. Sometimes we skipped the end-of-unit LL writing assignment and just continued with the writing program.

 

Going at a very leisurely pace, we would take about 3 weeks to do the above 4 parts of the student guide and student worksheet pages:

- read the student guide information on the literary technique (1-2 days)

- do the worksheets (6-8 days)

- read the mini writing lesson information (1 day)

- do a longer writing assignment (1 week, done in place of other writing program exercises/assignments)

 

If you have a strong reader, you could shorten up the reading time of the novels to finish at about the same time you finish up the rest of the work. For the short story units and poetry units, you could probably shorten that up to taking 2 weeks total on a unit, possibly just 1 week if you weren't interested in doing the end-of-unit writing assignment.

 

Hope that is of help! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited April 27, 2009 by Lori D.
added clarification

[Lori D.]

We will be using other resources for vocabulary,writing, and grammar. After looking at the sample lessons on the LL website, I think that I could skip most of the extra work (games and puzzles) without consequence. My focus will be comprehension and literary analysis.

 

 

This is very similar to what we did. We skipped the extra work (2 worksheet pages per unit), and also used other resources for the rest of the language arts. When we used LL7 and LL8, we also were using:

 

- additional literary analysis resource: Figuratively Speaking (10-15 min/day, 1-2 days/week)

- separate writing program (20-30 min/day, 4-5 days/week)

- separate grammar program (15 min/day, 3 days/week)

- separate vocabulary program (5 min/day, 2-3 days/week)

- additional solo reading (2 hours/week)

- additional read alouds (2 hours/week)

 

As far as how much time LL takes, doing the reading aloud, LL took us about 40-50 min/day, 4 days a week. We spent 30 min of that reading aloud/discussing, and 10-20 min doing the other components of the unit.

 

 

 

Although the sample curriculum of this program looks good to me, many people here have commented that LL7 is too light. That being said, and given my son's enthusiasm for picking apart literature, I do expect to get through LL7 at an accelerated pace and would transition right into LL8 at that point. I don't know if we will finish both in one year, but I thought I would get some input on how LL users view that concept.

 

 

Since we had not done formal literary analysis before -- and because we were doing it right at grade level, when the analyzing parts of the brain are just then kicking in -- we found LL7 to be just right for us. LL8 is very similar and you'd have no problems moving right into it as you finish LL7. A few of the works used are a little more difficult, and by the second half of LL8, you're starting to get more literary analysis practice in the worksheet pages.

 

 

If you're son enjoys literary analysis, I'd also recommend the Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings year-long program. Also, you might enjoy moving into a "Great Books" type of literature study along about 8th/9th grade. Below is a recent past thread (with links to other great threads) from the high school board in which homeschoolers share how they discuss/analyze literature with their students. Enjoy your literature journey! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

Doing literature with my 9th grader

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94502

[sandra in va]

So helpful, as always, Lori D!!!

 

Thanks for sharing. What do you use for your other LA curr?

[swimnactmom]

Thanks for sharing your experience and expertise!

It's always hard to evaluate something you can't get your hands on. I don't want to rush through LL. Seems like we can complete LL7, get started on LL8 ,but finish up the next year. And that would be fine.

So glad we have this board to help each other. You've been a great help. Thanks again, I really appreciate your effort here in this post!

[Lori D.]

So helpful, as always, Lori D!!! Thanks for sharing. What do you use for your other LA curr?

 

 

Hi Sandra, FWIW, below is what we used in 7th and 8th grades for language arts. (It's a long answer, as we did different things for writing for each). Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

Literature

spine (boys in gr. 7/8) = LL7 / LL8

spine (boys in gr. 8/9) = Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings

supplements = Figuratively Speaking; Walch Toolbox Prose and Poetry

 

 

Vocabulary

- English From the Roots Up I and II

 

 

Grammar

grammar instruction = Winston Advanced

grammar mechanics/editing practice (did a variety) =

- Sonlight type of dictations (made our own)

- Editor in Chief

- Giggles in the Middle

 

 

Writing:

(along with very occasional history/science papers using IEW's keyword outlining techniques; 3 paragraphs a week, each paragraph on one country of the world; and writing assignments from LL)

- older son gr. 7 = Wordsmith

- older son gr. 8 = parts of Put That in Writing and parts of 4 book series from Scholastic (Descriptive Writing; Narrative Writing; Expository Writing; Persuasive Writing)

- younger son gr. 7 = finish Wordsmith Apprentice; parts of 4 book series from Scholastic (Descriptive Writing; Narrative Writing; Expository Writing; Persuasive Writing)

- younger son gr. 8 =Jump In

 

 

Additional Reading

- solo reading (8-10 books) = historical fiction to match our history

- read alouds (4-6 books) = great books from Sonlight, Ambleside, 1000 Good Books, and other lists