I’m following the Lightning Lit conversation with interest as that’s what my son has used for the past two years. He’s doing an American Lit pack right now, and we chose to stretch one through his 8th grade year, instead of one per semester, in conjunction with a good deal of historical fiction and history reading, to keep it a bit more CM. We wanted fewer books stretched out over a longer time, so he could build relationships rather than speed through books. Has anyone ever scheduled it this way for high school? I know Hewitt recommends two guides per year for college bound students. This is a bright kid and I want to challenge him, but I look at the book choices laid out by AO and SCM and don’t want to overload books with LL. Any ideas on that would be welcomed.
Another question, please. My oldest seems ready for something like this (or at least for a trial run) and I was wondering exactly what needs to be purchased. I know that we have most of the American lit books, but there is the student workbook, study guide, teacher’s guide, etc.
I know bookworm mentioned not knowing there was a TG, but I just don’t know if I could manage without one (any thoughts??). Would the workbook/study guide be enough??
Well, the student book isn’t really a workbook. It’s a reusable guide. They won’t be writing in it.
I can’t imagine what on earth would be all that useful in the teacher guide for such a small price. It might be kind of like the “teacher guide” at TLP, which was worthless. The student guide has comprehension and discussion questions (which we skipped in favor of narrating instead), lots of good literary analysis and background information, and really good and thought-provoking writing assignments. I really can’t think what would be in the teacher guide except maybe “answers” to the comprehension questions. So you just need the guide, and the books. We got the books ourselves if we didn’t already own a copy–we didn’t always have the exact same edition as Hewitt uses but it’s never been a problem, just as long as we had an unabridged.
I did look at the sample of Tom Sawyer and I think this would be helpful to my oldest ds.
Oh, that was something….did you skip books that you had already read?? I remember that being mentioned, not sure, but my ds already read Tom Sawyer, and I wasn’t sure that I should have him read it again.
I think that would depend. I am having my ds reread Great Expectations in the one he is doing now. It’s a terrific book and won’t hurt him a bit! I’d maybe think twice about Tom Sawyer but only because I don’t like it. LOL What does he think? What does dh think? I think you could go either way.
Thanks. I’ll ask him and see what he thinks….I’m guessing that he’ll say,”What?” I think he liked it, but wasn’t over the moon about it. I think there are plenty of books that could/should be reread, but possibly not this one.
We’ll see, maybe it would seem different with the guide.
For the 7th and 8th grade Teacher’s manuals, it has a schedule, the LL philosophy and answers to the comprehension questions. For the 9th-12th Teacher’s books, it has the above plus how to grade the work. I can see it being valuable if you don’t have time to read the book yourself or don’t have confidence in your ability to teach this subject. I can also see where after doing one course you’d feel confident and never need it again. Perhaps for someone teaching a new high schooler the grading information might be nice the first time through. I can see the usefulness going both ways….it depends on the type of person you are.
I know this thread is a year old, but I LOVE reading Bookworm’s thoughts/reviews on highschool and curriculum options.
My dc do tons of reading, but I want to add some type of formal literature curriculum. I like the looks of LL. Here’s my question…the SCM guide recommends one chapter per day, but Bookworm, what did you have your students read? How many pages per day? Or did you assign a book to be read in a certain time and it was up to them to finish it?
I’m guessing it is within the LL curriculum. I’m not the one that posted the question but I’ve wondered the same thing. I have a ds approaching 9th grade and this is helpful to me.
So, I am curious about LL also. I am seeing that the TG may not be necessary, but now I am wondering about the student workbook. Is the student guide sufficient? From the website I see that they are separate books. Would the workbooks offer any advantage — help them to more independent, etc. I’m not normally a fan of busy work, but I am starting to see a place for it with my older ds from time to time.
Yes, I guess I would like to know how to assign literature books. We follow the SCM history module guides (i.e. one chapter per day/per book) and add extras, but what about literature? I want my children to be prepared for college if they should choose that route. I like the looks of a formal study like Lightning Lit, but just wondered how these books and others should be assigned…one chapter per day isn’t really going to allow for many of these books to be read, right?
I’ll be honest, I attended a Christian high school that used A Beka curriculum. I never remember reading some of these great literature classics in their unabridged form, let alone study them in depth. I want more for my children…just not sure how to get there. 🙂