Lightning Literature placement question

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  • July 9, 2015 at 11:13 am
    hsmom22
    Participant

    I have a question regarding which Lightning Literature program to use with my son who will be starting ninth grade.  He writes very well but has never had any ‘formal’ composition instruction.  He has, and uses, Writer’s, Inc., on his own when he finds it necessary.  We have used a mix of CM/Ruth Beechick methods, employing oral and written narration, along with discussion and feedback.  As I said, he is a very good writer, as well as good reader, although he does read too quickly at times and may miss some of the subtle clues needed for successful literary analysis.  In addition, he lacks knowledge of the formal terms that he may encounter in a study guide, though I am sure he will pick those up without difficulty.  However, because of these concerns (mostly the fast reading), I am wondering which level to use with him.  I am vacillating between using the Grade 8 and Grade 9 Lightning Literature guides with him.  Which would you choose?  Thank you!

    July 9, 2015 at 5:13 pm
    crazy4boys
    Participant

    You could let him look through the books for each year and choose the one that interests him the most. I think you’d be fine going with either.

    July 9, 2015 at 9:17 pm
    hsmom22
    Participant

    Good idea, crazy4boys!  Thanks for responding.  Anyone else?

    July 10, 2015 at 9:06 am
    hsmom22
    Participant

    Okay, now I’m wondering if I actually need a formal literature and composition program like Lightning Literature or can I simply introduce higher-level reading skills using ‘How to Read a Book’ by Mortimer Adler (along with ‘How to Speak, How to Listen’, by the same author), add in some appropriate grade-level classic literature, and then continue to use the narration techniques that have worked so well for my son to this point.  Thoughts?  Thanks!

    July 10, 2015 at 9:57 am
    crazy4boys
    Participant

    We do both. We use the guides for some books and others we just read and narrate/discuss. Sometimes we don’t do the ‘work’ of the guides but use them to learn literary terms. (There are other ways to learn these though.) So we might read the section in the student guide that talks about setting and then we’ll just read the book and discuss/narrate. Since I now know that we’re looking for setting we’ll talk about that a bit more, however I don’t hammer it over their heads. I’ve bought a few LL and other guides used over the years which makes me feel better about piecing things together.

    I’m working on not killing their love of reading and on making the classics enjoyable. I was a great student and reader in high school and college but they just killed some books for me. Many, many years later I re-read some of those books and actually liked them and was able to understand and appreciate them when I thought I hated them.

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