Lightning Lit needing a writing program to go with, or not?

[5sweeties]

Ok, I just read on a previous post that someone recommends not doing writing with LL, because it includes writing projects. What is the general feeling on this? I've decided to use LL American Lit for next year. We will do both early and late, following the Honors program. Do I need to use a seperate writing program? Is there any writing instruction included?

[Katia]

Having used LL the last three years, I would say, yes, you do need another writing program.

LL does not 'teach' writing, but they have wonderful writing prompts. What we have done is to blend both the writing instruction along with the LL prompts to make only one paper at a time, but it takes a bit longer and we use outside writing programs.

For example, if the writing prompt is to write a persuasive paper, I have my dds read about writing persuasive papers in Writers, Inc. Then, they read in Format Writing and they get an idea of how to set them up, then we use the scheduled-out system for writing a persuasive paper from Wordsmith Craftsman (two weeks).

If we didn't blend writing instruction and LL together, the girls wouldn't get to respond to their literature in writing or get experience writing lit analysis papers (using just another writing program and leaving out the LL writing), OR they would be trying to write just the LL papers and stumbling along in the dark.

So, instead of writing two papers per major work as LL suggests, we only do one paper per work and I try to schedule in other types of writing. We mainly use Wordsmith Craftsman, but we like to have different resources to get a broader view (thus the Format Writing and Writers, Inc.).

My problem has been having them write too many papers at one time. But, next year I plan to have a 'writing' period scheduled into our day and we'll only write one paper per subject at a time. But, we'll still use various resources to help them out with the actual writing instruction.

[Faithr]

Uh oh, that might have been me making that comment. The full title of Lightning Lit is Lightning Literature and Composition; Acquiring College Level Composition Skills by Responding to Great Literature. I personally feel it would be overkill to use another program, but maybe it depends on you, the teacher, and your own familiarity with writing. I do think though the program is more than just writing prompts. For example in their American Lit Mid-Late Century they give you the basic structure of how to write a paper. Then for each book or piece of literature read you examine a particular aspect of writing. As you read you analyze the piece in light of this aspect, then you are prompted to write something that specifically relates back to what you've been focusing on. If the student is having trouble, you might need to refer to Strunk and White or Writers Inc, but a full blown writing program would be making things overly complicated and would be unnecessary in my view.

But ymmv!

[Myra]

Kaia,
I definitely had to supplement LL grade 7 for my son for as far as writing went, but I didn't mind as I felt he needed to learn how to follow the suggested schedule with an eye for more independent work and get used to reading novels that might not always "interest" him! I felt a bit better about the LL grade 8 this year, but we did spend a lot of "together-time" exploring the writing assignments/revisions/requirements/etc. I am planning on doing LL9 and was hoping that the writing assignments would increasing be more demanding? True or False?


Also you mentioned Wordsmith Craftsman ....for a scheduled-out system for writing a persuasive paper - could you tell me more how this product works?

Thanks,
Myra

[Katia]

Myra,

Wordsmith Craftsman has three sections to teach writing skills. The first covers basic writing (letters, resumes, note taking, precis writing, etc.), the second helps with specific writing skills (type of writing, choosing strong verbs, etc.) and the third section covers essays.

We use the essay section a lot. It breaks down each type of essay, explains how to craft it and then has a schedule that explains what to work on each day....even has a day off/break to rest the brain and get a new perspective sometimes,lol....and it is written directly to the student.

So, I can hand it to my dd and tell her to follow the directions/schedule for writing a _______ type of essay using the LL prompt. We did this in 9th and 10th grades and it worked very well.

We are big proponents of Wordsmith Craftsman here. It's worked well for all my dc.

[Myra]

Katia,
Thanks! I'm sold!

Myra

[SwimmerMom]

We did LL 7 this year and I don't think Bean would have been as successful at it without TOG's Writing Aids to help her along.