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Hewitt's Lightning Literature and Composition guides use full-length novels, autobiographies, plays, essays, short stories, and poems to teach deep reading and composition skills. Unlike some literature programs that take a scatter-shot approach (where none of the literature seems connected) or that try to dump too much into one book, Lightning Literature guides focus on a few classics in depth, in a systematic manner. These guides are available for high school and junior high.
High School
Each high-school guide is a one-semester course for most students. Students who struggle with reading and writing may take up to a year to finish a guide. Additional reading recommendations are given for students who excel in language arts. All students will be exposed to exciting new authors and revisit old favorites with new eyes. Each guide includes biographies of the authors; comprehension questions and answers; lessons on the readings; writing exercises; any short stories, essays, or poems used for lessons; additonal reading suggestions; and discussion questions.
Currently the following high-school courses are available. They can be purchased as packs (which include all the required books) or the guides can be puchased alone.
Junior High
7th Grade
The 7th-grade course is a year-long course of 8 chapters (2 on novels, 2 on nonfiction books, 2 on short stories, and 2 on poetry). It consists of a Student Guide and a Teacher Guide. The Student Guide includes biographies of the authors, vocabulary, comprehension questions, lessons on the readings, additional lessons on composition, writing exercises, and workbook pages. The workbook pages are consumable, but extra sets of workbook pages are available for additional students. The Teacher Guide includes a teaching schedule, answers to comprehension questions, answers to the workbook pages, extra teaching help for the lessons, help in choosing appropriate writing exercises, and discussion questions.
You can look at a sample chapter of the Student Guide and the introduction and a sample chapter of the Teacher's Guide. Here is additional information about this program.
You can also order the 7th-grade Lightning Literature as a pack, which includes both guides and all the books.
8th Grade
The 8th-grade course is a year-long course of 12 chapters (4 on novels, 2 on nonfiction books, 3 on short stories, and 3 on poetry). It consists of a Student Guide and a Teacher Guide. The Student Guide includes biographies of the authors, vocabulary, comprehension questions, lessons on the readings, additional lessons on composition (focusing on research reports), writing exercises, and workbook pages. The workbook pages are consumable, but extra sets of workbook pages are available for additional students. The Teacher Guide includes a teaching schedule, answers to the comprehension questions, answers to the workbook pages, extra teaching help for the lessons, help in choosing appropriate writing exercises, and discussion questions.
You can look at a sample chapter of the Student Guide and a sample chapter of the Teacher Guide. Here is additional information about this program.
You can also order the 8th-grade Lightning Literature as a pack, which includes both guides and all the books. (If you've already ordered the 7th-grade Lightning Literature course, and do not need Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages, you can order this pack which does not include that book.)
We also have more information if you're thinking of enrolling for our evaluation services for English, including our new electronic/email evaluations for Lightning Literature.
Future of Lightning Literature
Continue to check back on our website or call Hewitt to check on progress. Or, you can sign up on our mailing list to be notified of product updates and changes.
Other titles on the drawing board for future years include:
Do you have an idea for a semester-long English class that you'd like to see? We welcome your suggestions.
What Our Customers Say. . .
I used the Lightning Lit American Literature this year and absolutely love it. I have used all types of literature programs and this one is by far the best. [Renita Herbst]
The Lightning Literature curriculum has no competition. [Clare Richter]
[My daughter] in 11th grade has always been homeschooled and we have run the gamut of approaches to literature. . . Lightning Literature has been her (and my) absolute favorite. We hired the head of the English department of our local high school to look over her papers, and he loves the assignments she is doing in Lightning Literature so much that he is actually planning to use some in his own classes. [My daughter] likes it because the questions don't slow down the reading too much, the format is geared toward independent study, the instructions are clear, and the writing assignments are varied. She also likes studying complete works as opposed to using an anthology of excerpts. I also like that it covers literary terms. [Luann Geyman]
I looked long and hard at many different literature programs and Lightning Literature came out on top every time. I like that I had the option to choose to do the semester course over a year for our son's freshman English. He simply is not ready to tackle both semesters. No other program offered this option. There were many watered down courses that were "Basic English", however, we didn't want that for our son. We want to challenge him to think and to explore literature. [Lisa Young]
Initially Maria was wondering if she could "hack" a college course. . . . We said go for it. The foremost feedback has been how much she appreciates your courses (Lightning Literature) because she feels the assignments are much more concise, well directed and interesting. She also feels that your critiques have been very helpful and more than adequately prepared her for English 101. The school was very surprised she placement tested so well. [Barbara Gomez]
Thank you so much for this course. It has made my life remarkably easier, and fills a large gap in resources available to homeschoolers at the high school levels. [Christine]
Your [7th Grade] Lightning Lit and Comp. book is excellent and is [my daughter's] favorite subject. If I ever go back to teaching in the public schools, it would be a must-have. Just wish I would have known about it as I was teaching our older two children at home! [Shari Moon]
In August, I purchased the 8th grade version of Lightning Literature for my twin daughters, one of them dyslexic. I also purchased the American Lit, both semesters, for my 10th grader. For all three of these children, your materials have been very successful. And the minimal work required of the parent has made them very attractive to me, as their teacher. [Colleen Trinko]
We have really enjoyed the Lightning Literature Guides. . . the 7th grade guide is just what we had been hoping for. My husband is a college administrator, and I've shown [the high-school guides] to the English faculty who were duly impressed by what [my high-school son] has been doing for literature. [Susan Fenton]