My children and I love to read great books that delight and engage us. And though we do a lot of reading in our homeschool, composition is not as easy to get through. Nicholas will be starting 8th grade in the fall so regardless of whether he wants to or not, we have to find a way to get more thoughtful writing done. The Homeschool Review Crew offered me an opportunity to try out Grade 8 Lightning Lit & Comp: Preparing for High School Composition Skills by Responding to Great Literature and we jumped right in.
Hewitt Homeshooling produces the Lightning Lit & Comp sets for grades 1 through 8. The sets include a Student Guide, Workbook and a Teacher's Guide. With each year's set, there are designated books that will be read and you can buy those from Hewitt Homeschooling or purchase them elsewhere. The Grade 8 Lightning Lit Set that we reviewed includes the Student Guide, Workbook, Teacher's Guide and 7 literary works: Treasure Island, A Day of Pleasure, A Christmas Carol, The Hobbit, My Family and Other Animals, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages.
Nicholas has been working on Lightning Lit about 3 times a week. So far he has gone through "A Crazy Tale" by G.K. Chesterton from Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. He has enjoyed the readings and the Lightning Lit guides have helped to add enrichment to his comprehension and helped me to sneak in literary lessons into our book discussions.
The Grade 8 Student Guide is broken up into chapters based on each assigned book or reading. Each chapter in the Student Guide begins with a background of the author and notes about what to look for during reading. There is a list of vocabulary words from the reading that the student might not be familiar with. Nicholas always read over this list before doing his reading assignment. Next there are comprehension questions. These can be used in different ways but we used these as discussion starting points during our review at the end of each week. The Student Guide then presents a great Literary Lesson that pertains to the book and these include topics like setting, vivid imagery in poetry, character development, conflict, symbolism, and more. Then there are Mini-Lessons which may or may not be related to the assigned readings. Some Mini-Lesson topics include Taking Notes, Citing Sources in a Paper, Sentence Structure, Writing a Conclusion, and more. Finally, the Student Guide chapters each end in Writing Exercises for the student. These are intended to be completed after the reading assignment and after completing the Workbook exercises. Nicholas completed 1-2 writing exercises for each assigned reading.
The Grade 8 Workbook is consumable so your student will be writing in this. It contains a group of exercises for each assigned book or reading that corresponds with the Literary Lessons in the Student Guide. For example, for Treasure Island, the Literary Lesson was on Setting. The Workbook exercises are mostly geared towards analyzing setting. There are even some fun activities to practice describing setting as the student uses all five senses to describe the setting in different rooms of their own house. The Workbook also includes some fun activities based on the assigned reading like crossword puzzles and word searches.
The Grade 8 Teacher's Guide begins with an easy-to-understand overview of the program and weekly lesson plans. Then for each reading assignment, it provides answers to the comprehension questions given in the Student Guide. I usually try to read the same books that Nicholas is reading or we may even read them together as a read aloud. But sometimes, I have too many other things going on and I don't get to it. It is great to have these answers to the comprehension questions laid out for me to help with our discussions. The Teacher's Guide also provides more information on the lessons, as well as answers for the workbook pages.
If you are interested in reading reviews on Lightning Lit & Comp for other grades, please just click on the link below to see what other Homeschool Review Members have to say:
Did you know that your high school student can get real world experience through an internship and count it as high school credit on their transcript? I had not thought about that before but there is a great book called Internship for High School Credit: Practical Help to Explore and Direct Your Career Plans by Apologia Educational Ministries that helps walks students through the process. This book was offered as a review product to the Homeschool Review Crew and I am very happy to review it.
Internship for High School Credit starts out by discussing what an internship is and how it evolved from the apprenticeship model of the Middle Ages. Back in those days, young people would learn their skills and craft mostly from hands-on experience. They would learn the ways of the trade and practice to improve their skills over time by working with a master or expert in the field. When they were finally on their own, they already knew what was expected of them and what the day to day requirements of the job would be.
But over time, that concept has slipped away. These days, students go through the basic 12 years of school and are expected to know what they want to be when they grow up without having ever actually stepped foot in a place of business in their chosen career. They then spend thousands of dollars to attend four years of college and still may not know what it is like to actually do that job every day.
They graduate and they get their first job. And sadly, many young people are shocked and dismayed after just a few years in their field. "Wait, what? I have to do that in this job? That isn't what I thought I signed up for!" They are discouraged to learn that their career isn't all that they dreamed of and that it really wasn't what they were expecting. At this point, they have two choices - keep on plugging away at a career that isn't a good fit for them or cut their losses and start over with a new career.
The idea of an internship is a great way for young students to gain more experience in the career path they want to pursue. They learn the ins and outs of the day-to-day job responsibilities of the field BEFORE they invest thousands of dollars and years of their life to it. They are better able to focus their college degree on the skills they really need to learn because they know where they are heading. Plus, colleges are delighted to see students' applications that show they have some experience in their field because the colleges know that those students already know that this is what they want to do and are much less likely to drop out of school. Not only are these all great reasons for pursuing an internship in high school, but also if the student
So let's talk a little about Apologia's book, Internship for High School Credit. The book is intended for the student to read and use on their own. However, there is a section just for parents and it would certainly be most helpful for the student if the parent read the book and was able to discuss the ideas and concepts to help guide their student along the way.
After discussing the benefits of an internship, the book helps the student think through companies that they might be able to contact for an internship, how to write a resume and a letter of introduction, and how to interview for the position. For parents, there is also good information about how to document the internship on the student's transcript including course title, number of credits, and grades.
For the most part, the rest of the book is worksheets for the student to complete. There are worksheets for semester goals then weekly worksheets to be completed during the internship. These weekly worksheets help the student track days and hours worked but also include questions and activities for the student. I really love these questions and activities because they challenge the student to learn more. They have the student research specific element that may involve asking questions of their internship mentor or looking up information on their own. They weekly activities include things like learning about the job titles for the people at the business, paying close attention to work attire, thinking big picture about the job they do, career specific language and technology, thinking about how the student's strengths and interests fit with what they are doing in this internship, researching companies in the field that they might could later work for, and so much more.
For more information on Apologia Educational Ministries, please check them out:
The Homeschool Review Crew was given the opportunity to review either Internship for High School Credit or How to HOMESCHOOL with Stunning Confidence, Contagious Joy, and Amazing Focus (DVD and Coursebook). If you would like to read reviews for either of these products by other members of the Homeschool Review Crew then please click the banner below.
