There are four comedies covered for which you will need text to read from. You can find this readily online in digital or print forms. For the greatest ease, you can purchase the pack ($55.72) and have the student guide, teacher guide and all four plays. The Student Guide ($29.95)is a bound book, written to the student and includes the full text of the sonnets covered (I love not having to search those out in random books!). The Teacher Guide ($2.95) is not bound (easy to slip into a binder with all your other teacher-y things) and only has what is necessary. Perfect for the age of the learner. You are not so much teaching at this stage of the game as you are directing, grading and being a listening ear for discussions. You might be thinking the teacher guide is not necessary, but it is. It has all the answers – well, maybe not those answers. *grin*
There are two schedules available. It is typical for the high school level Lightning Literature and Composition courses to be a semester in length. An alternative schedule to last two semesters is included as well. For the most part, this is the schedule we are following. One of the goals of Lightning Lit. courses is to learn to read deeper. This is accomplished by multiple readings. The student is guided through this with comprehension questions for the first read through and deeper thinking questions and activities for the second. My daughter is often tempted to not read that second time. She is usually reminded though, when she begins those more challenging activities that it really is in her best interest to do so.
Thus far, we have read Twelfth Night and two sonnets. My daughter is in the process of writing the first paper. Once this unit is finished, we’ll move on to As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Merchant of Venice. We have been reading aloud together for the first reading; covering new vocabulary at this time. For the second reading, we have been fortunate to have found audio versions. My daughter is an audio learner so this has worked well for her. These are plays, so of course we are watching videos of the play as well. So far, Shakespeare has been quite enjoyable for her (and Mama is quite happy to tag along).
You may be thinking, Shakespeare for an 8th grader? We chose the comedies over the tragedies for this reason. She is young (8th grade by age, reading level lower but catching up and comprehension much higher – thank you dyslexia) but for this, she is ready. Hewitt Homeschooling recommends this for 11th and 12th graders. They also state that students should have complete two previous Lightning Literature courses, be studying the Renaissance time period and have an interest in Shakespeare. We have used Lightning Literature, though not high school courses (until this one) and she is quite interested in Shakespeare. The wittiness and vocabulary are right up her alley. There are samples and a schedule so you can see if this will be a fit for your learner.
Hewitt Homeschooling offers much, much more than our loved Lightning Literature and Composition courses. Crew members reviewed a range of these Lightning Lit. courses for older and younger learners as well as the My First Report and Chronicles of ____ State History Notebook resources for younger learners. If you are looking for literature and composition resources for your homeschool, I highly recommend Hewitt Homeschooling.
