With its literature-based approach, broad and interesting book list, interesting and interactive discussions, varied workbook exercises and step-by-step lessons, Lightning Literature can be a valuable resource for homeschoolers looking for a gentle, yet thorough, way of developing strong literary knowledge and language arts skills.
What We Like
But watch out for…
What Is Lightning Literature?
Created by author and educator Elizabeth Kamath and published by Hewitt Learning, Lightning Literature is a language arts curriculum for students in elementary through high school.
The program tackles literature, reading comprehension, grammar and writing using a literature-based approach that is reinforced by guided lessons, workbook exercises, composition work and parent-student discussions.
What Ages Or Grades Is Lightning Literature Intended For?
Lightning Literature is aimed at students in grades 1-12.
The program is broken up into three levels, one for grades 1-6, one for 7-8 and an assortment of topical ELA courses for high school students, including:
- American Literature
- British Literature
- Shakespeare
- World Literature
- British Medieval Literature
- Speech
While most courses in the program are linked to a particular grade, as a homeschool program Lightning Literature’s courses can be used by students of studying outside of a typical grade progression, such as by precocious English students or late bloomers studying a grade below.
The program does, however, make the assumption that students are reading at grade level, which may be an issue for some remedial students working at the lower levels of the course who still struggle with reading.
Lightning Literature has no real placement test, so parents switching into the program from another will have to do a little browsing through each grade’s table of contents to figure out where to start.
That said, by and large we felt that the program is mostly on grade level when it comes to composition and grammar, with perhaps a stronger emphasis on reading and literature.
Consequently, we don’t feel it should be too hard for most parents to find the right level for their child.
One thing parents should note, though, is that Lightning Literature is not a complete language arts program.
While it does teach reading comprehension, composition, grammar and mechanics, the program does not cover things like phonics instruction, handwriting or spelling and so parents of elementary age students should be prepared to supplement the program to an extent.
What’s Required To Teach Lightning Literature?
For the most part, language arts programs generally aren’t too compact and can require parents to use a diversity of books and materials throughout the year, and Lightning Literature is really no exception.
The program makes use of a teacher’s guide, a student workbook and, at later levels, a student guide.
In addition, being a literature-based program, each grade in the program also makes use of a selection of books (usually 8-9, but sometimes far more at the earliest grades) as well as poems and short stories.
These are sold separately from the main program and must be sourced somehow by parents either before or throughout the course of the year.
Teacher’s Guide
Lightning Literature’s teacher’s guide is a black and white softcover book that contains more or less everything a parent needs to teach language arts using the program.
Inside, parents will find brief summaries of the books included in the course, answers to workbook questions, rubrics for compositions, discussion ideas and tips for leading them, notes on literary elements (which can be good for those whose background in literature is a bit rusty), enrichment activity ideas, composition topics, suggestions for pacing and scheduling and various tips for teaching and troubleshooting.
While the guides contain a good deal of teaching information and are pretty well-laid out and organized, they aren’t extensively scripted,
This means that they don’t really provide a detailed, word-for-word script to use during lessons, and while they provide a decent amount of guidance they do expect parents to be able to handle a good deal of the specifics of teaching themselves.
While this can be good for more experienced homeschooling parents, particularly those who like to converse naturally with their students or otherwise put their own spin on things, it can make lessons a bit more challenging for homeschooling novices.
That said, as the lessons follow a highly consistent format, teaching with the program is fairly easy to get used to.
Student Workbook
For students at the elementary level, the Lightning Literature student workbook is where they will be spending most of their time.
Unlike the teacher’s guide, these are full-color, illustrated and consumable softcover books that are written to the student.
As their name might imply, they contain a variety of workbook exercises that go along with each lesson, such as fill in the blanks, short answer questions, space for brief writing exercises and even crosswords, puzzles and more.
At the elementary level, these workbooks also contain the program’s essential instruction in literature, grammar and mechanics, offering fairly brief (usually a page or two) easy to understand and straightforward explanations of relevant ELA concepts, often highlighting important keywords in order to make them easier to notice and, hopefully, remember.
One thing to note is that these workbooks don’t include instruction and direction for discussion questions, which are located in the teacher’s guide, and so the two resources really need to be purchased as a pair to get the most out of the program.
Students will also need a lined composition book for their written work.
Unlike some other programs we’ve seen, Lightning Literature doesn’t really require any specially-formatted notebook and students can use whatever type of notebook they prefer or whatever fits a homeschool budget, which is certainly nice.
Student Guide (Grades 8+)
Starting at around middle school (grade 7), Lightning Literature begins to include a student guide in addition to the student workbooks and teacher’s guide.
The student guides offer more detailed background information and key points of book readings, vocabulary lists, lessons in grammar and mechanics, writing exercises, optional mini-lessons and more.
By and large, the inclusion of both a student guide and workbook at the middle school level acts as something of a bridge, splitting the instructional component away from the mechanical exercises of a student workbook, which is phased out by high school.
This is all in keeping with the typical development of language arts throughout K-12, which tends to shift away from mechanics and grammar at this point and more towards analysis, expression and synthesis of thought.
Finally, while Lightning Literature never really becomes a totally self-study program, the student guide does allow students to work and learn more independently, which we always appreciate with older students.
Approach to Teaching Language
Literature-Based
Lightning Literature places a very strong focus on the use of literature as part of its teaching, with a wide variety of books and selected readings being very tightly woven into its lessons.
In addition to helping students work on their reading comprehension through direct questions, works of literature are used to help introduce and demonstrate ELA concepts during the instructional portion of a lesson, and usually form the basis for many of the discussions, grammar exercises, literary mechanics exercises and so on.
The selection of books used in Lightning Literature is actually quite diverse and of high interest.
At most levels, students will be introduced to modern works, classic books from the Western world and a fair interesting selection of titles from around the world.
For example, in the fifth grade students may read titles such as The Mighty Miss Malone, Holes, Number the Stars, Boy: Tales of Childhood, The Tripods, Brown Girl Dreaming, The Phantom Tollbooth, I Am Malala and the classic Anne of Green Gables.
In the seventh grade, meanwhile, students are introduced to such books as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, The Story of My Life (the autobiography of Hellen Keller), various works of poetry, and All Creatures Great and Small.
As a result of the extensive use of high quality literature, Lightning Literature can be a good choice for families who love reading and want to integrate more of it into their ELA studies.
One downside of a literature-based approach that parents should be aware of, and that is in fairness not unique to Lightning Literature, is the fact that a wide selection of titles increases the amount of things that parents will have to find, buy, store and organize over the period of a year.
Some homeschools should also note that while there are some classical books included in the program, such as Anne of Green Gables, Charlotte’s Web or Tom Sawyer, on the whole we feel that the program leans more towards modern books and modern classics, like Boy: Tales of Childhood, The Mighty Miss Malone or Mr. Popper’s Penguins.
This continues until about the high school level (where students will read titles from Melville, Hawthorne, Poe, Bronte, Wordsworth and more).
Although the selection should be quite interesting to most homeschooling families, it may be an issue for more classical education purists interested in more of a Great Books approach.
Gentle ELA Approach
For the most part, Lightning Literature is a fairly gentle and approachable language arts instruction.
The program often goes to great lengths to ease students into developing key skills in comprehension, grammar, mechanics and writing, frequently taking a stepwise approach and breaking down complex tasks into a series of tasks that are completed over several lessons.
For example, when writing an interview as part of their composition work, students may spend a lesson choosing a subject, another brainstorming ideas, another conducting the interview, yet another to create an outline, then another to build out a rough draft and so on.
They might then spend time self-editing before putting together a final copy.
In this way, Lightning Literature breaks down the writing process into more manageable and less stressful chunks for students to tackle.
While some more advanced students may find this to be a rather slower process than they’d prefer, it can be a great solution for those who have a hard time with language arts learning or those who otherwise get intimidated by certain challenging tasks, such as essay or report writing.
Workbook activities
Much of the reinforcement and practice of Lightning Literature comes from its use of workbooks.
These workbooks can contain up to 12 exercises per chapter that help students learn and practice their vocabulary, grammar, writing skills, reading comprehension and literature skills.
The exercises themselves are fairly straightforward and to the point and generally aren’t too complex or lengthy, fitting with the program’s gentler approach.
There is also a good diversity to the program, which should keep things interesting for students and prevent them from going into autopilot, including things like:
- Fill in the blanks
- Short answer questions
- Short writing exercises
- Puzzles
- Crosswords
- Connect the lines
- And more
Interestingly, Lightning literature also includes sentence diagramming, a classic feature of grammar study that allows students to deconstruct sentences in a more visual and systematic way to derive meaning and understand their mechanics.
Sentence diagramming isn’t included in a lot of homeschool ELA programs these days, being seen as a sort of classic or more traditional method of teaching and so Lightning Literature can potentially be quite useful for families interested in this approach.
How It Works
How Lightning Literature works really depends on the specific grade range in question – elementary or middle school and up.
Elementary grades
At the elementary level, the program is based on a five day a week schedule and is really a mixture of independent and parent-led instruction and practice in our opinion.
Parents generally pace and guide lessons (as well as correct student exercises after lessons), while students generally read from their books and receive instruction from and do exercises in their student workbooks.
Lessons tend to start off with students reading a portion of a book (a section of pages determined by the teacher’s guide or by the parent themselves) and answering some comprehension questions located in their workbook.
Following this, they begin a grammar and mechanics section where they tend to start off the week’s learning with some instruction on a particular topic, also located in their workbook.
On subsequent days, the program will build on and practice these skills.
Where the concepts are fairly simple, each lesson may use different exercises that touch on a specific skill or concept.
For example, students may learn the different parts of a poem on day 1 and review them in different exercises over the next 3.
As the tasks become more complex (such as when working on the writing process or writing styles), each larger idea is broken up into smaller tasks, which can make tackling them a bit easier and less intimidating.
For example, in grade 5 students may be introduced to the mechanics of writing a letter properly.
On the first day they may work on its the basic structure, then how and where to capitalism, then proper punctuation, and so n.
The final day of the week, day 5, is usually a free day in the program, which can be used to review concepts, finish work or engage in enrichment activities or lesson extensions, such as suggested readings, deeper topical studies, puzzle exercises and more.
Lightening Literature’s teacher’s guides also tend to offer a variety of ideas for ways to extend or enrich lessons with various activities.
While these aren’t necessarily part of the core lessons they can be pretty interesting and may include more multisensory activities, such as baking or doing a Charlotte Mason-style nature walk, which can be a nice break from the usual reading and writing that the workbooks typically revolve around.
While students are doing all this grammar, mechanics and composition work each day they are, of course, continuing to read their assigned pages and answering the relevant comprehension questions.
Once they’ve completed a book, parents will step in to engage in a fairly deep literary discussion (with help from the tips and assistance provided in the teacher’s manual), touching on literary devices (such as theme, setting, character development and more), as well as the plot itself.
Grades 7 and up
As students approach middle school, Lightning Literature changes things up a bit.
The lessons are organized by chapter, with each chapter comprising a book or other type of reading.
(At the high school level, this changes slightly once again, with the lessons divided into thematic units.)
As with earlier levels, students begin with a reading, working at their own pace or that set by the teacher’s guide.
After this, there is a section that highlights notable vocabulary that students should remember, as well as a series of comprehension questions.
These questions are given to the student as a whole, usually with a few per chapter, leaving it up to the parent and student to decide how to handle things.
While most students will probably go chapter by chapter, which seems to us to be the most logical and least stressful choice (particularly for more complex readings), others may decide to tackle them all at once.
After finishing their reading for the day, students then turn to their student guide, where they receive a literature lesson.
These lessons are written to them and are something of a gentle introduction to literary studies, allowing students to explore literary devices, tools and structures in some depth, such as symbolism, setting, the use of humor, how to write up a literary analysis and so on.
In keeping with Lightning Literature’s literature-based approach, these tend to use the readings for that unit or chapter as the basis for explanations and examples, which in turn help keep things more relevant, relatable and understandable compared to a standard textbook explanation.
Lessons also include so-called “mini-lessons” that touch on any number of wider ELA skills, such as how to use certain elements, explanations of certain styles of writing, different types of writing, how to source information and so on.
These mini-lessons are optional but can provide a good deal of extra formal education, acting as something of an in-built course enrichment .
Following these lessons, students begin work on their workbook activities and exercises.
As with the elementary grades these tend to be varied and fairly broad in scope, including exercises like jumbles, crosswords, picking out grammatical elements from text, storyboarding, practicing using graphic organizers, writing narratives, practice in writing openers and closers and so on.
Generally speaking there are about 7 types of exercises that can pop up at this level (different chapters have different exercises) and they are fairly well-organized, as well, with each having their own little letter code, such as:
- G – Grammar and Mechanics
- L – Literary lessons
- M – Mini Lessons
- C – Composition
- P – Puzzles
- T – Thinking
- E – Extra challenges
After these workbook activities there is usually a writing exercise.
There is often a selection of writing activities for students to choose from, some based on the literature and readings and some not, with the program recommending that students complete at least one per chapter.
There is a good amount of variety included in these prompts, which can go a long way in keeping students from rolling their eyes in boredom, including essays, creative writing exercises, short stories, research papers, literary analyses, opinion pieces and so on.
Finally, as with the elementary level, there are also discussion questions included in the teacher’s guides.
These are considered optional at this stage but can be a lot of fun and quite interesting for both parents and students, due to middle and high school students’ more developed understanding of literature, deeper insights into their reading and more capable analysis skills.
Our Thoughts
Overall, we feel that Lightning Literature is a very interesting and gentle language arts program that can help students build a strong foundation for more formal literature studies.
The program has an excellent and highly diverse selection of books and readings, providing students with a good mix of moderns and classics, American/Western literature and global literature, as well as covering different types of written work, such as novels, short stories, poems and more.
Other than making sure the learning stays interesting, this can really give students a broad exposure to the English language, at least in its written form.
We also feel that the program is particularly strong in its approach toliterature and literary topics, providing fairly extensive coverage of literary devices, techniques, themes, genres, writing elements, use of words and literary devices, and more.
The discussions, too, can be quite detailed and highly interactive, delving into different plot points, important elements of writing, techniques, literary devices and more for each piece of literature.
Importantly, they are very well laid out in the teacher’s guide, which can make them very easy to run through, even for parents who may not have a strong background in English or who feel their skills are a bit rusty.
Additionally, we liked the fact that the program provides students with choice from time to time (such as with its writing prompts), which can help students personalize the learning to their interests a little more.
Finally, we feel that the program’s “chunking” goes a long way in making the program more manageable and gentle as an ELA program.
By breaking down complex concepts and more involved exercises across multiple lessons, Lightning Literature allows students to do their work a little bit at a time, which keeps things from becoming too overwhelming and allows the information to really sink in.
On the downside, while the program’s comprehension questions and workbook exercises are pretty straightforward and clear throughout, and while they do a good job at becoming progressively more challenging without becoming overwhelming, they aren’t necessarily the most rigorous we’ve ever seen and, although there certainly is some, parents of more advanced learners may wish they involved a bit more synthesis.
How Easy Is Lightning Literature Easy To Teach?
Lightning Literature is, in our opinion, a fairly easy program to teach.
We feel that the program strikes a fine balance between being parent-led and self-study, with students being largely able to learn from and practice in the workbook independently, while also allowing parents to guide learning and engage with their children in deeper, interesting discussions on various pieces of literature.
As a result, although it probably won’t be used by most as a self-study program, it can more easily be used by busier homeschooling parents than many other ELA options.
When it comes to guiding students through their learning, the teacher’s guide offers parents a lot of tips, teaching advice and guidance, as well as checklists, scheduling and pacing help, that should make the process quite easy.
Finally, the “chunking” approach used with more complex concepts and exercises, where a little bit is done each lesson, not only makes things a lot easier for students, but also can make it a lot easier for parents to keep track of and correct student work
As a potential downside, the program isn’t really all that scripted, which can make it a little more challenging if a parent has little experience teaching language arts.
Further, as it is a literature-based program, parents will have to source, organize and store quite a few books throughout each year, which can be a bit of a hassle especially if they are using the program to teach siblings in different grades.
Is Lightning Literature A Secular ELA Program?
Yes, we found Lightning Literature to be a secular language arts program.
Although some of the books are classics of their genres and may make the occasional religious reference, the program itself does not involve any particular references to the bible, God or religion and tends to stay focused on providing literature and language arts instruction.
That said, it also doesn’t include anything a religious homeschool might find objectionable.
As a result, we feel it can be a good option for most homeschooling families with the exception of those specifically looking for a faith-based ELA option.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Affordable
In most cases, the curricular materials for a full grade of Lightning Literature can be picked up for less than $100.
While the book lists are rather extensive, they are well-known titles and the vast majority can be found at local libraries or as second hand books online, which can help parents save money in the long run.
Literature-based approach
Lightning Literature takes a strong literature-based approach to learning, with many of its examples, writing activities and exercises being based off of its extensive list of readings and books.
A literature-based approach to learning can offer many benefits to students.
It can make the workload a little more relevant and interesting compared to typically bland workbook exercises, hone their analytical skills, expose them to diverse perspectives and writing styles and, of course, instill within them a greater love of reading.
Well-laid out and organized
Lightning Literature’s materials are well-laid out and organized.
The program follows a consistent structure that makes it easy to get used to and learn from, it offers ready-to-use weekly checklists for both parents and students, the exercises are often conveniently coded, and the teacher and student guides are all clearly written and presented.
Good balance of parent-led and independent learning elements
Lightning Literature uses a mix of self-study and parent-led elements that we feel strikes a good balance for homeschooling families.
Parents still take a hand in guiding and overseeing lessons, establishing pacing and setting and monitoring goals, as well as engaging in periodic (and often quite interesting) discussions with their students.
Meanwhile, students tend to get most of their day to day instruction and practice from their workbook, which can let them work a little more independently and can free parents up a bit more to tackle other homeschooling tasks.
Excellent variety of books and readings
Lightning Literature seems to have put a lot of thought into its reading lists with a highly diverse and interesting selection that includes modern works, modern classics, international titles and more.
As a result, there is a lot to interest more reading-oriented families and the program can help introduce students to a greater range of writing styles, genres and ideas.
Gentle, approachable ELA program
When it comes to more complex tasks, Lightning Literature takes a “chunking” approach, i.e. it breaks up challenging tasks and concepts (say, writing a short story) into smaller, more achievable goals and then slowly works on them over a period of lessons rather than dumping it all on students at once.
In addition, the workbooks and guides offer instruction that is pretty straightforward and clearly written in our opinion, which can make it a little easier for students to absorb concepts on their own.
Pretty open and go
Aside from gathering the reading list and segueing between topics and activities, there isn’t a whole lot of prep work that parents will have to do before a lesson and most should be able to pick up the program and start teaching with it.
Strong focus on developing literature skills
Lightning Literature can be a very gentle but thorough introduction to literature and literary analysis, offering students a good deal of reading, literature-based writing practice, insight into a variety of literary devices and styles and, of course, in-depth and analytical parent-led discussions.
Cons
Not a full ELA program
Although it covers grammar, comprehension, literature and writing, Lightning Literature lacks instruction in phonics, spelling, handwriting, public speaking (before HS) and some other language arts skills, and so can’t be considered a complete ELA program.
As a result, parents will have to supplement the program with other materials.
Can involve a lot of books to source
Lightning Literature’s courses often include a good deal of reading with a rather extensive and diverse book and reading list (8-9 books or more at the elementary to middle school level).
While great for families who love reading, it can still be a bit of work for parents to find, source, organize and store over the period of a year.
Who Is Lightning Literature Ideal For?
Those looking for a gentle language arts program for grades 1-12
With its straightforward instruction and practice and chunking of complex topics and exercises, Lightning Literature can be a great option for those who have struggled with ELA in the past or who are simply looking for a more student-friendly and approachable program.
Those interested in a literature based approach to grammar, mechanics and writing
Lightning Literature includes a rather extensive book list, and the program frequently integrates its readings into its formal instruction in grammar and mechanics, as well as many of the exercises and tasks the program requires of students.
Parents who love the idea of having in-depth literature discussions with their students
Lightning Literature includes literary discussions into its coursework that can have students and parents spend a good deal of time delving into various aspects of a text, including its plot, its characters, various literary devices, underlying meanings and more.
It also provides a rather clear and easy to use discussion outline to parents, which can make these discussions a lot easier for parents whose own skills are a bit rusty to conduct.
Parents who may not have a ton of time to directly conduct lessons
For students who are secure in their reading ability, a good deal of a day’s work can be completed on their own using their student workbooks and/or guides, which can give parents a bit of a break and let them focus on other things.
Those looking for a program with a excellent and diverse book list
With poems, short stories, modern titles, classic titles, international titles and more, Lightning Literature uses a rather interesting and diverse book list as the basis of its lessons, which can be a great way to get kids reading a broader selection of literature.
Who Is It Not Ideal For?
Those looking for a full ELA program
As we’ve mentioned, Lightning Literature does not teach the full suite of ELA skills and probably will need to be supplemented.
Those who don’t want a lot of books to source and keep track of
An extensive and diverse book list can also have its drawbacks, being a bit of a hassle for parents to put together, store and keep organized.
Parents who enjoy directly instructing students
Especially past grade 3 or so, much of the instruction in Lightning Literature is contained in the student workbooks and/or guides, which most students will probably want to do on their own.
While this can be great for homeschooling parents who are a bit time-poor, it can be a bit of a drawback for those who enjoy directly teaching their children.
Price
Note: All prices are correct as of writing. All prices in USD.
What parents need to pick up with Lightning literature generally depends on the grade in question.
From grades 1-6, they typically need to purchase a teacher’s guide and student workbook.
Student workbooks for these grades tend to range from $49.95-$54.95, while the teacher’s guides tend to cost $39.95.
At the middle school level (grades 7-8), the program involves a teacher’s guide, student workbook and student guide, which cost:
Grades 7 and 8 Teacher’s Guide: $25
Grades 7 and 8 student workbook: $30
Grades 7 and 8 student guide: $30
Finally, at the high school level, there is really only a student guide and teacher’s guide, which cost $39.95 and $6.55, respectively.
As always, parents should check the latest price for Lightning Literature, as well as for any discounts or offers that may be available.
Is It Worth It?
By and large, Lightning Literature can be a solid language arts and literature program for the right homeschooling families.
The program uses a literature-based approach, basing its grammar and mechanics exercises, many of its writing prompts and a good deal of its explanations on its selection of books and readings, which is interesting and can make practice more relevant, understandable and interesting to students.
The selection of books and readings the program uses is also quite expansive and interesting, as well, being a healthy mix of modern works, classics, as well as Western and international titles, which can help students broaden their taste in literature as they learn.
More than that, Lightning Literature offers students a gentler, more manageable way of honing their literature skills.
The program provides clear and straightforward instruction and breaks complex ideas and tasks down into more manageable, bite-sized pieces that students can work on in a step-by-step manner over a period of days, which can make learning a lot less overwhelming and stressful.
Finally, we feel it offers a good mix of parent-led and independent learning, with students generally being able to learn and practice from their workbooks and guides while also being guided along by and able to engage in interesting and interactive discussions and analyses with their parents.
Bottom Line
With its literature-based approach, broad and interesting book list, interesting and interactive discussions, varied workbook exercises and step-by-step lessons, Lightning Literature can be a valuable resource for homeschoolers looking for a gentle, yet thorough, way of developing strong literary knowledge and language arts skills.
About the Author
Anne Miller is the editor of The Smarter Learning Guide and is a passionate advocate for education and educational technology. A mom of two, she majored in English Language and Literature and worked as a substitute teacher and tutor for several years. When not writing she continues to root for the Yankees and the Giants.