Lightning Literature & Composition

By Elizabeth Kamath

Subjects: English language, Language arts (Middle school), Home schooling, Writing, Curricula, Study and teaching (Middle school)

Description: 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 junior high and high school. Students read in the following order: Harriet Beecher Stowe (novel: Uncle Tom's Cabin) Walt Whitman (selected poems from Leaves of Grass, text in this Guide) Bret Harte (short story, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," text in this Guide) Mark Twain (novel: Huckleberry Finn) Paul Laurence Dunbar (selected poems, text in this Guide) Stephen Crane (novel: The Red Badge of Courage) Emily Dickinson (selected poems, text in this Guide) Jack London (novel: The Call of the Wild) Lessons cover theme, humor, description, point of view, figurative language, register, and sound in poetry and include author information, comprehension questions, and writing exercises.