The author's goal in writing this series is to "instill a love of great literature in children, expand their ability to read intelligently and deeply, improve their communication abilities, and prepare them for more advanced language arts concepts. The three key components to this series are literature, grammar and mechanics, and composition. This year, students read a variety of great children's literature, classic and modern. Grade 5 Lighting Literature will continue the Lightning Literature method of teaching intelligent reading, composition, and grammar using great children's literature. Students will be introduced to new authors, exciting stories, and different cultures and experiences. The workbook will ask questions on the reading, teach (and quiz on) grammar and mechanics, and introduce composition techniques. Each week, students will write something of their own to keep their composition muscles exercised and growing.
The consumable four-color Student Worktext contains comprehension questions, discussion questions, instruction on grammar (including sentence diagramming), and workbook pages. Workbook answers are in the Teacher's Guide (sold separately). You'll need something else for teaching spelling, learning to read, and penmanship.
The books read (in the order they are introduced) are:
While there is a decided emphasis in Lightning Literature on enjoying and understanding the literature, the program is also decidedly comprehensive in its grammar and usage coverage and just plain expectant in its composition assignments. A Teacher Guide, a Student Workbook, and lots of classic (along with some contemporary) children's literature are the components for the program. Using great children’s literature, students continue to learn how to read intelligently, while building their grammar and composition skills through instruction in grammar and mechanics, including diagramming, and weekly compositions. Students are introduced to new authors, exciting stories, and diverse cultures and experiences through the required literature titles for Grade 5.
Students read nine modern and classic books from different genres including science fiction, historical fiction, non-fiction, and fantasy. Literature titles can be purchased in a package or individually. They may also be available from your library.
Literature selections for Grade 5 include: The Mighty Miss Malone, Holes, Number the Stars, Boy: Tales of Childhood, The Tripods, Brown Girl Dreaming, The Phantom Tollbooth, I Am Malala, and Anne of Green Gables.
The Teacher Guide is the heart of the program and is necessary. It's here that the general flavor of the program is most obvious including its orientation toward teacher-student interaction rather than independent student work. Detailed daily instructions are written in first person to the parent/teacher. The flexibility built into the program is reiterated often with examples of how to adapt the teaching instructions for students who are sluggish or need extra challenge. Weekly schedules have a basic structure. Each day includes literature study, grammar/mechanics study, and work on the weekly composition assignment. All workbook answers are provided in the Teacher Guide
The Student Workbooks include some instructional material but are essentially consumable worktexts. Most of the grammar exercises are included here along with space to write thoughts about the reading selection (i.e. Reading Journal Pages: What this Story is About, What I Think of this Story, and My Favorite Sentence). The books are colorful and appealing. Literature Only Packages include all the literature selections needed for the course. The Grade 5 Full Year Package includes all the literature plus the Teacher Guide and Student Workbook.
