Lightning Lit — Grade 7 Student Guide

Students read in the following order:

• Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Various poems from Stories & Poems . . .
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
• “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” a short story by Stephen Crane from Stories & Poems . . .
• The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
• Various poems from Stories & Poems . . .
• All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

The Guide consists of lessons on plot line, increasing your creativity, autobiography, the character sketch, dialogue, basic terms and rhyme in poetry, sound in poetry, nonce words, brainstorming, outlining, choosing a topic, writing a good opening, and instruction on four poetic forms (limerick, haiku, cinquain, and list poem). Each lesson contains a brief biographical introduction, vocabulary, comprehension questions, the literary lesson and mini-lesson, and writing exercises. The workpages give students the chance to practice the skills and concepts learned in the lessons.

Book-length works are sold separately and in a pack with the guides and workbook. The Teacher’s Guide (see Related items below) includes the answers to comprehension questions and the workbook pages, a teaching schedule, extra teaching help for the lessons, help in choosing appropriate writing exercises, and discussion questions.

Recommendations:?

Although this is listed as a seventh grade text, students cannot be easily boxed into grades. A sixth grader who is a strong reader and likes writing would be able to do well with this course.