Hewitt Homeschooling Resources {Homeschool Crew Review}

June 13, 2019

Hewitt Homeschooling Resources {Homeschool Crew Review}

Are your high schoolers planning to be in Speech and Debate clubs in co-op? Maybe you have a high schooler who plans to be a pastor? I would like to suggest that you check out Hewitt Homeschooling Resources' Lightning Lit & Comp Speech course, which is designed especially for grades 9-12.

What we received

We received the 145 page softcover Lightning Lit & Comp Speech student's guide, as well as a three-hole punched teacher's guide which was stapled together. In addition, you will need a copy of Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History, selected and compiled by William Safire.

The student guide begins with an introduction, providing:
Perspectives: The Fluidity of Languages and Pronoun Confusion
How to Use This Guide and Get the Most Out of This Class

The course is divided into four units, with each unit containing two lessons, as well as Perspectives. At the back of the book are four appendices, which provide discussion questions, additional reading suggestions, and schedules for completing the course either in one semester or a full year. Finally there is a bibliography.

The lessons begin with listing the selections your student will read from Lend Me Your Ears, by speech title and page number.

Then there is a brief lessen preview, While You Read (keep these things in mind), followed by comprehension questions for each of the speeches read.

The Literary Lesson covers several pages, and goes over such topics as: Opening, Content, Research and Factual Argument, Organization, Audience, Words and Sentences, Rhetorical Style, and Conclusion.

There are Writing Exercises next, followed by the Perspectives. The Perspectives cover: Looking Your Best, Sounding Your Best, and Visual Aids.

As you can see, this is a comprehensive course. As the cover says, your student is "Acquiring College-Level Composition Skills by Responding to Great Literature."

The sixty-page teacher's guide provides grading tips, schedules, the answers for the comprehension questions writing instructions and discussion questions.

There are checklists for nonfiction papers, fiction papers, and poems. These checklists check for things like content, organization, introduction, conclusion, grammar and mechanics, style, and format. They are useful to both student and teacher.

There are also grading templates, to assist you as the teacher in grading your student's paper.

You will need to purchase Lend Me Your Ears (if you can't find it at your local library). It can be purchased as part of the Speech package through Hewitt. It's a thick book, with fine print (hard on my old eyes. <sheepish grin>), but an excellent resource.

How we used it

First, I needed to decide whether we'd follow the one-semester plan, or the full-year plan, which was a no-brainer for us. We're using the full-year plan, and taking things slowly.

SJ is still a struggling reader, and writer. So I usually read aloud the speeches to him (which is slow going sometimes, since my eyes tire quickly of trying to read the fine print). Sometimes he'll read a bit himself. Then we go over the comprehension questions orally.

I plan to incorporate having SJ copy the speeches, either by hand or typing them out.

One of my original intentions for requesting this review was to help prepare SJ for a sermon he is scheduled to do at church the end of this month...but the pastor his helping him with that, and it's going in a bit of a different direction than I thought. We are videoing SJ ahead of time with various aspects.

What we thought of it

I really like the concept. I think it might be almost too advanced for SJ still, at this point. We may table it for now, and pick it up again his junior or senior years. I think this would have been perfect for my 19 year old son when he was still in high school, or perfect for my friend's 16 year old daughter.

Several years ago, we reviewed the 7th grade Lightning Lit & Comp set over on the old blog, in case you'd like to read it.

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There were 75 Crew families who reviewed various Hewitt Homeschooling Resources. We reviewed various levels of Elementary Lightning Lit sets, grades 7 & 8 Lightning Lit sets, as well as various high school levels, covering Shakespeare, American Lit, and British Lit. Be sure to read the rest of the Crew reviews; just click the banner below.