Muddled on Course Descriptions for English

[lewelma]

I'm kind of unclear on how to organize my ds's English credits.  He has read and discussed lots of literature in 5 main categories (Russion, humor, Science Fiction, Post Modern, with lots of other classics that don't fit in here like Emily Dickinson, Hemingway, JFK, and MLK, 10 Shakespeare movies (comparing different versions of the same play)). And he has written some literary analysis and response papers.  But then a large part of his English assessments have be persuasive writing about scientific topics like nuclear power, genetic engineering, manned space missions, etc.  Basically, in NZ he can gain English credits (this is a formal externally assessed credits through a national body), by writing about anything he wants as long as he is writing persuasively and for a very specific audience.  It seems really goofy to break the English classes up into half credits each year : half for literature and half for persuasive non-literature writing, but I can't figure out how to write a course description for 'Russian Literature and scientific persuasive writing.'  Pretty goofy.  How do I handle this?

 

Plus, we have used only 1 text book in full -- They Say I Say; and then bits and pieces from Common Threads, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, and the Language of Composition. How do you indicate only 1/4th of a text book is used or do you leave it out. 

 

Finally, parts of each of these classes are graded through the NZ national assessment system (ds turns in papers that are assessed and nationally moderated to give a final grade), and parts of the classes are with papers that are written at home.  

 

I'd love a bit of help. 

 

Ruth in NZ

[regentrude]

Has he covered the different kinds of literature in different years?

If so, I'd name it after the most prevalent type of literature. If it was a mix, I'd simply call it "English 9", "English 10" etc and put in the description something along the lines of:

"This English course includes literature and composition. Literature studies focused on Russian literature and Science Fiction. Major works studied: War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Whatever. The course contains a strong composition component that covered both literary analysis and persuasive essays, mainly on scientific topics."

 

or if lit was really very mixed with no clear yearly focus: "Literature studies covered a broad range of genres and authors, including poetry, plays and novels. Major works studied:....."

 

Nobody cares to read what kind of writing assignments your son actually did for the course. I would leave out the text if it was not competed to a large degree. None of my kids lit courses had a text.

 

Edited September 24, 2016 by regentrude

[theelfqueen]

If a textbook is only partially used but significant... it could be referred to as "selections from..."

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[quark]

Plus, we have used only 1 text book in full -- They Say I Say; and then bits and pieces from Common Threads, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, and the Language of Composition. How do you indicate only 1/4th of a text book is used or do you leave it out. 

 

Could you say "we used selections from X" or "selected works/ chapters from X"?

 

For e.g. one of the texts DS used was a collection of famous speeches. He couldn't have worked on them all because we didn't have time. So I mentioned that we chose a selection. I don't think it will be an issue because the entire resource list was extensive and he had used all of the others cover to cover. I wanted to show that we did touch on a variety of resources, not just novels and plays but also speeches.

 

So in your case, you can still show that your DS used a spine/ text to give his studies an outline/ organizing framework.

[lewelma]

Thanks guys!  To answer the questions, he has definitely focused in clusters like the Russians over the past year, but he has also had an abiding interest in Science Fiction over many years. In addition, the boy is just incredibly well read, so I've got heaps and heaps of books that he has read and discussed so I'd really like to highlight how strong a reader he is given that he is a mathy kid, I think it shows depth.  As an example, he just finished War and Peace at 15. Somehow I have to showcase this.  And writing English 9, 10, etc seems somehow quite common place.  Maybe: 

 

Russian Literature

World Literature

Post-Modern Literature

Scientific Writing

 

But he has also done huge swaths of British Literature and Distopian/Sci Fi

 

Should I choose based on how many papers he has written on each type of lit, or does discussion count enough that even though he has only written one paper on Post Modern, that all our learning/discussion would still make it a good collection to call a course? 

 

The other thing that is going to be incredibly confusing is the list of credits that he has earned through the correspondence school.  They will read on his transcript as:

 

11th grade:

Produce a selection of crafted and controlled writing

Use information literacy skills to form developed conclusions

Form developed personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence

 

12th grade

Produce a selection of fluent and coherent writing which develops, sustains, and structures ideas

Create and deliver a fluent and coherent oral text which develops, sustains, and structures ideas

Respond critically to significant connections across texts, supported by evidence

Develop an informed understanding of literature and/or language using critical texts

 

These do not include all of the science writing that he will be doing as we will be building a course from writing assessments found in the Biology, Chemistry, and Physics assessment list. Not quite sure how to line up what will appear on his correspondence school transcript with the course list, especially, because he will have done the 11th grade assessments over 9th and 10th grade, and the 12th grade over 10th and 11th grade.  Then the science writing assessments over 11th and 12th grade.

 

These are nationally moderated standards, with only 10% of kids getting an A for each unit. 12th grade English is not required, so only kids interested in it will take it (kind of like an AP), so this 10% is taken from among the best students.  He has in A in 4 of them right now.  There is No grade inflation here. This is a pretty big deal. 

 

One final hiccup just to make things more confusing.  DS will officially complete the diploma requirements this December 2016, but will continue to work through the correspondence school on other classes (specifically writing), while taking courses at the local university and continuing to compete in the IMO.  If he plans to start university in September 2018 in America, and applies in January (or whenever it is), he has 3 options:

 

1) He could counting himself as a senior in the NZ school year for January 2018, so the course listings for 12th grade would appear that he has only started 12th grade in January and will only get half way through the NZ school year when he starts in September.  

2) But if he says he finished 12th grade in December 2017, I guess we would need to explain that the 6 months after graduation included more high school classes (so still enrolled full time) plus university classes plus IMO or it might appear he is not applying as a freshman.

3) Finally, we could make some sort of USA school year, and cut the classes that way.  Having him finish 12th grade in June 2018.

 

This choice matters for these course listings as if we pick option 2, I will need to go back 6 months to pull out what he did in what I have been calling 8th grade, and call it the first half of 9th grade.

 

Kind of a mess!!

 

 

 

[regentrude]

Thanks guys!  To answer the questions, he has definitely focused in clusters like the Russians over the past year, but he has also had an abiding interest in Science Fiction over many years. In addition, the boy is just incredibly well read, so I've got heaps and heaps of books that he has read and discussed so I'd really like to highlight how strong a reader he is given that he is a mathy kid, I think it shows depth.  As an example, he just finished War and Peace at 15. Somehow I have to showcase this.  And writing English 9, 10, etc seems somehow quite common place.  Maybe: 

 

Russian Literature

World Literature

Post-Modern Literature

Scientific Writing

 

But he has also done huge swaths of British Literature and Distopian/Sci Fi

 

Should I choose based on how many papers he has written on each type of lit, or does discussion count enough that even though he has only written one paper on Post Modern, that all our learning/discussion would still make it a good collection to call a course? 

 

The other thing that is going to be incredibly confusing is the list of credits that he has earned through the correspondence school.  They will read on his transcript as:

 

11th grade:

Produce a selection of crafted and controlled writing

Use information literacy skills to form developed conclusions

Form developed personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence

 

12th grade

Produce a selection of fluent and coherent writing which develops, sustains, and structures ideas

Create and deliver a fluent and coherent oral text which develops, sustains, and structures ideas

Respond critically to significant connections across texts, supported by evidence

Develop an informed understanding of literature and/or language using critical texts

 

These do not include all of the science writing that he will be doing as we will be building a course from writing assessments found in the Biology, Chemistry, and Physics assessment list. Not quite sure how to line up what will appear on his correspondence school transcript with the course list, especially, because he will have done the 11th grade assessments over 9th and 10th grade, and the 12th grade over 10th and 11th grade.  Then the science writing assessments over 11th and 12th grade.

 

 

I think you may be overthinking. Honestly, I cannot imagine a scenario where the college cares what exactly he has done in English. Include some works to show that he read serious literature and mention that he worked on scientific writing.

The course descriptions get a cursory glance at best. I can see an admissions person leaf through and look up a course with an unusual title to find out more. I cannot imagine them spending precious minutes reading through a long description of a student's writing assignments. They want to see four English credits. Give them the names of the prevalent theme in the semester. Don't worry about including everything he has done.

[lewelma]

Thanks Regentrude.  Perhaps I am overthinking this, but I'm still struggling with combining the two systems.  The stuff that you bolded is word for word what will appear on his *transcript* from the correspondence school with 'excellence' as a grade written next to each statement.  These 12th grade units will be done over both 10th and 11th grade.  It seems to me that I should be somewhat careful that what I write in the course descriptions matches what is on the transcript.  But I'm not clear how to do this.  Seems to me I could:

 

1) Ignore the transcript and write course descriptions any way I want

2) put all the 12th grade units from the transcript into a single class taken in 11th grade and ignore the actual dates completed

3) Put all the units completed into the actual year that they were done, so 10th grade english would include 11th and 12th grade units

 

Given this additional information are you still saying I should choose #1, where the course descriptions don't align with the official transcript?  Or that I could write the course descriptions vague enough that they would align because they are vague?

 

Also, I'm going to call some universities this week to find out how to handle the 6 month shift in academic year.

 

Thanks everyone for helping me with this.  I definitely feel like a newbie plus I'm dealing with a completely different system so I'm extra clueless!

Edited September 26, 2016 by lewelma

[regentrude]

Thanks Regentrude.  Perhaps I am overthinking this, but I'm still struggling with combining the two systems.  The stuff that you bolded is word for word what will appear on his *transcript* from the correspondence school with 'excellence' as a grade written next to each statement.  These 12th grade units will be done over both 10th and 11th grade.  It seems to me that I should be somewhat careful that what I write in the course descriptions matches what is on the transcript.  But I'm not clear how to do this.  Seems to me I could:

 

1) Ignore the transcript and write course descriptions any way I want

2) put all the 12th grade units from the transcript into a single class taken in 11th grade and ignore the actual dates completed

3) Put all the units completed into the actual year that they were done, so 10th grade english would include 11th and 12th grade units

 

Given this additional information are you still saying I should choose #1, where the course descriptions don't align with the official transcript?  Or that I could write the course descriptions vague enough that they would align because they are vague?

 

This

 

 

 "Produce a selection of fluent and coherent writing which develops, sustains, and structures ideas

Create and deliver a fluent and coherent oral text which develops, sustains, and structures ideas

Respond critically to significant connections across texts, supported by evidence

Develop an informed understanding of literature and/or language using critical texts"

 

 

in my opinion is implied when we talk a bout a high school level English course that has a composition component.

 

You don't explain in math that the student  proved theorems, developed algorithms, solved word problems, made connections between topics, combined different concepts into problems  - you merely list the topics covered, because it is understood that the above skills comprise the work in a  math course.

 

Make it brief and to the point. The outside transcript can elaborate on the individual skills; you don't have to reiterate the same info.

 

Edited September 26, 2016 by regentrude

[lewelma]

Got it.  So my next question, what in the world is the purpose of a course description if not to give detail?  Why am I writing these?  If I don't lists what we actually did, and I don't list textbooks, and I only list books read and discussed, aren't I just giving a reading list and saying "we did what you expected we did in an English class." I can write that kind of description, it just seems to lack purpose as it does not differentiate my student.  

 

Just reread you post.  Don't All English classes have a composition component?

Edited September 26, 2016 by lewelma

[regentrude]

Got it.  So my next question, what in the world is the purpose of a course description if not to give detail?  Why am I writing these?  If I don't lists what we actually did, and I don't list textbooks, and I only list books read and discussed, aren't I just giving a reading list and saying "we did what you expected we did in an English class." I can write that kind of description, it just seems to lack purpose as it does not differentiate my student.  

 

Just reread you post.  Don't All English classes have a composition component?

 

The purpose of a course description is to give the reader some idea what was covered. This is relatively pointless for courses with standard canon (like algebra 1) and more important for courses with an unusual title or interdisciplinary focus.

If I were an admissions official, my expectation for an English course description would mainly be a list of literary works that were studied. All the rest "respond critically", "develop informed understanding" are edu-speak platitudes that are devoid of content - because that is what ANY English course should deliver.

 

I expect admissions officials to spend maybe one minute flipping through my 8 page course description document and possibly pausing to read over the paragraph for a course with an unusual title. They do not spend an hour perusing an individual application. I included all courses for completeness, but I am not under the delusion that anybody will actually read the descriptions for an English or math course beyond  cursory glance ("yeah, Shakespeare. Oh, complex numbers.")

 

My main purpose in submitting them is to demonstrate that my homeschool is organized and systematic and does have supplementary material and documentation that would provide more information if anybody would care. Most likely, nobody will look at them. Most colleges do not require any. 

That's why I find it important that the course titles in the transcript are descriptive and give a good picture of my kids education - because every admissions person will glance over the transcript, but barely anybody will waste his time on the course descriptions. They just need to look sensible like somebody put thought into them - because the quality of documentation creates an impression about my homeschool. Which might be the sole point of this exercise.

Edited September 27, 2016 by regentrude

[quark]

If I don't lists what we actually did, and I don't list textbooks, and I only list books read and discussed, aren't I just giving a reading list and saying "we did what you expected we did in an English class." I can write that kind of description, it just seems to lack purpose as it does not differentiate my student. 

 

I've been thinking about this too and I think these are other areas to differentiate the student:

1. The school profile

2. Your counselor letter

3. The application itself (the sections about academic history and extracurriculars) and so far all the applications we have used have counselor or other sections to provide more information that the application proper could not capture

4. The essays

 

Anecdotal feedback: a number of the veterans I consulted did write extensive course descriptions. Others were very brief. I guess you don't want to give adcoms dozens and dozens of pages but if it's within about 20 pages or so (my guess), they can easily choose what to read and ignore other things if they feel it's too long. Might be helpful to call the colleges you think he will apply to to ask what their expectations are for homeschoolers and then make your own decision. E.g. one school told me that I won't need to submit both a school profile and a counselor letter. Looking at the application, I see that counselors CAN do both so why would I rob my student of that opportunity? My docs are brief (both are a total of 3 pages) with only one or two repetitive items between the two (to provide context) so I am going to upload both anyway.

 

[lewelma]

Ok, that is very helpful.  So I'm trying to show that my homeschool is organized, and that standard courses have been taken with clear goals and outcomes.  That would be my 'ah ha' moment.  Very helpful. Thanks.

 

So next question (you knew there would be one).  Where do I put that my ds was registered at the correspondence school in order to get nationally based assessments that are required for graduation here, but that he was still homeschooled because he did lots of stuff never assessed.  This seems to be a pretty important point, because ds just started taking the 12th grade assessments in 9th grade, and will have spread them out over 4 years, and taken way more than required.  (he will have 100 12th grade credits rather than the 60 required).  This is the *how* of my homeschool integrating with the NZ national system.  So it would be how the course descriptions and homeschool transcript integrate with the correspondence school transcript.  

 

What I don't want is for it to appear that he did only 8 courses in high school and just spread them out over 4 years.  It is possible that it could appear that way from the correspondence school transcript.

 

[regentrude]

So next question (you knew there would be one).  Where do I put that my ds was registered at the correspondence school in order to get nationally based assessments that are required for graduation here, but that he was still homeschooled because he did lots of stuff never assessed.  This seems to be a pretty important point, because ds just started taking the 12th grade assessments in 9th grade, and will have spread them out over 4 years, and taken way more than required.  (he will have 100 12th grade credits rather than the 60 required).  This is the *how* of my homeschool integrating with the NZ national system.  So it would be how the course descriptions and homeschool transcript integrate with the correspondence school transcript.  

 

What I don't want is for it to appear that he did only 8 courses in high school and just spread them out over 4 years.  It is possible that it could appear that way from the correspondence school transcript.

 

The bolded: as primary transcript, you send your own homeschool transcript, and that should be comprehensive and would show all his coursework, including anything taken from outside sources. You can label the outsourced classes with symbols and explain in the side bar. (I have a "notes" section on my transcript that explains that bolded font indicates a college class taken at xyz uni.)

 

I would address the correspondence school setup in the school profile where you have the chance to elaborate on your homeschool philosophy, materials used, etc. One question on the Common App at least (if the school has an individual app that does not address the question, you can do so in the school profile) is how the student's work was assessed. This is where I would mention the correspondence school again and explain about the nationally required exams.

 

It is not unusual for homeschoolers in the US to have done part of their coursework through some outside provider or dual enrollment and another part at home.