Fulfilling (with integrity) the high school English credit?

[Dianne-TX]

I can't seem to find a previous post that I wrote several months ago regarding this question, so I'll ask again.  Grammar, literature and composition comprise the high school English credit each year, correct?  How many books, literature guides and literary analysis study needs to be done to complete the credit?  How much composition completes the credit?  For example, how many Bravewriter courses would need to be taken in a year to complete the composition part of the credit?   Thanks for the help.

[RootAnn]

This varies so much!

 

Lori D has some posts that give ranges and ideas. If you read some of the planning threads, you get an idea of the spread.

 

For my rising junior, she'll do two or maybe three BW classes (if they end up being a good fit for her) plus a one semester Shakespeare class.

 

My rising 9th grader will most likely do 6-8 books with a couple of short stories and some Lively Art of Writing and maybe some WWS2.

 

I don't plan to do any grammar other than her working on self editing her papers. Same with spelling. We don't do formal vocab, either.

 

It really varies tremendously.

[Lori D.]

lol! I guess I must weigh in on the threads about English credits a LOT if RootAnn is mentioning me specifically...  :laugh:

 

So, I'll go ahead and weigh in again... ;) Totally agreeing with RootAnn here -- first, it will vary tremendously based on the individual student's needs and interests, your specific goals, AND due to the wide variety of programs, classes, and resources available to you -- even "Do It Yourself" options. :)

 

That said, the typical high school English class is usually about 1/2 Literature and 1/2 Composition (Writing). Some people do both Lit. & Writing each semester. Some do one semester of Lit. and then one semester of Writing (which is what usually works if doing semester-long online classes -- Brave Writer is the exception there with shorter classes that are just 1 month long, or 6-weeks long).

 

Most Literature courses DO have the student doing writing assignments (reader responses and longer essays) on the Literature being read for the Lit. program or class, but don't tend to include *instruction* in Writing (Composition). Most high school Writing classes tend to just be about Writing, and do not include Literature. If you end up doing dual enrollment at a community college or university for the college Writing 101 and 102 classes, those DO include both instruction in writing AND some reading of short Lit. selections.

 

re: Grammar, Vocabulary and Spelling:

Unless the student hasn't completed formal Grammar instruction by 8th grade and really still *needs* Grammar in 9th grade, by high school, Grammar is typically no more than an optional light review, and mostly is put into use as part of the Writing. Vocabulary is completely optional, and is frequently done through exposure in the Literature. Spelling in high school is a remedial area. 

 

What counts as Literature? Lots of things:

- English I, II, III, IV — or English 9, 10, 11, 12  (selection of Literature)

- Great Books match up with Chronological History period  (Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern, Modern)

- Lit. focus: specific world area (examples: American, British, Russian, French, African, Latin American, Asian...)

- Lit. focus: specific time period (examples: Ancient plays & epics, Medieval British, 19th Century Literature, 20th Century American...)

- Lit. focus: specific author(s) works (Shakespeare; Dickens; Austen; Lit. of British Christian Authors; 19th Century Female Authors...)

- Lit. focus: specific genre (The Epic; Gothic Literature; Coming of Age Literature; Classic Sci-Fi, Fantasy Lit...)

- Lit. focus: specific type of Lit. (Poetry; Plays; Essays & Biographies; Short Stories; Novels...)

 

What counts as Writing? Lots of things: 

- Composition  (formal instruction, writing assignments, and proof-editing of various types of essays, research papers, reader responses, etc.)

- Journalism  (formal instruction, article-writing, proof-editing, headline and caption writing, page layout, publishing, etc.)

- Creative Writing  (can cover various types, or focus just on one type: fiction, play-writing, poetry, etc.)

- Non-Fiction Writing (can cover various types or focus on just one type: technical, biography, articles, essays, etc.)

 

One other topic that can count towards an English credit:

Many schools count (and even require) 0.25 to 0.5 credit of 1 of the 4 English credits needed during high school as Public Speaking (or, Communications, or Rhetoric, or Speech & Debate).

 

Topics that are NOT counted towards an English credit:

- Logic (counted as an Elective or Social Studies, or possibly a Math or Computer credit if it is symbolic/computer Logic)

- Drama (unless it is playwriting or script writing for Creative Writing, this is counted as Fine Arts or an Elective)

- Web Design (counted as Digital Fine Arts or an Elective)

- Yearbook (counted as an extracurricular)

 

 

re: counting hours for an English credit

The typical high school credit is set up for 4-5 hours/week x 36 weeks of school year = 150-180 hours. The English credit is the one credit I suggest actually adding more time than this, because reading and writing usually are more time-consuming activities, which makes the English credit overall more time-consuming -- say more like 180-200 hours, to esp. allow for the reading.

 

So if you loosely track hours spent on English, if you're spending about 2.5 hours a week (that's just 30 min/day) on Writing and 3, maybe 4, hours a week (about 40-45 min a day) for reading/discussing/analyzing the Literature. That makes for about 5.5 to 6.5 hours a week for the English credit. If you really need or want to include any Grammar/Vocab/Spelling, reduce those times for Writing and Reading just a bit and make room for 30-60 min/week for those other Language Arts topics.

 

re: how many Brave Writer classes for the Writing part of an English credit

Most of the Brave Writer classes are 4 weeks long or 6 weeks long. So just ONE of many possibilities would be to do three BW classes in a year (say, two 6-week courses and one 4-week course), and you would be completely covered for the writing portion of an English credit for that year. That would also mean you would not need to do very much writing about the Literature portion of your English credit, but would instead focus on reading/discussion together, analysis, and short (1-3 paragraph) thinking answers to discussion/analysis questions from Lit. guides.

 

That might be a helpful way to go for 9th grade -- it would get your student on a solid Writing path for high school, and you might not need very many more *classes* in Writing after 9th grade, but could go with assignments to go with your Literature, or explore Creative Writing or Journalism if that were of interest to your student, or go with an at-home writing program such as The Power in Your Hands or Jensen's Format Writing which include things like resume writing, business writing, and other useful types of writing beyond just writing about literature or doing a research paper with citations.

 

However, your student may not be *ready* for that many online writing classes from BW (or other provider) in one year, so maybe just one class per year (or *maybe* one per semester) and then a Writing program to spread out over a year (or two), plus filling out the English credit with Literature. Or, maybe do the 1 SEMESTER long Windows to the World program, which is a beginning literary analysis program BUT with some great teaching material on how to write the literary analysis essay.

 

re: how much Lit to read or how many books for the Lit. part of an English credit

As for how much Literature... wow, that REALLY varies per student, and what types of works you decide to do. Older works and poetic forms (things like The Iliad, The Aeneid, Beowulf, and Shakespeare's plays) are slower to read to be able to absorb what is actually happening due to the non-modern vocabulary and the stylized poetic language and sentence structure.

 

It also REALLY depends on the student's abilities in reading Literature. Some students are strong readers and can knock out 12-20 novels in a year, discuss, analyze, write about the works -- and it's a great pace for them. Other students struggle to read, or may hate fiction, so maybe plan on more short stories, a few biographies and essays, and just 4 novels during the year is the amount that works for this student.

 

And it really depends on the student's *interest* in Literature. Some students really hate fiction. Or really love Sci-Fi. Or really want to read certain works... For example, maybe, esp. in 9th grade, doing a specialty 1-year program would be a great fit for your student:

- Lit Lessons from Lord of the Rings (gr. 7-10; 1-year lit study, focus on the Lord of the Rings trilogy)

- Where Brook & River Meet (gr. 8-10; unit study for girls on the Anne of Green Gables series)

 

 

One tip for getting a ballpark idea on "amount" of Lit.: I find it helpful to look at the table of contents and sample pages of several Literature programs to get a feel for what the overall "typical expectations" are for amount of works and types of Lit. to read, and as to the amount of assignments for writing about the works. Try comparing these 4 Lit. programs, for example: Excellence in Literature, Lightning Literature, Illuminating Literature, and Essentials in Literature.

 

Mostly rambling here, but hope something here helps get you started in how you want to plan your English credit to fit YOUR student. :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Lori D.

[Crimson Wife]

FWIW, in my state successful completion of a college English course (credit, not remedial) validates 4 years of high school English. I'm using CC courses to validate most of my DD's high school graduation requirements, including the English. Since she is almost certainly going the CC-and-transfer route for financial reasons, I'm not going to worry about jumping through the hoops of the UC a-g requirements.