How do I assign credit in this situation?

[Kassia]

My dd is a sophomore who is studying languages on her own (Spanish and Portuguese).  She taught herself Spanish in middle school and then took four semesters as a DE student.  I didn't think about credits when she was learning Spanish independently because she was only in middle school at the time.  But now that she is in high school, I'm not sure what to do.  

 

Portuguese:  She spends a lot of time on Portuguese, but I haven't had her count hours because it's something she enjoys so much (learning languages is a passion for her).  She completed the Duolingo tree forwards and backwards.  She knows all the Portuguese grammar, and does a lot of listening and reading in Portuguese (I'm not sure about writing).  I've had her take a few placement tests and she scores very high on them.  She doesn't want to do any speaking with a tutor because she is shy and introverted.  

 

Spanish:  There are no more classes at the community college offered and she doesn't want to use a tutor.  She has worked with her professor a little bit since her classes ended when she had very specific grammar questions, but other than that she's mostly on her own.  She does a lot of reading and listening in Spanish and says that helps with her vocabulary a lot.  She also does a lot of writing in Spanish, but doesn't get much feedback on it.  She does communicate by email in Spanish with a Spanish teacher who she works with to teach Spanish to homeschool students online.  

 

So how do I assign credits for her work?  I think she will cover Portuguese 1 and 2 this year, but without the speaking component.  For Spanish, do I assign any credit or just figure that's her passion and she is continuing to build on what she already knows?  She spends so much time on both languages and I don't know what to do.  

 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

I would definitely give Spanish credits for DE classes. College level classes get high school credits, even if she took in middle school IMO. 

[EKS]

Four semesters of college Spanish should translate into four high school credits.

[Kassia]

I would definitely give Spanish credits for DE classes. College level classes get high school credits, even if she took in middle school IMO. 

 

 

Four semesters of college Spanish should translate into four high school credits.

 

 

 

I'm sorry I wasn't clear!  I meant do I assign any Spanish credit for this year when she is investing a lot of time with independent learning using reading/writing/listening?  I will definitely give her credit for her DE classes.  

[RootAnn]

Kassia, I know what a shy, introverted kid is like, but I'd really encourage her to find either an online native speaker (italki is great) or a "pen pal" in both a Spanish & Portuguese country to converse / communicate with. I don't know how to do the latter one safely. The italki people are pretty flexible and would probably look over her written Spanish. She could get the spoken component of Portuguese this way, too. They offer a couple of free trials (or at least they used to) so she can find someone she's comfortable with. All the people DD has worked with have been great, but she's clicked with some of them more than others. (I plan to do this for my DD#2 when she gets through French 1 with me. DD#2 is REALLY shy, but the italki people are so encouraging!!)

 

I'd have her jot down her activities & resources & you can write a course description for them. I seem to remember 8FilltheHeart doing something like that for her dd (who is at college now) when her dd was self-teaching French. Ultimately, her daughter found a native French speaker to work with her daughter for the written/spoken component.

[OnMyOwn]

My dd may be doing something similar to what your dd is doing next year after she finishes AP Spanish this year. My current plan is to give her credit and call it Spanish 5 or 6. Or maybe call it Spanish literature if she does enough reading in Spanish. If you want outside validation for what she's doing (not that I think she needs it at all), would she be interested in preparing for the Spanish Lit AP exam?

[Kassia]

Kassia, I know what a shy, introverted kid is like, but I'd really encourage her to find either an online native speaker (italki is great) or a "pen pal" in both a Spanish & Portuguese country to converse / communicate with.

 

Thank you!  I will try, but I am not optimistic.  She is adamant about not speaking.  :(  She teaches an online Spanish course, but does the teaching by youtube videos and has someone else run the conversation portion of the class.  She'll do anything to avoid speaking.

[Kassia]

My dd may be doing something similar to what your dd is doing next year after she finishes AP Spanish this year. My current plan is to give her credit and call it Spanish 5 or 6. Or maybe call it Spanish literature if she does enough reading in Spanish. If you want outside validation for what she's doing (not that I think she needs it at all), would she be interested in preparing for the Spanish Lit AP exam?

 

That's an interesting option that I hadn't though of.  She does read a lot of Spanish literature and still has time to prepare for the exam.  I'll talk to her about it.  

 

 

ETA:  I looked at the reading requirements for the exam and it is a huge list of books!  It would cost a fortune to buy all of those books and then take the exam.  I don't think it would be worth it for us since she wouldn't get any college credit even if she scored well on the exam since she already took DE for four semesters of Spanish (through the second intermediate class).  

 

 

Edited November 22, 2017 by Kassia