How do you do Honors classes?

[Brindee]

I searched for this topic, but didn't come up with anything, so will make this new thread. I've seen people mention that they did an Honors English class or Honors Science class, etc. with their homeschooled children.

 

What do you do to make a class "Honors"? How do you verify it? How do you mark it on the transcript?

 

Thank you for any information you can share with me! :001_smile:

[Jane in NC]

I do not.

 

"Honors" is a relative term which suggests a level that is higher than the basic course. In my home school, we only do one level--the WTM level for lack of better term.

 

I caution you here. One admissions officer at a competitive university told us that some homeschool parents over estimate the depth of their courses. While he welcomes homeschool applicants, he discounts terms like "honors" when perusing a homeschool transcript. A call to a college to which your students may apply could help guide you.

 

Best,

Jane

[Brindee]

I have never done honors, and not sure I plan to. I am just curious as to what people do when they say honors curriculum. Curiosity more than I need/want to do this. :D

[CindyJ]

I did put an honors English course on my ds's transcript when he was in 9th grade. We did the Omnibus Medieval year course in a class setting, and I felt that some of the reading was college level, plus we required a good bit of writing, which was graded by the mom who co-taught the course. I just felt that it was honors level, but I was thinking more along the lines of making a transcript for the high school that he ended up attending rather than college admissions. That would have made me more nervous. However, the school put the course on the transcript as an honors course, with no problem, and he has since taken their honors English courses, and done well, so I think it was fine.

[Gwen in VA]

Honors is in relation to the "regular" courses offered.

 

Since our homeschool doesn't offer "regular" classes but only classes specifically tailored to challenge my kids :D we didn't list any honors classes.

[Nan in Mass]

If it contained extensive travel (like 3 months in Japan) under conditions that many adults are unable to manage, we called it honours. We also called some classes taken in community college honours, some but not all. I put a note next to each honours class that said something like "honours because required 3 months in Japan" or "honours because taken at CC".

-nan

[elizabeth]

If I am listing a course as AP or Honors you can be sure that dd will be taking the AP or SAT subject test or CLEP to prove the rigor of the course. Objective evidence and incontrovertible proof are the way to go. I cannot tolerate having to persuade others of anything.I home educate just like I practice law, hit 'em over the head with a big bat loaded with facts backed by documentary evidence. It works and gets results. Furthermore it gets rid of nonsense inquiries , roundabout speech and gets to the heart of the matter promptly.

[newbie]

Dd took honors and she said only difference was large research report at the end.

[LaJuana]

...on a transcript, I suggest defining what makes an Honors course clearly on your child's transcript. A clear definition removes questions about the Honors designation.

 

I defined Honors courses as courses that met several different standards I thought were reasonable (college textbooks, more than 1,000 pages of reading, cumulative final exams, etc.), and I clearly listed those standards on my dc's transcripts. When we define our terms, college admissions personnel or scholarship committees can accurately evaluate our children's work. If their definition of an Honors course differs from ours, they can remove the Honors designation in their own assessment of the student, and if they agree that our definition is a reasonable one, our children will gain the credit for the Honors course that they might have missed if we had not defined the term Honors. It's a no-risk solution to a potential problem.

[AnitaMcC]

If I am listing a course as AP or Honors you can be sure that dd will be taking the AP or SAT subject test or CLEP to prove the rigor of the course. Objective evidence and incontrovertible proof are the way to go. I cannot tolerate having to persuade others of anything.I home educate just like I practice law, hit 'em over the head with a big bat loaded with facts backed by documentary evidence. It works and gets results. Furthermore it gets rid of nonsense inquiries , roundabout speech and gets to the heart of the matter promptly.

 

This is what we are doing... if the kids take AP, SAT subject test, or CLEP (and do well on them) we will count it as an honors course and then list the test they took and the score they earned. Some text books are listed on the publishers web sites as honors or AP. Also I look up online high schools and see what text books they are using for their honors/gifted/AP courses. Also the College board has some syllabus samples of AP courses. I try to pick the text books that are considered Honors or AP.

[TravelingChris]

I do consider some classes honors. Some criteria I use is two years above schedule, college level materials and work, more reading in a lit class than usual, etc. I am not putting my children at a disadvantage compared to brick and mortar schooled children who end up with 4.5 GPAs due to weighing honors and AP/dual enrollment.

[4wildberrys]

Honors is in relation to the "regular" courses offered.

 

Since our homeschool doesn't offer "regular" classes but only classes specifically tailored to challenge my kids :D we didn't list any honors classes.

 

This. ;)

[LunaLee]

I decided to label some classes honors because compared to what local schools considered regular classes, we would be doing way more than that and so I figured she deserves the credit.

 

For example, Honors English requirements are this:

8 Novels of literary value (i.e. collegeboard)

daily writing of some kind

a minimum of 8 essays

a research paper

the grading scale is much higher- and an A is like 98-100%

grammar & vocabulary

 

Most of us already do this and a course like this is the standard to us here on the board, but that's not the case in the schools around here and I feel that if she chooses to go to a 4 year college, she is going to be compared to those kids so she should get credit for the work she does.

[Brindee]

Thankyou everyone, I appreciate your answers! I'm not sure that I'll do any honors classes with dd, I didn't do any with the boys, though the older could have done honors English....well, maybe not, he hates writing! ;) Both the boys could have done honors US History, though. I was going to have them CLEP the US History 1 but we never got to the point of taking it. DD probably could do one or to honors classes.... I'm not planning on it now though, I just wanted to see what was involved for honors classes, so if I see that what we're doing goes above and beyond, I can re-consider. I think I'd do the SAT or CLEP tests as proof also...

 

Thanks again everyone!

[outtamyshell]

Grading is subjective.

 

If your child did more work than what you consider 'usual' do you count it as extra credit to raise a B to an A? Or do you consider it an honors course? An honors course at one school can be the same caliber as a regular course at another schools. Admissions folks don't know our schools to be able to compare them to others. After talking to some public school teachers, I finally decided all grades are subjective - not just mine. But my homeschool grades are different because... no one would even care what they are! So I let go of the stress. She earned As and Bs. If she didn't earn a B by the end of the year, she did extra work through the summer to earn a B.

 

Some of our classes were more difficult than the public school. At least one was easier than a public school course. I labeled college courses as Honors on DD's transcript and bumped up the GPA accordingly. Just in case someone did care about her GPA, I didn't want DD to look worse than the kids from the public school with their weighted GPAs. This was easier to justify than giving honors credit for some of our homestudy courses and non-honors to some of the college courses.

 

Our transcript lists the Course Name, Grade Earned, Credits Earned, Weighted Points and Unweighted points. It also includes COURSE FLAGS where relevant. Course Flags are defined at the bottom of the transcript. Here are a couple of them:

P - Course in Progress

S - Scheudled to be Taken

PHS - Public High School (accredited)

CC - Community College (accredited)

CCA - Community Collge (audited)

UNI - University (accredited)

I used the same transcript pattern as the local public schools. I figured admissions folks would be familiar with it.