If you're not required to do a portfolio, do you keep samples for proof...

[6packofun]

of courses completed? I'm trying to prepare transcripts and wonder how much to keep on hand for colleges--do they request actual samples or accept an organized, complete transcript as enough?

[regentrude]

I do keep portfolios anyway, because it is a good and easy way of organizing material, gives the kids a sense of accomplishment and makes it easy to produce proof if anybody should ever ask.

I file syllabi, schedules of assignments, reading lists, tests, important essays (not every little paragraph of writing, but 3-4 papers from a semester).

 

Not sure if colleges will want it - but I'd like to be prepared and to do it now is painless.

[Jane in NC]

One of my son's homeschooled friends was asked to submit a portfolio of work but whether this was for admissions or a scholarship at his school I am uncertain.

 

Your query will probably solicit responses from some who say "You only need to submit a transcript. No other documentation is needed." Others will say in addition to a transcript, they submitted five or ten page book lists and/or course descriptions.

 

The real answer to your question depends upon the colleges to which your student is applying. Thus, to be safe, you might want to keep things as Regentrude outlined.

[Kareni]

Two of the colleges to which my child applied asked to see a portfolio of high

school work which she submitted in addition to other documentation. Some of the things she included:

 

graded papers from outside classes

a quiz and lab report from a community college science class

Latin translation assignment from her AP Latin class

a picture of a page from a Latin picture book that she wrote and illustrated

photos of a couple of art pieces with the ribbons they won in the County fair

 

In addition, I'd recommend keeping all of your child's essays; one of my daughter's 11th grade essays became fodder for her college application essay.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[FaithManor]

I keep porfolios though not required. If something happened to me, dh would probably have to put the kids in school and so I want him to have proof of their abilities and accomplishments.

 

I am just now, three semesters into dd's medical program, finally bringing myself to get rid of her paperwork. She's the top student in her pre-med/paramedic program and after this amount of college time, I just don't need to "prove" anything anymore. But, I have to say, I feel sentimental about that paperwork and am just slowly weeding it out.

 

Faith

[AnitaMcC]

I do keep portfolios anyway, because it is a good and easy way of organizing material, gives the kids a sense of accomplishment and makes it easy to produce proof if anybody should ever ask.

I file syllabi, schedules of assignments, reading lists, tests, important essays (not every little paragraph of writing, but 3-4 papers from a semester).

 

Not sure if colleges will want it - but I'd like to be prepared and to do it now is painless.

 

This is basically what I do. I keep syllabus which includes all the topics covered in the course, what assignments, quizzes, exams are given, and what the grade break down is for the course. We keep a reading list and educational movie list that I put into the syllabus at end of the course. I don't keep actual work completed other than a few of their essay papers for each semester. These are on the computer anyway.

 

I also plan to have my kids take the SAT subject tests and/or CLEP tests as they go along. Especially for math and sciences since I am not keeping any of their work from these courses.

 

SAT Subject Tests they will take this year (or maybe in fall): Dd to take the Math Level I and World History. Ds will take Math Level II, Chemistry, and World History.

 

CLEP tests in fall will be Western Civilization II, College Math, College Algebra, and Physical Sciences for Dd. Ds will take CLEP for Chemistry, Precalculus, Informations Systems & Computer Applications, and Western Civilization II.

Edited January 6, 2011 by AnitaMcC

[Joan in GE]

These are on the computer anyway.

 

It's always good to have a hard copy. We lost his 10 page paper with bibliography when his computer crashed and to reinvent it would be very hard. He'd sent it in to the Ed dept in a rush because we were leaving on vacation and I forgot to take it off.

 

It is much better to save it all as you never know what will happen. Faith made a very good point about the event where something would happen to the main teacher - who has the plan in mind and the general knowledge of what was done.

 

In our case, we suddenly decided to use an umbrella school and to get credit, we had to provide examples of work and tests and lesson plans/journals, books used/ read, grades, etc in all but nontraditional type courses (eg gym).

 

And this umbrella school is not that demanding. If we would have wanted to use a real accredited one, I think you would need more.

 

I started this thread when I started going through the documentation process...

 

Just to reiterate other points...reading lists might be needed in a course application process and sometimes essay samples as well...(eg online English courses).

 

You can always throw it away, but remaking it is hard.

 

Joan

[Gwen in VA]

Consider saving lab notebooks.

 

I have never been asked to show any documentation above and beyond course descriptions and transcripts, but I have heard of people who were asked to show their lab notebooks (or at least copies of a few labs) to admissions people.

[AnitaMcC]

It's always good to have a hard copy. We lost his 10 page paper with bibliography when his computer crashed and to reinvent it would be very hard. He'd sent it in to the Ed dept in a rush because we were leaving on vacation and I forgot to take it off.

 

It is much better to save it all as you never know what will happen. Faith made a very good point about the event where something would happen to the main teacher - who has the plan in mind and the general knowledge of what was done.

 

In our case, we suddenly decided to use an umbrella school and to get credit, we had to provide examples of work and tests and lesson plans/journals, books used/ read, grades, etc in all but nontraditional type courses (eg gym).

 

And this umbrella school is not that demanding. If we would have wanted to use a real accredited one, I think you would need more.

 

I started this thread when I started going through the documentation process...

 

Just to reiterate other points...reading lists might be needed in a course application process and sometimes essay samples as well...(eg online English courses).

 

You can always throw it away, but remaking it is hard.

 

Joan

 

Thank you Joan!!!

 

I do have hard copies of everything. Actually I also have everything saved to a flash drive also. I am paranoid about computer crashing... had it happened before.

 

So far what I do have saved are:

Homework journals (basically their daily assignments, notes, and practice problems). I have some of these... but the kids tossed a few from their 9th grade as that is what they have done in ps when school ended-LOL. They didn't realize they should have kept them.

Essays

Reading lists separate from the course requirements.

Syllabus for each course (course name, description, text books and other materials used, outline of course topics, course expectations/what they have to do).

Grades for the whole course (I have it in a table chart format that I made).

Transcripts.

 

I do not make quizzes and exams. I have them do them through the publishers website or the "section quiz" or "chapter test" that is in the text books. Mostly on the website. So I only log the score on their grade chart.