Keystone English 2?

[creekland]

A search on here didn't bring up anything, so I'll start a post.

 

Has anyone used this or heard any pros/cons about it? Our local high school has offered it as an option for youngest since I don't care to have him in our top level English class due to a couple of book selections that aren't college prep and/or appropriate IMO.

 

https://hs.keystoneschoolonline.com/KeystoneOes/portlets/catalog/displayCourseAction.do

 

One thing I don't really care for is it seems they only cover one novel and one Shakespeare work. But, that might not be much different than the class in our high school.

 

I'd love any info anyone wanted to share. We have 2 weeks to decide our course of action. Our options are:

 

1) Staying in the class at our high school with no modification. (NOT happening.)

 

2) Staying in the class at our high school and substituting any books I like off college boards "100 books" list for the two summer reading books I don't care for. (COULD happen, but I wonder about the thinking behind a teacher who assigns "Spud" as a top level English book: http://www.amazon.com/Spud-John-van-Ruit/dp/1595141707 Plus, no top student I've talked with who had him thought he was a good teacher - academically - and our school just hit the "concern" level within our state for high school English. The only level below "concern" is "strong concern." Two levels, "favorable" and "caution," are higher.)

 

3) Taking this Keystone class and putting a different class in his English slot. Unfortunately, the one class he'd like to add - Spanish 1 - would require a massive change in his schedule.

 

I don't want to substitute Keystone if it's not a better option. Kiddo is in Jamaica right now, so I can't discuss the options with him.

 

For those who are curious, the second book I don't want him to read is 13 Reasons Why - a decent book that I just finished reading, but I'm leery of having him read it as it deals with a girl who committed suicide and leaves 13 audio tapes to different people explaining what they did to cause it. My guy was suicidal a couple of years back and I just don't want to go there. If he identified with the wrong character in the book... I just don't want to go there. You may have had to be where we were to understand.

 

I dislike Spud because it centers on sex crazed minds of boarding school teens and has the modern trend of adults who are drunk, incompetent, or similar. While apparently greatly popular among teen boys (any surprise?) I just don't see any "English" value to it to overcome our more conservative values of sex in marriage. I don't want my guys to see girls as conquests and competitions and see that as "normal" for their age (even though I know it is in a huge segment of life - esp at our high school). If they choose to do that later in their lives, that's their choice.

[Annie G]

My youngest dd did this course. It was meh. Neither us of liked the way Keystone had her organize her work. Hard to explain, other than she had to keep answers to questions in one file, journal responses in a different file, essays in yet a third, and when it was time to submit a lesson, she had to coordinate all three. It was hard for me to be sure she was finishing everything since they had her spreading it out into so many different files.

Having said that, the course was laid out so she knew what she needed to do every two weeks...that part was clear. The book was just ok- a typical high school lit book. The stories were mostly abridged versions of full length works but none inspired her to go read a full piece.

She did the honors version- not sure if they even still offer that or if it's much different than the regular course.

[creekland]

Thanks!

 

We're looking at the Honors version and that's kind of what I was afraid it would be. Did the teacher do much to explain things or is it all learning from reading and the book? I guess what I'm asking is are there lectures to watch or just a list of things to read and do? I'd like to be able to explain it to him as he's rather Aspie"ish" and likes to know ahead of time what things are going to be like. He's good at English, but it's probably his least favorite course.

 

I really, really wish our ps had a better option available or that my guy didn't have his heart so dead set on being in ps.

 

At this point we're probably leaning toward picking Keystone figuring it can't be any worse than our high school and would set him up to being able to do AP courses the next two years (something not available at our high school). Meanwhile he can add in another class or so at school helping him be able to take cc courses his junior and senior year.

[Annie G]

I don't recall any teaching other than through the materials they sent. The expectations are clear but I didn't care for the grading. For the journals, it was more like a completion grade- and when she wrote other things, she never received any feedback. Just a grade.

It sounds like a good choice for your son- it's laid out with a checklist of things that have to be done, and they never throw anything unexpected at the kids. It's not always like that at school- they change test dates or due dates for projects or give assignments with unclear expectations. This would be easy for him to follow.

[creekland]

Thanks again. A checklist with things to follow would be perfect for this guy. I don't really care for the lack of feedback on written material though. Perhaps I can see if my neighbor would be willing to look over a writing or two of his throughout the year in exchange for a favor, cookies, or cash. She's a PhD English prof at a local LAC.

 

I've had a couple of people send pm about their AP courses telling me they (or their kids) got 5s after taking them, so there's hope that the later AP classes would be worth it even if this one is only slightly better than what he'd get at our school.

[swimmermom3]

Creekland, can you use a K12 course? My daughter took one this year and it was very well done. You can choose three different levels for a particular year as well. If you need more particulars, just let me know.

 

My dd came home this last year for her senior year for some of the same reasons you spoke of earlier. She would only take English from me, which was fine except that she was close enough to graduating that we needed to play the game. I chose classic material I thought she would either enjoy or that she really needed to cover. About 3 months into the school year, we lucked out and found the K12 course which was very much in line with the work we had already done and some of what I was planning to do. At that point she was agreeable to taking the class. Her K12 experience was for more positive than her Keystone experience.

[creekland]

Creekland, can you use a K12 course? My daughter took one this year and it was very well done. You can choose three different levels for a particular year as well. If you need more particulars, just let me know.

 

My dd came home this last year for her senior year for some of the same reasons you spoke of earlier. She would only take English from me, which was fine except that she was close enough to graduating that we needed to play the game. I chose classic material I thought she would either enjoy or that she really needed to cover. About 3 months into the school year, we lucked out and found the K12 course which was very much in line with the work we had already done and some of what I was planning to do. At that point she was agreeable to taking the class. Her K12 experience was for more positive than her Keystone experience.

 

I'd love to try some of these other more recommended classes, but no, we don't have the option since he wants to stay in ps. They gave me two choices - stay in the school class or take Keystone's Honors. People have told me their kids did well on the AP tests when he gets to those classes. They say those are more in depth and just, well, better, but I don't think they'll let him take AP as a sophomore and he'll need two more credits his junior and senior year anyway so I'm not going to make a big deal over it. I don't think they care for the big deal I am making... and I work there... so...