Trying to figure out English credits

[Faithr]

My oldest dd is going into 12th grade. In 9th grade she worked through the Sadlier-Oxford text for grammar and composition. She also read The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Antigone, The Phaedo, The Aenied and Julius Cesaer's Gallic Wars.

 

Can I give her a credit for the composition course and a credit for the lit course? So did she earn two English credits that year? Or just one? Or maybe 1.5??????

 

In 10th grade she took a year long Shakespeare course.

 

In 11th she took a year long British Lit course (everybody but Shakespeare!).

 

In 12th we are doing American Lit. All of these lit courses involved or will involve writing lots of papers.

 

What credit would you give?

 

Thanks.

[Cindy in WA]

English 9, 10, 11, 12 would include all disciplines: grammar, literature, writing, vocabulary, spelling. Each year a student would earn one credit. Some years may focus on one aspect more heavily, but it still would be one English credit.

HTH

Cindy

[Michelle in MO]

I posted on this under "Teaching Company Courses":

 

I tend to think of awarding English credits (or any credits, for that matter) as related to the amount of time involved in the course. For example, I tend to think of a credit as ranging between 120 hours (on the low end) to 180 hours (on the higher end).

 

One thing I've read on these forums, but personally have no experience with, is that too many English credits on a child's transcripts may ring some alarm bells with some colleges. I would tend to agree: I wouldn't give a credit just for grammar, another credit for vocabulary, and another for writing, and another for literature.

 

However, since we had at least 450 hours last year in English, I felt justified in awarding my two older girls two credits in English. We did many, many of the readings from Omnibus II, plus writing for Omnibus II. They also did three writing tutorials through Cindy Marsch, and my oldest did one writing tutorial through Julie Bogart of Bravewriter. They also did two books of vocabulary study (Vocabulary from the Classical Roots and Wordly Wise), and grammar (Abeka), plus some of the writing assignments for Abeka (selectively chosen by me). So, one English credit would count as regular English, which would include the grammar, vocabulary study, and writing. The other credit I called "Medieval Literature". I have plenty of documentation to show to college admissions officials in case they have any questions.

 

I have my two older girls enrolled in a Catholic high school next fall. I noticed in their curriculum brochure that more than one English credit is awarded for different classes. For example, there is a College Composition course, which is dual-enrollment. There are also some literature courses. So---a student could conceivably be enrolled in both a college comp. course and a literature course.

 

So---you have to use wisdom in this. I personally think it's possible to earn more than one English credit per year, but I would save your students' work and keep track of the hours they spent on each course.

 

I think it helps if your student scores well on the verbal portions of the SAT's and ACT's. My oldest scored very well on the English and Reading sections of the ACT, so I don't anticipate trouble, but I'm saving everything, just in case!

[Faithr]

Well, I was thinking of giving 1 credit for the Sadlier-Oxford Grammar and Composition course and then a credit each for the Lit courses (all of which were hefty reading courses that involved writing various papers/essays). The papers of course involved grammar and vocabulary as does reading classic literature. We just didn't have a program for each. She actually doesn't need separate grammar or vocabulary. She has a wonderful grasp on vocabulary and has better grammar than I do! She did pretty well on the SAT. She wants to take it again to break 2000 (just got just a smidgen under).

 

We, alas, have not focused on the hours spent. Instead I considered finishing a syllabus/text to mean completing a credit's worth of work.

 

I guess I'm wondering if I should just give 1/2 a credit for the Grammar/Composition course and then 1 credit for each Lit course.

[Michelle in MO]

what you're wanting to do, personally. Here in Missouri we have to keep track of the number of hours we homeschool, so I guess I have to be attuned to that number.

 

I think giving one credit for each of the lit. courses and at least 1/2 credit (maybe more, if you think it merits more) for the grammar & composition course would not be overkill. I think the problems with admissions officials arise more when parents give 1 credit for grammar, 1 credit for comp., 1 credit for lit., etc., in the h.s. years.

 

BTW, I apologize for confusing the issues of grades and credits! That was dumb on my part! I think what I meant to say was that if someone gives their child an "A" in a particular course (i.e., English), their standardized test scores should reflect something similar. But that's a completely different issue from one of assigning credits. Sorry! :blush: