Mothers of Seniors or Graduates - I need a recovery plan.

[BlsdMama]

I have effectively cheated my daughter out of credit. She is a high school junior. We have grades for transcripts for tangible things like Algebra, Biology, etc. These things were easy to grade.

 

However, when it comes to English and History, frankly we didn't keep track. She read, and read, and read.

 

She read Spielvogel's Western Civ., historical fiction, time period works, and biographies.

 

When it came to English, we did Rod & Staff and IEW. We did some TOG writing and some lit analysis.

 

She reads thoroughly and has amazing comprehension. She has done Teaching the Classics and a worldview class as well. She DEVOURS classic literature.

 

But now what?

 

Because we simply wrote to improve writing - to critique, to master essay writing and analysis skills. She did grammar but we didn't grade it. It was corrected and then errors corrected so that she would thoroughly understand it - have mastery.

 

So, essentially, what I'm saying, is that she has studied in these areas far above and beyond what almost any high schooler would cover, however, I have kept NO grades for her freshman or sophmore year. (Junior year is easier, we did My Father's World for this exact reason.)

 

I would LOVE to give her a comprehensive exam to cover the grammar portions. She would be willing to do lit papers for books she read (Middle Ages) for sophmore year or for the time she spent studying British Lit.

 

Any suggestions?

[joannqn]

She did grammar but we didn't grade it. It was corrected and then errors corrected so that she would thoroughly understand it - have mastery.

 

I'm not a mom of a senior or a graduate but I once listened to a presentation by one. She said something interesting and fitting to your situation. If you taught to mastery, wouldn't that mean she mastered the material? And isn't mastering the material equivalent to an A grade? Especially if you have any outside verification of your mommy grades like outsourced classes, subject tests, and college entrance exams that reflect the grades you gave?

[SailorMom]

I would agree with JoAnn on this one....

[speedmom4]

 

I'm not a mom of a senior or a graduate but I once listened to a presentation by one. She said something interesting and fitting to your situation. If you taught to mastery, wouldn't that mean she mastered the material? And isn't mastering the material equivalent to an A grade? Especially if you have any outside verification of your mommy grades like outsourced classes, subject tests, and college entrance exams that reflect the grades you gave?

 

 

This makes sense to me. I have a senior and we didn't grade every single assignment. We corrected assignments. I agree that if you have any outside verification that could be further validation of your grades.

 

Elise in NC

[Lolly]

She did the work. Just give her a grade. Do you feel she deserves an A? It sounds like you do. So, give it to her.

[CupOCoffee]

I am kind of in the same boat with a few subjects with Ds. Thanks for this timely post/question and I will be watching for more responses. It does make sense that if we teach to mastery, even if that mastery takes a few tries, then our students deserve good grades.

 

~coffee~

[Beth S]

Another way to soothe your anxiety: Working together, try to recall her actual work.

 

Make a list of the books she read, the discussions you had, the notes she took, anything she wrote. List pages read from textbook, etc.

You will have something tangible to defend her "A" grade. :)

 

Another way to determine quantity of work is to estimate "contact hours". Roughly 120 hours (40 min X 5 days X 36 weeks) = one year's worth of work.

 

You are just needing to make the work she did TANGIBLE on paper. It will be fine!

[dirty ethel rackham]

IMO, master = A. We did this approach for all the classes my son took at home. I explained my grading criteria on the school profile of the Common Ap that all work was done to mastery. For Math and Science, it meant reworking the problems/concept until they were correct. For English and History, it meant rewriting papers or revisiting the topic until it was of superior quality. Not all of the grades given at home were A's because there were a few courses where I don't feel he put in his best effort. We did have plenty of outside evaluation to back up my grades - AP classes and tests, college classes, SAT and ACT scores. No one ever questioned this. My son was accepted at all 4 schools he applied to and received significant merit aid offers at all of them.

[creekland]

Honestly? I just gave my kids As for English and a couple of other subjects (Economics and Psychology come to mind, but there are probably more). There was no easy way to grade as there is in math and science (when science has problems). I also let my kid's cc course English (As), AP tests (when they had them), and ACT results be "proof" to my grade. Had they not done well in those I'd have revised accordingly.

 

We also teach many things to mastery as I feel that's the only way things are truly learned. I despise how ps forces students to go on whether they understand things or not - or forces them to do more with things already learned.

 

Our system worked just fine for college admittance and merit aid. It also worked great for actual college prep.

[BlsdMama]

You assign letter grades then instead of numerical grades?

 

We've been using percents since everyone and their school has a different scale. We've been following 87-93 is a B, 93-100 is an A.

 

I guess I'm signing up for SAT subject tests today.

 

What must one do to take an AP exam? I have very little doubt she would do *extremely* well on the History and Lit. exams.

[Parrothead]

You assign letter grades then instead of numerical grades?

 

We've been using percents since everyone and their school has a different scale. We've been following 87-93 is a B, 93-100 is an A.

 

I guess I'm signing up for SAT subject tests today.

 

What must one do to take an AP exam? I have very little doubt she would do *extremely* well on the History and Lit. exams.

 

Registering for an AP exam

[creekland]

You assign letter grades then instead of numerical grades?

 

We've been using percents since everyone and their school has a different scale. We've been following 87-93 is a B, 93-100 is an A.

 

I guess I'm signing up for SAT subject tests today.

 

What must one do to take an AP exam? I have very little doubt she would do *extremely* well on the History and Lit. exams.

 

I did number grades. My As were generally 95 or 96. ;)

 

With regards to AP tests, you should be looking for schools willing to take a homeschooler now. We had luck with a local Catholic high school. Public schools around here either don't give AP (like mine) or aren't as interested in others coming in for the tests, BUT, different areas are different.

 

Also - check out a prep book before assuming a student will do well. It's helpful to confirm that with practice tests.

[nancy in nj]

I agree with Creekland. There are some very specific essay-type requirements for the AP tests. Here is a link to the various course descriptions with samples from the tests:

 

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/exam/exam_information/index.html

 

I suggest you and your daughter spend a day looking over the various history and english course descriptions and exams. If you decide to go that route, don't delay in contacting your local schools to find a place to take them.

 

Another route is to take the SAT II tests. They are multiple choice only and test high school level mastery rather than college level mastery. Some colleges require or recommend 2 or 3 SAT II's for everyone and some do only for homeschoolers. Even if the colleges don't require them, they tend to like the verification of mommy grades--it makes their job easier.

 

Nancy

[Lolly]

You assign letter grades then instead of numerical grades?

 

We've been using percents since everyone and their school has a different scale. We've been following 87-93 is a B, 93-100 is an A.

 

I guess I'm signing up for SAT subject tests today.

 

What must one do to take an AP exam? I have very little doubt she would do *extremely* well on the History and Lit. exams.

 

 

Yep. Letter grades. Mine haven't done any subject tests or AP exams. It hasn't been a problem. (They did take the ACT.)