What is the worst that could happen? (preparing for college & ! About grading.)

[ChicoryChick]

My oldest dd will be im 10th next year and I am thinking college prep in case she decides to go that route. This past year my focus was on learning how to do a transcript but now the real prep begins. I know she needs to prep for the ACT or SAT if not both and I will order a book that helps with that. My biggest fear is after all our prepping what if she is not ready or fails to get into college. What if I end up doing everything wrong? Will she be able to fix it and get in at a later date? I know this is probably an unrealistic concern but there it is at the back (now the forefront) of my mind.

TY!

Also when it comes to the transcript I am not sure how to do grading. Math is a no brainer because we use TT and it does the grading for me, but am unsure how to do the other subjects especially writing (as well as science and spanish)since it was always a struggle for me. We are using MFW this year and next (and will decide about 11th & 12th) and it does have a rubric for the big writing assignments but I am still uncomfortable about grading.

[shanvan]

My oldest dd will be im 10th next year and I am thinking college prep in case she decides to go that route. This past year my focus was on learning how to do a transcript but now the real prep begins. I know she needs to prep for the ACT or SAT if not both and I will order a book that helps with that. My biggest fear is after all our prepping what if she is not ready or fails to get into college. What if I end up doing everything wrong? Will she be able to fix it and get in at a later date? I know this is probably an unrealistic concern but there it is at the back (now the forefront) of my mind.

TY!

Also when it comes to the transcript I am not sure how to do grading. Math is a no brainer because we use TT and it does the grading for me, but am unsure how to do the other subjects especially writing (as well as science and spanish)since it was always a struggle for me. We are using MFW this year and next (and will decide about 11th & 12th) and it does have a rubric for the big writing assignments but I am still uncomfortable about grading.

 

 

One thought for writing. To see if you are on the mark with grading, you could use an outside service like Write at Home to evaluate one or two papers. They have a pay by the paper fee. I'm going to use their 3 draft service for Ds sometime this spring.

[regentrude]

Relax!!!

 

My biggest fear is after all our prepping what if she is not ready or fails to get into college. What if I end up doing everything wrong? Will she be able to fix it and get in at a later date?

 

 

First, you won't do *everything* wrong.

Second, yes, some students end up not being ready for college at the end of high school. They may choose to work for a few years, attend community college, go to a four year school at some later point in life. I am an instructor at a university, and I frequently have older students who have made the choice to go to university after doing other things for a number of years.

For many students, community college can be a good route; admission only requires a completed high school education, but not cutoff ACT or SAT scores.

 

Also when it comes to the transcript I am not sure how to do grading. Math is a no brainer because we use TT and it does the grading for me, but am unsure how to do the other subjects especially writing (as well as science and spanish)since it was always a struggle for me. We are using MFW this year and next (and will decide about 11th & 12th) and it does have a rubric for the big writing assignments but I am still uncomfortable about grading.

 

 

You could outsource the grading to somebody more knowledgeable, if you feel uncomfortable with evaluating.

I find it much easier to do fewer grades than to grade every little assignment; so for sciences, I give one exam per month. If you use a boxed curriculum, doesn't that com with tests?

 

lastly, some people prepare what they call a "narrative transcript" without grades. I am not familiar with the details, you may want to search.

[Julie in MN]

We are using MFW this year and next (and will decide about 11th & 12th) and it does have a rubric for the big writing assignments but I am still uncomfortable about grading.

 

Have you gone through the grading pages at the front of the manual? To put it very simply, if you plug in grades for each thing on the list, then your total is your grade. I had to do this for my son last year (rather than procrastinating), because he needed a transcript to apply for college courses in 11th grade. It took a little time but because it was all laid out, it was far easier than making up my own criteria for my older dd, before MFW had high school. In fact, I posted my son's AHL transcript in the MFW High School yahoo group files, if you want to see it.

 

Here are the grading pages in your AHL manual (pages 8-9)

http://www.mfwbooks.com/inc/pdf/ahlsample.pdf

 

Yahoo group

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MFWHIGHSCHOOL/?yguid=76177163

 

HSLDA has some good info on calculating grades

http://www.hslda.org/highschool/docs/GradingGuidelines.asp

 

HTH,

Julie

[cbollin]

. We are using MFW this year and next (and will decide about 11th & 12th) and it does have a rubric for the big writing assignments but I am still uncomfortable about grading.

 

 

are you saying you're not sure on the subjective stuff in the Lit/Comp Guide and how to assign the grade with the checklist? or do you mean you aren't sure how to use the stuff at the beginning of the lesson planner where it breaks it down for percentage of overall grade?

 

sounds like you're using AHL this year. In the LitComp Guide, turn to lesson #5, on evaluating the essay. in the first part of lesson 5, you'll see the checklist the student does prior to turning in the essay to you for draft and final. turn the page... now there is the section evaluating the essay, and evaluating written work. I think that really breaks it down on how to do it. It goes through that. Maybe copy those pages or take them out or something and keep them for each paper you grade?

 

then all you have to do is covert it to percentage from letter...... since essays are 10 points on the syllabus.

 

There's the rubric, yeah....but it also has all of that subjective stuff to assign the letter grades. Maybe re-reading it will help your comfort level a little? Or if you have a friend in a co-op who could look over an essay and ask if you are too harsh or too easy on those ideas?

[Candid]

My biggest fear is after all our prepping what if she is not ready or fails to get into college.

 

 

I wanted to pull out this one statement. In my experience and reading the only students who fail to get into college are those that don't make realistic choices about schools that they are applying to.

 

If you go over to the college part of this board, you'll see folks talking about applying to three sorts of schools. In general you can break these down as below:

• Reach schools - that the student is in the lower third of the admitted class OR a school that admits very few students as a percentage of those that apply.

• Middle schools - schools that the student is at or above the 50% of students who are accepted.

• Safety schools - that the student is in the upper 25% of admitted students.

 

 

You'll also see people add the word financial to some of these categories as well to indicate a school the student might get into but won't be able to afford with some extra financial help or a school that will be easy to afford.

 

So as long as you research and choose some schools who's admitted test scores meet the standards I set above, you should be safe from a total close out.

[ChicoryChick]

Thank you ladies for all of your reassurances. I am glad to know that it would take a lot to ruin her chances of any college. :) Yes I do need to reread the beginning of the MFW curriculum to help with the grading. And I do have every confidence in the curriculum, just not in myself as her teacher. Thnaks for the thread, having samples will help a lot.

 

 

 

[cbollin]

And I do have every confidence in the curriculum, just not in myself as her teacher.

 

 

you're singing my song... I totally understand that feeling with writing and other stuff. But somehow her writing got better in spite of me. She's not award winning or perfect 12 on a 30 minute timed essay (for act..?), but the schools she's considering don't do anything with her essay score... so it's all good.. .right?

 

but yeah.. I understand the feeling....

[kiana]

Really, the worst that could happen would be that she'd end up at a community college and place into developmental classes. Even in that case, she could take a few semesters of courses, get good grades, and transfer to a pretty decent university.

 

Assuming that she's able to read, understand what she reads, and write a reasonably literate sentence, it's unlikely that she'd place very far down in English. MAYBE into the class below Comp 1.

 

If she can do, understand, and apply arithmetic, she should place into an Algebra class. If she can do, understand, and apply basic algebra, she should place into a college-credit math class.

 

If she can follow directions (like using a cookbook to make a new recipe, or using a sewing pattern to make something) she should be fine in college science labs.

 

(just answering your question on: What's the worst that could happen.)