Is Mock Trial an extracurricular, class or what?

[Michelle My Bell]

My daughter is in 12 grade and is doing a Mock Trial with her co-op. Many hours are being poured into this activity during co-op, outside practices and ultimately the actual mock trial with a real judge. I am just not sure if I should put it on her transcripts as a class or and extra curricular activity. What should I do?

[Belacqua]

Maybe it depends on how involved it is and how many hours she is spending. If I remember correctly, Mock Trial was an EC in law school. The longer, more involved Pre-Trial Litigation (in which students learned to do discovery, take depositions, file pre-trial motions, etc.) was a class for credit.

 

I'd probably go with EC, as it isn't one most students will have. Nifty opportunity!

[stripe]

I was in mock trial in HS and considered it an extra curricular activity, but everything we did was outside of school hours so it was never school sponsored. Hmm.

[Lori D.]

Here's how I handled our DSs' 3 years of involvement in the (similar) mock legislative program, Youth & Govt:

 

- The delegation meets weekly for 90 minutes for an entire semester

- At semester's end, the delegation spends 3 days at the state Capitol actually *doing* a mock legislative session (voting on House and Senate leadership for the session, holding sub-committees, lobbying, debating/voting on bills), which ALSO includes forming political parties, campaigning for state officers and an election.

 

 

So, I "double dipped"... I counted the time spent on Y&G in which they were actually learning about the legislative process, lobbying, and political parties towards the required Government credit (so we skipped those chapters in the Gov't. textbook), and counted the rest as the extracurricular. ;) However, I only felt comfortable doing this due to the very large amount of hours put into this program (about 50 hours all together EACH year), AND because they each did it for 3 years.

 

Just our experience!

 

If I were in your situation, and if more credit wasn't needed on the transcript, I would probably count it as an extracurricular, and really play up all the research, responsibility, leadership, public speaking, and other skills gained from the experience...

 

BEST of luck, whatever you decide! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Michelle My Bell]

Ok that was what I was thinking. She does have 1 hour a week of in class time for Mock trial, many hours of study through the week and one 2 hour practice per week for the last 16 weeks. That said, she has plenty of credits on her transcripts so it isn't really needed.