Can someone explain to me what a light class is and how to indicate such on a transcript

[lewelma]

My ds has a lot of high level classes and a few lower level ones.  I don't believe that every single course needs to be at the highest level, and if I were to try to do that, then my ds would get seriously burned out.  But what is enough to count?  Not just in hours but in output? And how do you indicate that a class is at a lower level on the transcript?  Or do you?

 

Thanks!

Ruth

 

[regentrude]

You do NOT indicate that a class was "light".

Any class with no special designation is considered to be good enough for high school credit.

You indicate if a class goes beyond that, a college class, or and "honors" class which some people call their more rigorous classes.

 

Having followed your posts over the years, I cannot imagine you have any class that could be considered light. (You may have no idea what passes for a credit in high school here)

Nobody will question the rigor of every class if your DS' transcript shows his strengths and he has good test scores.

 

ETA: I don't require lots of output in every course. Sometimes you just listen and learn. I find that there is often an overemphasis on copious output at the expense of quality input. 

Edited March 3, 2017 by regentrude

[lewelma]

You do NOT indicate that a class was "light".

Any class with no special designation is considered to be good enough for high school credit.

You indicate if a class goes beyond that, a college class, or and "honors" class which some people call their more rigorous classes.

 

Having followed your posts over the years, I cannot imagine you have any class that could be considered light. (You may have no idea what passes for a credit in high school here)

Nobody will question the rigor of every class if your DS' transcript shows his strengths and he has good test scores.

 

ETA: I don't require lots of output in every course. Sometimes you just listen and learn. I find that there is often an overemphasis on copious output at the expense of quality input. 

Edited March 3, 2017 by lewelma

[EKS]

You do NOT indicate that a class was "light".

 

This!

 

In my documentation, I said that all of my son's courses required at least 150 hours on task, and then I let my course descriptions speak for themselves concerning which were honors level (all of the academic classes) and which were light ( viola and sailing, for example).

[lewelma]

Sorry, Regentrude for that odd quote.  My computer blew up and I've had to reboot.

 

So I won't mention light! haha.

 

My concern was two fold.  First of all I have no idea how to label honors so I just wasn't going to try, which then seems to make all the courses of equal difficulty.  His Modern World History class is just not equal to his Intermediate Number Theory.  You think that universities can tell this?  Or they don't really worry too much?

 

 Second, was the issue of output.  I'm glad to hear, Regentrude, that you don't require heaps of output because I was thinking of certain courses as light because there was less output than other courses.  I guess I am *really* not clear on what makes an American course besides hours.  Here in NZ the assessments are nationally moderated, so all kids study the same material, do the same assessments, and they are graded in an equal manner. 

 

So how do you write up a course description that is mostly a reading and discussion class?

[EKS]

So how do you write up a course description that is mostly a reading and discussion class?

 

I didn't actually mention output or how I graded for any class.  I figured that doing so was potentially opening a can of worms.  I wrote one or two sentences about the course in general followed by the resources used.

 

Here's an example:

 

Geography: This course focused on material generally studied in an introductory geography course at the college level and included the following topics: landforms, weather and climate, cycles in the biosphere, population and migration, cultural geography, languages and religions, the human food supply, resources and environmental protection, cities and urbanization, political geography, economic growth, and globalization. The text used was Introduction to Geography: People, Places, and Environment by Edward Bergman and William H. Renwick. Additional readings included Longitude, Salt: A World History, Fast Food Nation, Material World: A Global Family Portrait, and Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. (1 credit)

Edited March 3, 2017 by EKS

[regentrude]

My concern was two fold.  First of all I have no idea how to label honors so I just wasn't going to try, which then seems to make all the courses of equal difficulty.  His Modern World History class is just not equal to his Intermediate Number Theory.  You think that universities can tell this?  Or they don't really worry too much?

 

 Second, was the issue of output.  I'm glad to hear, Regentrude, that you don't require heaps of output because I was thinking of certain courses as light because there was less output than other courses.  I guess I am *really* not clear on what makes an American course besides hours.  Here in NZ the assessments are nationally moderated, so all kids study the same material, do the same assessments, and they are graded in an equal manner. 

 

 

 

1. I don't think universities worry about the rigor of each individual course. They see that the student has completed a coursework spanning all required areas, they can tell that some courses are above and beyond what is typical for high school; they see the test scores (a student with great course titles and crummy course scores will have some explaining to do); they see his IMO achievement.

Do you really believe they worry for a second whether his history class was of the same rigor than his math course?

 

These people are also not stupid; they know that to focus and do extraordinary work in math and music it is necessary to do more typical work in other subjects - because there is only finite time.

 

2. There is no "American course". Not even hours are standardized. Public school courses vary so widely! I have students who took high school physics tell me I covered everything they did in that entire year during the first two weeks of our college course. So having spent 160 hours means absolutely nothing because they learned so little.

We have no national exams. Students from small rural high schools often receive a pathetic high school education - your DS probably did more in 6th grade than they do in some subjects in hs.

You have high standards. List the courses you did. You can be almost certain that your requirements exceeded what is typical for an average public high school in the US. And I know definitely that many of your courses are on par with what is taught in college.

[regentrude]

So how do you write up a course description that is mostly a reading and discussion class?

 

Forgot to address this question in my other answer:

 

Here is an example of a course description that mentions no output: for a course DD unschooled, for which there was no written output:

 

World Literature: 1800-Modern.  1.0 credit.

This course covers World literature of the 19^th and 20^th centuries with a focus on British literature. Major works studied include Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, Oliver Twist, 1984, Age of Innocence, The Master and Margarita, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Queen of Spades, as well as plays and poetry by various authors.

The student developed familiarity with literary terms and literary analysis in different genres and participated in the Great Books Club of XX University, where classic works of literature were discussed under the guidance of English faculty.The student watched four live performances of plays.

Textbook: Essential Literary Terms by Sharon Hamilton.

 

This description does not mention output:

 

 

20^th Century History. 1.0 credit

This is a course of US and World history of the 20^th century.

Textbooks:  A Short History of the 20^th Century by Geoffrey Blainey.

The student listened to the following audio lectures by the Teaching Company:

World War I: The Great War (36 lectures, Prof. Vejas Liulevicius)

World War II: A Military and Social History (30 lectures, Prof. Thomas Childers)

[lewelma]

Thanks so much!  I think I've got it!  :thumbup1:

 

If you have time, would you guys go over to the college board and look at my thread on 'does current events count as history?'  I am starting to kick around how to parse out all the hours he does and has done in history/social sciences into some sort of recognizable coursework. Because he was not planning to apply to American universities, I did not set these courses out ahead of time, and am now needing to go back through my records and figure out what he has done and what he has left to do in this area.

[Janeway]

You do NOT indicate that a class was "light".

Any class with no special designation is considered to be good enough for high school credit.

You indicate if a class goes beyond that, a college class, or and "honors" class which some people call their more rigorous classes.

 

Having followed your posts over the years, I cannot imagine you have any class that could be considered light. (You may have no idea what passes for a credit in high school here)

Nobody will question the rigor of every class if your DS' transcript shows his strengths and he has good test scores.

 

ETA: I don't require lots of output in every course. Sometimes you just listen and learn. I find that there is often an overemphasis on copious output at the expense of quality input.

I am going to 100% agree with this.

[Julie of KY]

Agreeing with the above advice.