Interest Led Electives

[DoraBora]

How do you assign credit for electives?  Do you require your student to complete written work for each one?

I ask this because ds (a junior) is very interested in fitness and nutrition.  He has learned quite a lot about training and sports nutrition because he is interested in it.  Is reading books and putting what he has learned into practice enough, or should I also require him to prepare a presentation, complete some kind of project, or take a test?

He also loves computer hardware (building computers and robots, etc.).  Same question...  Is reading, research, and practical application enough for high school credit?  (I would base credits on the number of hours spent on each.)

[Lori D.]

Hopefully others will jump in with specific ideas for you for these specific courses you want to design, and with advice about amount of material/time, rigor of "input" (resources used for learning), and "output" (ways of demonstrating learning).

You might also find some of these past threads helpful. Links to these threads, and others, are organized under the heading of "DIY and Out-of-the-Box Courses", which is on page 5 of "High School Motherlode #2", the big pinned thread at the top of the High School Board:

making your own courses
Interest driven education and *real* tea time (how to design your own course of study)
How to design theme-based study (including input/output) like 8FillTheHeart, Corraleno, etc
How do you design your own course?
What makes a course transcript-worthy? (see Sue in St Pete's response for a massive list of "output" ideas!)

[DoraBora]

Thank you, Lori.  ?  I still don't have the knack of searching for threads!

[Lori D.]

21 minutes ago, DoraBora said:

Thank you, Lori.  ?  I still don't have the knack of searching for threads!

Totally with you on that -- I find it has become progressively harder to do searches with each new board update. Hopefully, most of the helpful threads are linked in those pinned "motherlode" threads at the top of the high school and college boards! (:D

[Farrar]

I would personally feel uncomfortable giving high school credit for something with no written work whatsoever. However, I'd be okay with the written work primarily be reflective about practical implementation or experiences.

Without the written piece, it's an extracurricular, I think.

[regentrude]

I didn't require written output for most electives like Art, music appreciation,  PE, culinary chemistry. I didn't assign letter grades, just P.

Edited October 13, 2018 by regentrude

[kokotg]

For an elective I really wouldn't worry that much about it; I'd give credit if you're confident he's putting in the time and taking it seriously. Maybe a short oral presentation at the end where he talks about the experience and what he's learned from his research? (which is a good skill to work on anyway). I think it's different than if you were designing a non-traditional course meant to be a core class (if he were doing something with computers in place of another science one year, for example). We're doing a history of baseball class this year (starting as soon as the World Series is over ? ). It's mostly going to be reading and watching movies and documentaries, but I think I'll have my kids do a few book reviews and then a final paper or project (after AP and DE exams are over in the spring, when most everything else has wrapped up). I'm giving them half a credit for it. But that's a class that lends itself to written work. 

[DoraBora]

1 hour ago, Lori D. said:

Totally with you on that -- I find it has become progressively harder to do searches with each new board update. Hopefully, most of the helpful threads are linked in those pinned "motherlode" threads at the top of the high school and college boards! (:D

 

I forget to check the "motherlode" threads when I'm looking for something specific ?, though I love to read them just to learn new things.  

1 hour ago, Farrar said:

I would personally feel uncomfortable giving high school credit for something with no written work whatsoever. However, I'd be okay with the written work primarily be reflective about practical implementation or experiences.

Without the written piece, it's an extracurricular, I think.

 

This is why I was struggling, but he has so many core classes and I'd like him to have more electives without adding to his "schooley" work.  Studying fitness and computer hardware stuff fill much of his non-school time...

1 hour ago, regentrude said:

I didn't require written output for most electives like Art, music appreciation,  PE, culinary chemistry. I didn't assign letter grades, just P.

 

I hadn't considered grading that way.  Converting an elective I took in college to pass/fail saved my gpa...  ?

26 minutes ago, kokotg said:

For an elective I really wouldn't worry that much about it; I'd give credit if you're confident he's putting in the time and taking it seriously. Maybe a short oral presentation at the end where he talks about the experience and what he's learned from his research? (which is a good skill to work on anyway). I think it's different than if you were designing a non-traditional course meant to be a core class (if he were doing something with computers in place of another science one year, for example). We're doing a history of baseball class this year (starting as soon as the World Series is over ? ). It's mostly going to be reading and watching movies and documentaries, but I think I'll have my kids do a few book reviews and then a final paper or project (after AP and DE exams are over in the spring, when most everything else has wrapped up). I'm giving them half a credit for it. But that's a class that lends itself to written work. 

 

He's definitely serious about both, and he gives me informal oral presentations nearly every day!  You're right that some subjects work better with written output.

(The baseball history class sounds so fun!)

Thank you all for your help!

[klmama]

We converted some personal interests into electives.  I did require written essays so that there was concrete output.

[DoraBora]

1 hour ago, klmama said:

We converted some personal interests into electives.  I did require written essays so that there was concrete output.

 

How many essays?

[klmama]

 

4 hours ago, DoraBora said:

How many essays?

That depended on the course. 

One of my dc loved reading the news and so had a half-credit current events course.  In addition to daily discussion and debate, I required dc to write a short, informative essay (1-3 pages) every week or two on a topic of interest, plus write a final exam that required a 1-2 paragraph summary of each topic listed.  That course had 11 essays. 

Another dc read numerous books by the experts in dc's field of interest for a half-credit course.  In addition to discussion, I had that dc give several oral presentations and write 3 research papers (5-8 pages) on topics of interest, plus write a final exam.  

ETA:  One of my dc was also really into exercise and put a lot of time into researching best training practices, but I didn't require any written work for P.E.; my evaluation was based on dc meeting time requirements, showing understanding of proper technique, and either meeting age-appropriate fitness guidelines (in 9th and 10th grades) or, meeting personal improvement goals (11th and 12th).  Dc put in at least 180 hours of intense, well-planned physical activity each year with a clear progression of skills, and so I had no qualms about granting four full credits for P.E.  It dovetailed with dc's career goals at that time (exercise kinesiologist) and would have made perfect sense to any admissions officer reading dc's transcript and application. 

Edited October 14, 2018 by klmama

[2_girls_mommy]

For most of our interest driven I will not require much written work because the hands on projects are the output. One of my dds is heavily into art. She reads art history and works on painting and drawing and other projects on her own constantly on top of doing the assignments from her co-op class and home chosen online art class. She has also done enough work for a home ec credit, even if that isn;t a common elective anymore. She has done a once a week co-op class that could have gone either way- an extra curricular or an elective. But she completed the assignments there (sewing an apron from a pattern, some cooking, and cleaning, and health and other activities,) and then completed more at home- we got another teacher to do a more in depth sewing project with her. She entered all into the state fair and won ribbons. She has been cooking at home which requires writing recipes occasionally. She has entered cooking contests at the fair as well. She has learned about converting recipes to vegan and other topics and the output is the actual cooking and shopping for these. She chooses girl scout badges that line up with these topics (currently doing one on local foods and will include field trips, shopping, chemistry dealing with calories, and other related issues and the other she chose for the year is a home decorating badge). So I include the work she does for these in her class hours because she works during the school day on them too, not just at her meetings and with the troop. 

My other dd doesn't put as much time into her interests, but one was piano. Once she started lessons and seriously practicing, I gave her credit for music- no written work required. She has played in recitals and at church. That is her output. Then she likes photography. She doesn't work enough at it for a credit, so if she chooses to use it for an elective, I will probably require her to do a specific course with assignments and readings. At one point she was really into it, but hasn't been lately. 

 

[8filltheheart]

You get decide as the teacher what the input and output needs to be. I rarely give my kids any kind of exam, so testing is definitely not how I determine grade. For a nutrition course I would probably have the student generate a week's worth of meals (providing the nutritional information for all components of every meal)  based on the nutritional information  they have been studying and include in that the best methods of cooking/shopping (purchasing) for highest nutritional value. Then I would probably have them actually stick to the diet for a week (being responsible for the meal prep) and keep a daily log of their thoughts on ease/realistic opinion of that day's selections, and after the week have them do some sort of write up on the experience and changes/new goals they think should have been incorporated.

Edited October 16, 2018 by 8FillTheHeart