Can I count these 2 LA classes separately on a transcript?

[athena1277]

For 2 years of high school, dd took a full year writing class through TPS.  One is honors, one is AP.  Those years she used another curriculum for literature, because the TPS courses included little to no literature.  I want to be able to give a weighted GPA like most high schools do, so I really don’t want to have to average the writing and lit into 1 grade because it wasn’t all honors or AP level.  I may have to fight my cover school on this, so please share any advice or thoughts, especially if you’ve BTDT.

[cintinative]

Was it a comp and lit class?  Or just comp? 

This next year my son is taking English 3 Confident Composition (writing only--I think they do use some short stories as material for discussion) and a literature class from a separate provider. I am going to award one credit for each because the provider indicates it is one credit for each.

 

[Momto6inIN]

I would think more about what your DD's transcript will look like as a whole. Most college will expect 6 credits per year, possibly 7 or for a very very ambitious student 8, but any more than that might make some of them suspect transcript inflation (not that I am implying you are doing that, not at all!) Will it make sense to have 2 English courses? Will 1 be considered an elective?

[cintinative]

1 hour ago, Momto6inIN said:

I would think more about what your DD's transcript will look like as a whole. Most college will expect 6 credits per year, possibly 7 or for a very very ambitious student 8, but any more than that might make some of them suspect transcript inflation (not that I am implying you are doing that, not at all!) Will it make sense to have 2 English courses? Will 1 be considered an elective?

 

I'm a little worried about this. We are taking lit with Angelina Stanford and comp with TPS. I was going to use Write at Home but my son really wanted a live class, so that means I can't adjust the time we spend. I would have vastly preferred a lit plus comp class but couldn't find a good fit for this kid for this time period of lit.  I do think our English 2 lit plus comp class this past year, which was for credit, was light on the lit side. I did add a good amount of lit myself, like the OP, but I don't plan on giving a credit for the extra work. I will add some of the books to the course description though.

[Momto6inIN]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

 

I'm a little worried about this. We are taking lit with Angelina Stanford and comp with TPS. I was going to use Write at Home but my son really wanted a live class, so that means I can't adjust the time we spend. I would have vastly preferred a lit plus comp class but couldn't find a good fit for this kid for this time period of lit.  I do think our English 2 lit plus comp class this past year, which was for credit, was light on the lit side. I did add a good amount of lit myself, like the OP, but I don't plan on giving a credit for the extra work. I will add some of the books to the course description though.

I totally see what you're saying, and I understand - I would want to award credit for their hard work and time too!

I just think for us, if my kid was consistently spending 2 or more hours per day just on English, and it wasn't an AP course, I would feel like that was lopsided when it came to balancing their time. So it would make me rethink their course schedule because that many English credits would not leave room for other valuable things in their schedule.

YMMV though. If those courses are what your kid wants to do, and they realize that choosing that of necessity means they are also choosing *not* to do other things to put on their transcript, then have at it 🙂

[cintinative]

1 hour ago, Momto6inIN said:

I totally see what you're saying, and I understand - I would want to award credit for their hard work and time too!

I just think for us, if my kid was consistently spending 2 or more hours per day just on English, and it wasn't an AP course, I would feel like that was lopsided when it came to balancing their time. So it would make me rethink their course schedule because that many English credits would not leave room for other valuable things in their schedule.

YMMV though. If those courses are what your kid wants to do, and they realize that choosing that of necessity means they are also choosing *not* to do other things to put on their transcript, then have at it 🙂

 

Unfortunately I think my oldest is going to be my guinea pig for how this system works. I am concerned that it will be too much, and I don't see him as an "english-centered" kid.  We'll have to see how it goes--but I share your view that in general 2 hours of English is too much. I don't think he quite knows what to think about how many hours this will take. I don't either to be honest.  😃

This past year for English 2 we didn't spend an hour a day, so I am hoping (perhaps wrongly) that the English 3 composition will be on the light side. The reading list for Angelina Stanford is modest as well--she follows the less is more approach. So my hope is that both will prove to be on the lighter side hours wise.  If it doesn't work out that way, I hope to convince my son to an a la carte type composition course like Write at Home for his 10th grade year where we can just do eight weeks or so at a time to get the comp coverage we need.  Either that, or I am going to have to take over lit, and I have very little confidence in my abilities to cover high school lit the same way as Angelina Stanford.  LOL. 

I am such a science and math girl. I just wish planning English was easier sometimes.  😃

 

 

[Aloha2U]

3 hours ago, Momto6inIN said:

I totally see what you're saying, and I understand - I would want to award credit for their hard work and time too!

I just think for us, if my kid was consistently spending 2 or more hours per day just on English, and it wasn't an AP course, I would feel like that was lopsided when it came to balancing their time. So it would make me rethink their course schedule because that many English credits would not leave room for other valuable things in their schedule.

YMMV though. If those courses are what your kid wants to do, and they realize that choosing that of necessity means they are also choosing *not* to do other things to put on their transcript, then have at it 🙂

I’ll be the dissenter and entirely disagree with the aforementioned. AP courses are not the end-all-be-all, making certain course credits valid and non-AP course credits invalid. Also, one does not necessarily have to choose to *not* do other things. It is possible and credible to have more credits, and not from any AP or even DE courses.

[Aloha2U]

On 7/3/2020 at 12:48 PM, athena1277 said:

For 2 years of high school, dd took a full year writing class through TPS.  One is honors, one is AP.  Those years she used another curriculum for literature, because the TPS courses included little to no literature.  I want to be able to give a weighted GPA like most high schools do, so I really don’t want to have to average the writing and lit into 1 grade because it wasn’t all honors or AP level.  I may have to fight my cover school on this, so please share any advice or thoughts, especially if you’ve BTDT.

If your student earned the credit and you have documented proof (e.g., work samples, course descriptions, a student portfolio), then I would not hesitate to give separate credit for each.

Perhaps you could have two transcripts, one weighted and one unweighted, or just show both data on one. I mention this because my young man’s preferred colleges require unweighted transcripts, but most of the possible scholarships accept and prefer weighted transcripts.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Mom21

[Momto6inIN]

8 hours ago, Mom21 said:

I’ll be the dissenter and entirely disagree with the aforementioned. AP courses are not the end-all-be-all, making certain course credits valid and non-AP course credits invalid. Also, one does not necessarily have to choose to *not* do other things. It is possible and credible to have more credits, and not from any AP or even DE courses.

I think you misunderstood my post.

First, I don't think AP courses are all that great, TBH. And I certainly don't think they are more valid than any other course. I just meant that 2 hours per day is typical time spent for an AP course, and not typical for a regular course. So while I would expect an AP course to take my kid 2+ hours per day, if my kid was taking a non-AP course and still spending that amount of time, I would reevaluate our schedule.

Second, my comment about how choosing 1 thing means not choosing another thing was just a comment about time management. Anytime we choose to do a certain activity, there are invariably quite a few other activities we could have done during that time but choose not to. Sometimes I think we as hs moms tend to think we can do all the things and have our kids do all the courses and use all the resources, but the reality is that choosing to pack your kid's academic schedule means there are other things they won't do. It's a valid choice and if you (general you) want to do that and it's best for your kid to do then by all means do it! But acknowledge that it's a choice.

I do think that having more than 7 or possibly 8 high school credits per year will be looked at questionably by most college admissions unless it is a clearly competitive league top tier academically gifted and motivated student.

Edited July 5, 2020 by Momto6inIN

[Aloha2U]

3 hours ago, Momto6inIN said:

I think you misunderstood my post.

First, I don't think AP courses are all that great, TBH. And I certainly don't think they are more valid than any other course. I just meant that 2 hours per day is typical time spent for an AP course, and not typical for a regular course. So while I would expect an AP course to take my kid 2+ hours per day, if my kid was taking a non-AP course and still spending that amount of time, I would reevaluate our schedule.

Second, my comment about how choosing 1 thing means not choosing another thing was just a comment about time management. Anytime we choose to do a certain activity, there are invariably quite a few other activities we could have done during that time but choose not to. Sometimes I think we as hs moms tend to think we can do all the things and have our kids do all the courses and use all the resources, but the reality is that choosing to pack your kid's academic schedule means there are other things they won't do. It's a valid choice and if you (general you) want to do that and it's best for your kid to do then by all means do it! But acknowledge that it's a choice.

I do think that having more than 7 or possibly 8 high school credits per year will be looked at questionably by most college admissions unless it is a clearly competitive league top tier academically gifted and motivated student.

No misunderstanding.  I merely pointed out that there is another way, and it’s not a wrong way. Further explanation to restate and push your opinion was not necessary. It’s clear that we just do not agree.

[MamaSprout]

Our local high school uses the block system, and the academic kids have 8 credits a year, although in 9th and 10th those include lots of things like health and art. Colleges are used to seeing those transcripts, too.

Dd had 1.5 credit for English this year. 1 for Literature and .5 for Rhetoric. I had planned to do .5 for each, but by the time we finished Lit, which spilled over into summer, it was clearly worth a credit. I would list each part separately, even if it's a partial credit.