Beth in OH

[Sandra in FL]

You mentioned that your dc took the Scholar's Online lit classes. Would you please comment on what you/they thought of the classes, which class they took in which grade, etc. ?

 

Was the Western Lit too much reading? The combo of Write@Home (not too much writing) & SO seems to have worked well for your dc.

 

Dd (currently a 7th grader) is not sure yet whether she wants to go to public school in high school. So I'm torn between planning what would be best long-term for her and cramming in as many classes as possible before she goes off to ps :-)

 

TIA,

Sandra

[Beth in OH]

Hi Sandra--

 

All three dd's have taken Lit classes through SO. Here's what they did:

 

Dd #1: 9th grade, Western Lit to Dante

10th grade, British Lit

11th grade, American Lit

 

Dd #2: 9th grade, Western Lit to Dante

10th grade, American Lit (w/special permission. She had a scheduling conflict with Brit Lit.)

11th grade, not homeschooling

 

Dd #3: 8th grade, World Lit--she'll go to alternative ps next year, but I wanted her to have some Dr. McM experience before she left.

 

As literature courses go, Dr. McM really knows his stuff. The students learn how to analyze literature and learn how to write exams for a demanding teacher. These two reasons have kept us coming back, despite the limitations I will describe. None of my dd's have loved the course, although they really like literature and are widely and well read (thanks to TWTM through the logic stage years!).

 

The first limitation is the technology that Scholars Online uses. Online text chat is the medium for the lecture/discussions, and it's slow and sometimes hard to follow. I can't really fault my dd for decorating the Christmas tree this week while she was in class. :glare: My dd's vastly prefer classes using Skype or another type of live voice communication.

 

The second limitation is the lack of frequent feedback. The feedback opportunities are pretty much limited to four exams per year, which are a combination of multiple choice, short answer and essay. Am Lit has a couple of papers/presentations, too. Sometimes the graded exams are rather slow in being returned. Especially for a young student, the inability to know where one stands can be quite uncomfortable. The flip side is that the students experience "college type" testing while still in high school. (Actually, I even had more graded opportunities in undergrad than my dd's had in Dr. McM's class).

 

Western Lit to Dante is the heaviest workload of the Lit. classes. For students who do not take World Lit in 8th grade (my 2 oldest), the learning curve for how to handle Western Lit is fairly steep. They are required to figure out workload, difficult reading material, Dr. McM's lecture style, lit analysis, and infrequent, difficult tests while participating in a class where the former World Lit students already have some of this exposure under their belts. My dd's found Western Lit to be the most difficult of the lit classes they took. That having been said, they handled it with what I considered to be age appropriate stress levels. Taking Write@Home concurrently was not an issue at all. I think the combination made for a well-rounded English experience.

 

I see that your dd is young. I would caution you about accelerating her in Dr. McM's classes. Those classes contain some brilliant, mature students. My dd's, who are bright girls themselves, were very aware of their shortcomings by comparison. In addition, Dr. McM is not a warm, fuzzy kind of guy. His style can be intimidating, even in internet chat format. :lol:

 

Beth

Edited December 6, 2008 by Beth in OH
clerical errors

[Sandra in FL]

for sharing. Next fall, dd will be 13 yr. old and an eighth grader. She's a voracious reader but hasn't done much literature analysis (compared to writing).

 

If she continues with home schooling, I would prefer the SO/W@H combo. If we're only going to home school for one more year, I was thinking about Home2Teach's high school honors program. It's got the literature (of course, not of the quality of Dr. M) and writing combined, but Miss Eileen is very "hands on" (unlike Dr. M).

 

How is your 8th grader doing in Dr. M's class? From his online description, it doesn't seem too stressful for an eighth grader.

 

Thanks again,

Sandra

[Beth in OH]

My 8th grader (she's 13) is doing fine in World Lit. It's a well-paced class, and it is a nice introduction to Dr. McM's style of teaching. In retrospect, my older dd's would have benefitted from beginning with this class in the 8th grade. At this point, we are planning next year for this dd to attend the same alternative school her older sister now attends. I wanted her to have this experience while she was still homeschooling. It has worked out well.

 

Beth