Quick question on transcripts

[pehp]

If your child were heavily involved in theatre, would you include theatrical hours as a *credit* on the transcript for drama, or would you simply add this to "activities?" I'm torn.  My son puts in probably 200+ hours per year into theatre so it surely deserves some attention, but at the same time, I feel ridiculous awarding him an A (although he does do a great job!).

FWIW, we are not lacking credits.  By the end of 10th grade we'll have 13 credits and they're all hard academic ones (no PE, no arts, no electives other than theology). 

[EKS]

I think that if you want to showcase his interests, it's probably best to keep the drama as an activity.  That said, if you are requiring arts credits to graduate, he will need something in that slot.  If all he has is drama, you could take the work from the first year (or two) and make it into a credit (or two) and then put the rest under activities.  We did this with my son's instrument, and it worked fine (for fairly selective out of state flagships as well as the in-state flagship).

[SanDiegoMom]

I think it would be best as an activity, except as mentioned above if he needs a fine arts credit.  My daughter is all in on ballet - started out in 9th grade at 12 hours per week and is up to 15, 10 months a year, with four week intensives in the summer.  She has no option to have it as part of school anyway, and since she doesn't do very much besides ballet it would look very bare to not have it highlighted as the most important extracurricular. 

[pehp]

10 hours ago, EKS said:

I think that if you want to showcase his interests, it's probably best to keep the drama as an activity.  That said, if you are requiring arts credits to graduate, he will need something in that slot.  If all he has is drama, you could take the work from the first year (or two) and make it into a credit (or two) and then put the rest under activities.  We did this with my son's instrument, and it worked fine (for fairly selective out of state flagships as well as the in-state flagship).

So far I haven’t included any fine arts as a graduation requirement. He is advanced-intermediate at piano and has also done a lot of art, so we won’t be hurting for *something* to fulfill that requirement. I guess that begs another question: should I require a fine arts credit? 🤔 🤷🏻‍♀️

[pehp]

6 hours ago, SanDiegoMom said:

I think it would be best as an activity, except as mentioned above if he needs a fine arts credit.  My daughter is all in on ballet - started out in 9th grade at 12 hours per week and is up to 15, 10 months a year, with four week intensives in the summer.  She has no option to have it as part of school anyway, and since she doesn't do very much besides ballet it would look very bare to not have it highlighted as the most important extracurricular. 

Our daughters must be on the same wavelength! My 12 year old is at about 13 hours per week—except, of course, right now. 27 last week and 50 next week. Can you say “Nutcracker?” 😳🙈🥵

[SanDiegoMom]

11 minutes ago, pehp said:

Our daughters must be on the same wavelength! My 12 year old is at about 13 hours per week—except, of course, right now. 27 last week and 50 next week. Can you say “Nutcracker?” 😳🙈🥵

I am so glad for this to be her last year! It's just so much! 

[8filltheheart]

28 minutes ago, pehp said:

So far I haven’t included any fine arts as a graduation requirement. He is advanced-intermediate at piano and has also done a lot of art, so we won’t be hurting for *something* to fulfill that requirement. I guess that begs another question: should I require a fine arts credit? 🤔 🤷🏻‍♀️

I include a fine arts cr on my kids' transcripts.  Is it necessary?  Depends on the school, but it is necessary for them to meet my requirements.  A fine arts cr is just a single (small) step toward a balanced education. Some of my kids have only had art or music history.  Others have had a combo.  I'm not quite sure how I'll handle my youngest who is both a singer and a musician.  At this pt she only has performance/training type background, but I will require her to take music history bc if she majors in music, she will be required to take music history.

[pehp]

21 minutes ago, SanDiegoMom said:

I am so glad for this to be her last year! It's just so much! 

I feel this acutely. It is SO much. 

[Eos]

For my musician dd I teased out music-related academic learning (theory, music history, aural skills) from performance practice (lessons, practicing, rehearsals, and performance.) Performance practice went in the activities slot.  For the rest - she put in the hours, she earned the credit.

In the OP's context, I would guess there are elements of theater that can be divided this way: history, stage management, tech?  I don't know if your ds did any of these but if you want to acknowledge his mastery of theater practice other than rehearsals and performance, you might see some credit-worthy units.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Eos

[EKS]

9 hours ago, pehp said:

So far I haven’t included any fine arts as a graduation requirement. He is advanced-intermediate at piano and has also done a lot of art, so we won’t be hurting for *something* to fulfill that requirement. I guess that begs another question: should I require a fine arts credit? 🤔 🤷🏻‍♀️

I required two because I was claiming in my documentation that our homeschool requirements met or exceeded the requirements of the local (well regarded) high school.

[Farrar]

If a student is involved enough, you can break it up. They can have a theater credit (acting class, etc.) and an activity (the performances, etc.). My theater kid had theater as an activity (multiple shows doing tech, stage managing, acting, and also a summer job working at a theater) and had a drama class for English where he watched and read plays. My dance kid had ballet as an activity but also his stretch and conditioning was a PE credit. I just worked with a kid who had dance history because it was a component of their dance program. They counted that as a half credit and the rest as an activity.

I second that having a fine arts or performing arts credit or credits is a positive thing. Many schooled students will have both a class and activity if they were heavily involved in an art at the school.

[pehp]

19 minutes ago, Farrar said:

If a student is involved enough, you can break it up. They can have a theater credit (acting class, etc.) and an activity (the performances, etc.). My theater kid had theater as an activity (multiple shows doing tech, stage managing, acting, and also a summer job working at a theater) and had a drama class for English where he watched and read plays. My dance kid had ballet as an activity but also his stretch and conditioning was a PE credit. I just worked with a kid who had dance history because it was a component of their dance program. They counted that as a half credit and the rest as an activity.

I second that having a fine arts or performing arts credit or credits is a positive thing. Many schooled students will have both a class and activity if they were heavily involved in an art at the school.

That’s helpful-thanks! So far I’ve only been really recording and describing the “academic” credits, but we have WAY more than enough for one fine arts credit. 
 

Along similar lines, what about PE? Again, I’ve just ignored it because I am focused on the academics. Between hiking the AT and involvement in ballet (he’s not a dancer but he gets roped into being in ballets as a sort of “warm body who can also partner with girls in party scenes”), we’ve definitely got enough hours for a couple of PE credits. I’ve never placed much mental value on that, but perhaps it would be good to include those on a transcript as well. 

[Lori D.]

12 hours ago, pehp said:

So far I haven’t included any fine arts as a graduation requirement. He is advanced-intermediate at piano and has also done a lot of art, so we won’t be hurting for *something* to fulfill that requirement. I guess that begs another question: should I require a fine arts credit?

What do the colleges he wants to apply to require for admission? If one or more list a credit of Fine Arts in their required credits, I would list a credit, just to reduce possibility of raising any red flags on his transcript and potentially having to deal with an admissions officer who has decided to go "strictly by the book" about transcripts and requirements.

That said, I would guess that if a college requires a Fine Arts credit, that would be a subject they are likely to be flexible about, esp. if he has credits over the required amount in academic subjects such as Math, Science, and English.

Just my 2 cents worth. 😉

 

37 minutes ago, pehp said:

... Along similar lines, what about PE?...

I've never seen PE as a required credit for college admission. PE is an Elective, and colleges just require some Electives as part of the required credits -- Electives can be anything. 

But you do want to have some Electives on the transcript. Some ideas for Electives:

Computer
Logic
Business
PE and/or Health
Religious Studies
Vocational-Tech
Personal Interest (done as a course of study or learning projects)
Consumer Sciences (the old "Home Ec")
Personal Finance
Public Speaking
Career Exploration
Driver's Ed
additional credits in Fine Arts

And of course, there are Academic Electives
(additional credits in English, Math, Science, Soc. Studies, or For. Lang. beyond the required # of credits for high school graduation / college admission

Edited December 4, 2023 by Lori D.

[pehp]

22 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

What do the colleges he wants to apply to require for admission? If one or more list a credit of Fine Arts in their required credits, I would list a credit, just to reduce possibility of raising any red flags on his transcript and potentially having to deal with an admissions officer who has decided to go "strictly by the book" about transcripts and requirements.

That said, I would guess that if a college requires a Fine Arts credit, that would be a subject they are likely to be flexible about, esp. if he has credits over the required amount in academic subjects such as Math, Science, and English.

Just my 2 cents worth. 😉

 

I've never seen PE as a required credit for college admission. PE is an Elective, and colleges just require some Electives as part of the required credits -- Electives can be anything. 

But you do want to have some Electives on the transcript. Some ideas for Electives:

Computer
Logic
Business
PE and/or Health
Religious Studies
Vocational-Tech
Personal Interest (done as a course of study or learning projects)
Consumer Sciences (the old "Home Ec")
Personal Finance
Public Speaking
Career Exploration
Driver's Ed
additional credits in Fine Arts

And of course, there are Academic Electives
(additional credits in English, Math, Science, Soc. Studies, or For. Lang. beyond the required # of credits for high school graduation / college admission

The colleges we’ve examined so far do not list fine arts…..or PE…..I’ve obsessively made lists. Ha! 

His electives are likely mostly going to be academic in nature, like extra foreign languages, or Econ, theology, etc. After this year (10th grade) he will have fulfilled *most* of his required-for-college basics, and so junior and senior years will be a chance to focus on what he really likes, which are things like theology, languages, philosophy, etc…..(we could graduate him early but no one is in a rush for that around here!). 

[Farrar]

The UC's want fine arts but it's not a common base requirement. I'd say it looks good for a student the same way that 4 years of a language, a credit in computer science, a credit in econ, a credit in government, etc. looks good.

For PE, colleges don't care. So if it's better as an activity, do that. It just depends. But if you required a kid to stay active and do things that aren't great as an activity (a random assortment of stuff, for example) maybe that's better as a half credit or credit in PE. You decide.

[ByGrace3]

We did a mix. For my dd who had a lot of hours of piano/performance I counted it as a credit of fine arts each year. She also had a bunch of hours in sports extracurriculars that I counted one year as PE and the rest was just an activity. 

[teachermom2834]

Just as a reference- my dd is in private school and she has both. Last year she took Intro to Theatre as her fine arts elective and she also performed in two shows, belonged to the drama club and was the freshman representative on the drama club student council. So just for 9th grade she has theatre showing up as a credit, an activity, another club, and a leadership position. She also worked stage tech for various school functions and community performances so you can even pull service out of there. And she isn’t even that into theatre. So, while you don’t want to double dip, you don’t need to shortchange either. Brick and mortar kids get so many activities and leaderships positions etc from the same but technically different but similar activities. All of those activities of dd were separate and had different kids in them and they were legitimately different things, technically. But yeah, she isn’t as into theatre as your kid or even have any talent. It’s just fun for her.

This year it is dance. She is taking dance class as her PE but she danced at a studio last year and that is a different thing altogether and she had other ancillary activities to that. 
 

She is currently on the robotics team and she is president of the robotics club. Which are two different things but I promise you sound way more impressive than they are. If she was enrolled in the STEM course that would be a credit, too. 
 

So, having graduated 3 from my homeschool and now have my last in brick and mortar school I can say, don’t shortchange your kids on grades and credit for what they do. Don’t make stuff up, that’s unethical and makes everyone look bad. But don’t hold them to a standard that is not comparable to peers either. 

[pehp]

10 hours ago, teachermom2834 said:

Just as a reference- my dd is in private school and she has both. Last year she took Intro to Theatre as her fine arts elective and she also performed in two shows, belonged to the drama club and was the freshman representative on the drama club student council. So just for 9th grade she has theatre showing up as a credit, an activity, another club, and a leadership position. She also worked stage tech for various school functions and community performances so you can even pull service out of there. And she isn’t even that into theatre. So, while you don’t want to double dip, you don’t need to shortchange either. Brick and mortar kids get so many activities and leaderships positions etc from the same but technically different but similar activities. All of those activities of dd were separate and had different kids in them and they were legitimately different things, technically. But yeah, she isn’t as into theatre as your kid or even have any talent. It’s just fun for her.

This year it is dance. She is taking dance class as her PE but she danced at a studio last year and that is a different thing altogether and she had other ancillary activities to that. 
 

She is currently on the robotics team and she is president of the robotics club. Which are two different things but I promise you sound way more impressive than they are. If she was enrolled in the STEM course that would be a credit, too. 
 

So, having graduated 3 from my homeschool and now have my last in brick and mortar school I can say, don’t shortchange your kids on grades and credit for what they do. Don’t make stuff up, that’s unethical and makes everyone look bad. But don’t hold them to a standard that is not comparable to peers either. 

That’s a helpful frame of reference—thank you!! I think we’ll be doing 1-2 credits and then the rest activities! 👍

[EKS]

On 12/4/2023 at 7:23 AM, pehp said:

Along similar lines, what about PE?

Same this as with the arts--the local high school required two credits so I required two credits (including a semester of health).

[catz]

I am late to this thread, sorry.  Both my kids had a lot of performing arts stuff (music and theater for the most part, some dance) so I thought I'd share.  We broke stuff up.

Private lessons and structured classes did go to transcript.  I did cap those credit numbers at some point.  I used dance to fill PE requirements.  Class hours were typically much higher than they would have been for a typical high school class.  I spelled out rigor in class descriptions.

Group lessons (orchestra, singing ensemble, etc) or auditioned theater we listed under activities.  And yes, hundreds of hours of that.  My kids did shows with runs as long as 6 weeks and 50+ performances with other appearances.  They did have an additional resume to submit where allowed.  

[MagistraKennedy]

On 12/3/2023 at 11:02 PM, SanDiegoMom said:

I am so glad for this to be her last year! It's just so much! 

But y'all ---- the community (at least where I am) ADORES the Nutcracker.