High-school Transcripts in a Relaxed Form

[DavidKelleyMay18]

I was quite overwhelmed at first when I was trying to figure out transcripts. I have a better idea now. I still have a few questions. When you are doing grades for the transcript do you have to do grades per semester or could I do 1 grade per year per subject. Also, for History we use Living Books. So for example I ask my children what they want to learn about. Last yr. my son wanted to learn about "The Civil War" and this year he said that he wanted to learn about "The Revolution War." So I look on-line for books in that period and get the books from the library. Since transcripts are grades how would that work when I am not grading History. I do have him write a paper about the book he reads, and we go through it together. But with no grades. I would be clueless how to even start on that.

Thanks!!

[Singingmom]

One grade per year per subject :)

You'll have to assign a grade for history, but that doesn't mean you'll have to stop using living books. Using a rubric (http://712educators.about.com/cs/rubrics/a/rubrics.htm)of some sort is a big help in grading writing. You can grade other things for history too, like a timeline, maps, copywork, etc. I hate grading and didn't do it before high school, so I'm not much help, more commiseration. :hug

[BarefootBetsy]

Well, speaking of relaxed: My parents just put down on my high school transcript whether I passed or failed and they only put down subjects that I'd passed :shifty

Teaching to mastery, FTW :tu

ETA - and I got into a very selective private college :yes

[cindergretta]

:popcorn (on my phone and don't want to lose this thread.)

[Codi]

:cup

[mamacat]

You can check and see what your state wants or even your local college if that is the plan. I could write "various materials and resources" for curric. After trying to be careful to make a transcript, our local college changed and said homeschoolers dont need a transcript anymore just an affadavit signed saying they have completed highschool studies - go figure........some schools dont even give grades here it is just a pass/fail thing

[DavidKelleyMay18]

One grade per year per subject :)

You'll have to assign a grade for history, but that doesn't mean you'll have to stop using living books. Using a rubric (http://712educators.about.com/cs/rubrics/a/rubrics.htm)of some sort is a big help in grading writing. You can grade other things for history too, like a timeline, maps, copywork, etc. I hate grading and didn't do it before high school, so I'm not much help, more commiseration. :hug

I wasn't sure if I had to do per semester. I am so glad to hear that I can do one grade per year per subject which means that I can just do it how I've been doing it as I've been doing all along for the subjects that I do grade. So could I possibly put down grades for some subjects and then pass for say History, or would that be a bad idea to do. Maybe there is some easy way to do grades? I see you say that I could grade for copy work, timeline etc.. I have pretty much always graded all subjects except when it has come to Science/History. With my younger kids I am trying to do it differently and not really grade though (only 8 yrs. and 6 yrs. old). I don't like the idea of grading papers that my oldest son has written about the book that he read. For a few reasons I don't want his heart of words to get a grade. Plus, the only thing I'd be able to grade for is spelling errors as the rest I'm pretty clueless on. But maybe for high-school I should grade it. After all in college all of his papers will be graded. I just don't like the idea. What do you think?? Any suggestions??

[mamacat]

It is harder to "grade" a paper hat is based more on opinion than % right or wrong.I personally would not bother grading each thing if you just need a grade - for GPA - for the eniire yr but just a grade based on how well you think he mastered the material covered or subject learned that yr.

[Singingmom]

For a few reasons I don't want his heart of words to get a grade.

ITU!

My oldest is NOT a writer, but he made progress this year and worked. I dreaded grading his writing so I didn't grade anything til the end of the year. :shifty I used a few rubrics and sat there with all his work... I'm sure I was much more gentle than a PS teacher would have been.

If you want 4 yr college to be an option, you should probably have grades rather than P/F for academic subjects. A community college won't even require a transcript, and if they transfer from CC to a 4 yr school the second school will look at the CC records rather than HS transcripts.

HSLDA has good info on filling out transcripts.

[BarefootBetsy]

I don't see how you can grade any other way than pass/fail if you teach subjects to mastery... and then if someone fails, they just keep trying until they get it or they do the equivalent of "dropping out" of the class and moving on to something else.

I understand how math problems and tests can be graded using percentages, but if you're not using numbered tests or "taking away points" for things then... :shrug3

Grades have never made much sense to me though :shifty I did attend public and private schools from 1st through most of 4th grade, but they didn't make sense to me then either.

---------- Post added at 02:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:17 PM ----------

I like the idea of evaluations much better. Several of my friends attended Evergreen State College in WA and here's their page on how they do evaluations instead of grades:

http://www.evergreen.edu/evaluations/

I realize that my background has extensively informed my views on grades, and if you can figure out how to do grades to your satisfaction, you probably should so that you appear to be more mainstream :yes But it really was never a problem for me to not have letter grades or percentages as part of my high school transcript :no

[Singingmom]

Betsy, that's good to know. I think I really did more of an evaluation with my son's history and language grades this year, except I didn't involve him. But I do feel like I have to end up with a grade. A carefully constructed series of evaluations would probably be impressive to a college...Grades are so artificial when it comes to something like writing. I taught public school and didn't like grading even then, much less now that I'm so far from that paradigm.

[ArmsOfLove]

If anyone questions you about teaching to mastery you can tell them you've adopted the British system of Mastery Education http://www.education.com/reference/article/mastery-learning/

[DavidKelleyMay18]

I am not sure what kind of college my son will be going to. After all he is only 13. e is doing 9th grade work this year though, so I want to be sure I am doing the transcripts correctly. I love the Mastery Education and the Evaluation method/thoughts, but could colleges say they won't accept that. After all wouldn't I have to do a paper of evaluation on each subject each year and that would be a lot for the college. Thanks!

[cindergretta]

The thing about the transcripts (and college admission in general) is it varies by college. So keeping decent records is vital and then when your dc is ready to apply to colleges, you can find out what those specific schools require and use your records to make the transcripts how each school wants, if that makes sense.

There is actually an expo in my state next month with (I think :scratch ) 3 dozen different schools participating *for homeschoolers* and college admissions. So these schools will have reps available to speak with homeschool families about what is needed to apply to their individual school as well as some workshops. :tu

[mamacat]

See in my case spending all that time on a written evaulation or figuring out grades and GPAs would have been a wate of time! They just want the affadavit and SAT scores...........

[brown eyed girl]

Yup, just an affidavit and ACT scores.

My oldest chose to go to a local high school for 11th and 12th grades. They were fine with taking my homeschool transcript for 9th and 10th. I understand that's fairly unusual. Maybe we were lucky? We were going into the KCMO school district, and maybe they were just glad to have a student with a 189 on his PSAT?

My 2nd oldest signed up for community college. He'd actually gone to a charter school in TX for 9th, then a local arts magnet school for 10th and 11th. I pulled him out, gave him the last English credit he needed and gave him a diploma. I just made him a transcript that had the classes he finished each of the 3 years with NO GRADES and wrote "tested out of 12th grade English." His ACT score was a 27; the English portion was a 34. The community college was happy to have that transcript as written. Now that he has a community college transcript, he won't need a high school transcript for any 4 year college.

[ShangriLewis]

My uni required my High School and CC transcripts. I am going to do what the College or Uni prefers:shrug3. But, I would love to avoid grades.

[BarefootBetsy]

I got into both a regular state school - not Evergreen - and the really good private school without grades (the private school is the one I chose to attend). My SAT and ACT scores were pretty awesome too though... so that probably played at least a part in my acceptance :think

[ShangriLewis]

I was just saying that because I wouldn't want to see people think a High School transcript is obsolete if they attend CC. I wasn't homeschooled and I attended University of Washington as an adult. I think just having documentation always helps.

I am hoping my kids try out CC prior just to practice a bit.