It is important to have a clear description of the classes your teenager takes in high school. Colleges, uncertain as to the quality of the courses your teen is taking at home can be reassured if the course description is detailed. I just finished creating an independent study course in college, and as I worked with my instructor to create what is really a homeschool class for Mom, I learned a great deal about putting together a course. The paperwork I turn in will be included in my transcripts and must look impressive to the university I will transfer to when I finish junior college. The skills I developed will work for your teen's syllabus as well. You need to create one for each class your teen takes in high school.
The first step was to create a title for the course. I was instructed to choose a title that sounded like a real college class, so I went on the Internet to visit the on-line course listings of a number of colleges. I settled on "American Women's History to 1860." The title makes the topic of the class very clear and includes a time and subject restriction. It will look professional on my transcripts.
DESCRIBE THE CLASS
The next step was to create a short description of the class. "Lives of women in pre-civil War America will be studied for the purpose of discovering how their lives differed regionally, racially and by class. In addition, I will be noting how those roles changed throughout the time frame. My notes will attempt to chart the changes in the lives of each group of women." This description should only be a few pages long.
MATERIALS
The next step took time. I selected the materials to be used during the course. Because there are no really good textbooks for this subject, I was going to use trade books. (Trade books are the books you can buy in a bookstore, as opposed to traditional text books.) I talked to my sister, who is a college senior, and she suggested I read ten books. A high school student might only read two or three, depending on how much additional work would be done. I found the books by using materials suggested by my current history text book, looking at the reading lists for other college courses on women's history and by checking on-line book sellers. If you intend to borrow the books from the library, start by checking out its collection.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN?
Because my course is one of comparing and contrasting, I listed the regions and races covered by the selected books, which were chosen to reflect a variety of lives during the time selected. Then I listed the aspects of women's lives I wanted to evaluate: marriage, motherhood, employment, political participation, childhood, education, homemaking and religion. Then I expanded these with a description of the kinds of questions I wanted to answer. My section on education says: "How were girls educated and for what purpose? Did educational opportunities improve over time? Did some societies offer more choices to girls than others? How did the education or lack of it affect girls as they grew up? How did the level of education these girls obtained affect the ways they were viewed by society?" These questions followed the compare and contrast format of the course and gave me specific information to look for in the books I had chosen. I then set a reading schedule of one book every ten days. For any course, explain in detail what your teen expects to learn.
EVALUATION
The last step was to describe how evaluation would occur. In this case, I will keep a reading journal of critical evaluations. I will create a computer file for each aspect of women's lives I am studying. As I encounter information, I will write about my opinions of the material, and analyze what I am learning. I will also keep notecards, since my goal is to eventually write a book on the subject. I will produce a five page term paper on one aspect, tentatively on education. Finally, I will meet with my professor weekly to discuss the material. He will grade me based on what I know in our discussions, my paper, my journal and my notes. There is no test, because I have test phobia and he is compassionate.
This type of course lends itself well to homeschooling, and can easily be adapted to the high school student. The courses your teen creates can reflect specific interests while still meeting the basic requirements of the college, and will teach him to work at a college level if the difficulty of the books and the amount of work is gradually increased. If he participates in the creation, the course will be more meaningful to him, and he will be able to demonstrate to college officials that he is an active participant in his own education.