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Yesterday we talked a little bit about making course descriptions. Course descriptions are a short synopsis on what the course covered, and how the student was evaluated.
Here’s a course description for an English class.
This course in American Literature examined the lives and times of famous American Authors with their writings. Included (but not limited to) Colonial-Revolutionary, Romantic, Realistic/Naturalistic, and Modern literature. In addition to the essays in the text, we read two novels in their entirety – Billy Budd by Herman Melville, and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
The composition componant included Bravewriter courses Kidwrite Intermediate and Expository writing. Topics covered included: Musicality in language, Powerful association (metaphor,) Keenly observing an idea, Rhetorical thinking, Discovering the “true truth” in writing, researching various expert opinions in the field, asserting a position, developing points, discovering and providing support/examples, paraphrasing, generating thesis statements, selecting points and particulars, structuring an essay, finding and using research in writing, incorporating writing voice into academic writing.
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Daily work including end of lesson questions, end of chapter study questions, and end of unit tests. The student will be graded on completing daily reading and study questions – 40%, essays (20%) daily discussions 20% test scores 20% |
That description was accepted by the NCAA for my son’s participation in sports at Walsh University. Most of that information I was able to get from the desciptions of my textbook and the Bravewriter course site. I cobbled it together to make my own description. The grading criteria was my own.
What else should I keep?
Besides course descriptions, it is also helpful to keep a list of textbooks used. When I was making my course descriptions it was very helpful to have a list already of the text books we had used for each class. That was something that I did keep every year because I had to send them into the superintendent for our notification!
I also kept a reading list of books that my student read each year. A simple title and author was all that I used.
I kept a portfolio of everything my student did in a 3 ring binder, but I particularly kept science lab notebooks in case that was needed to prove that a lab was taken. I kept grades from outside sources, like Bravewriter or co-ops, and tests like the ACT, CLEP and AP exams.
Making your transcripts!
The easiest part of this is making a transcript! First you need to choose a design for your transcript.
Here are some places for free templates:
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Lee Binz has some free stuff when you sign up for her news letter here. She also has a wide variety of templates and guidance on completing them through her Gold Care Club. This was the training I used when I started making transcripts for my students. Gold club membership includes |
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Weekly Support:
Monthly Support:
Ongoing Support:
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Lastly, although I have made my own transcripts and keep them on my computer, I realize that something could happen to me, or my computer, and even my backup. So I am also a lifetime of the HSLDA transcription service so that my children can access their transcripts at any time in the future.
And lastly, here’s a look at a transcript I prepared as a sample for my short talk.