<p>I guess I’m on the fence. If My kid is busy with stuff all summer, I really resent a meaningless but time consuming assignment. My 2012 graduate worked full time and participated in a sport most weekends all summer long, and had a VERY involved AP Lit summer assignment.:mad: But with my 2015 S, he hasn’t really found a full time job or activity for his summers, and we’ve done an Art of Problem Solving class each summer. </p>
<p>I resent meaningless and time consuming homework ANY time of year! :p</p>
<p>I also resent meaningless busy work. They get that, unfortunately. Especially when D. can’t go to sleep at a reasonable time because of it. </p>
<p>But her summer homework was certainly not meaningless. it was really good. Since she didn’t take chemistry before and is going to take AP chem, summer camp and summer homework helped her a lot. She also had to read 8 chapters for APUSH.</p>
<p>What an active board ! I have not signed in here in quite a while and see that it may turn out to be quite lengthy by graduation time. DD started HS soccer, after a quiet summer compared to some here - some camps, some summer work (almost done but still working on the Math). I thought next year would be time enough for the over-scheduled summer of SAT prep etc, though as she’s following the recruitment timetables, that might of been unwise. Best wishes to all for a great year.</p>
<p>I think I am resentful about the summer English assignment because of older S launching to college! The homework is actually thoughtful, just a bit much for summer homework in my opinion. He got the AP World assignment done earlier and it was reasonable. </p>
<p>I am thrilled for S that he is so busy with his music, but, I tell you, a 6:10 start time for daily Jazz band is going to be painful! :D</p>
<p>I am with everyone on enjoying quality time together rather than doing meaningless HW……</p>
<p>S2’s first day was yesterday. He had Alg HW containing Alg1 questions that he had forgotten how to do them. He and I committed to a volunteer work (helping out with Bingo games at a community home for senior citizens) last night so he ended up going to bed late and still could not figure out how to solve the problems. I tried not to worry about it. He told me he would go to tutorial for help this morning.</p>
<p>S1 has yet to finish one of two books (his choice) for his English summer assigment. He’s not very motivated, as combined they only count as a quiz grade. He’s also a lifeguard and with the college kids gone, he’s working 8-9 hour days through Labor Day. Thankfully, his first day of school is the following Friday.</p>
<p>D’s summer English assignment wasn’t terrible (just read a book and write a 4 page paper) but the grading was really harsh and it counted for a lot. Her teacher told them the first day that he’s grading as if they are in AP Lit (they can’t take that until next year, this is an honors class) and boy did he. She’s going to have to work all semester to bring that grade up. Luckily, she isn’t soured on the class or the teacher. Rough beginning though.</p>
<p>Proof that kvetching can sometimes be helpful…</p>
<p>D2 finished the last of the official HS summer HW this evening. She has a bunch of other work to do for ECs, but at least the schoolwork is D-O-N-E! :)</p>
<p>DD summer work took way long. Everyone raves about Khan but I have to say they did not warn the kids that the summer math work was not just a packet (taking 2 hours or so in previous years) but 16 modules with average completion times of WAY longer than the 20 minute estimate each.</p>
<p>Way to go on the kvetching, mihcal.
S still has to complete the English. He got a break from doing anything today due to getting no sleep last night with the traditional kidnapping of the new members for the vocal jazz group! I know he’ll get back with the program tomorrow.</p>
<p>Boy, it’s quiet around here. Third week of school and S has started spending a lot more time studying than he ever did last year. I think he has met his match in AP World History. At least he says history is interesting while English is “pointless” (in his words) lol</p>
<p>Checking in after a few posts last year. D started school yesterday and is enthusiastic about teachers and classes. My D got very little summer homework which worries me after reading everyone else’s!. Glad to have the year start so that I can put some order to my life but with D catching bus at 6:25 makes for tired days!</p>
<p>Wow - 6:25? Oh my goodness! We have trouble with 7:15 around here!</p>
<p>S likes most of his classes and teachers. Except one, who he says seems crazy. “And not the good kind of crazy, Mom!” </p>
<p>STEMfamily - here’s hoping your S has at least one awesome English teacher before he graduates! Gotta keep those STEM kids balanced ya know! ;)</p>
<p>I find the whole Kahn phenomenon amazing. So schools are using those for their summer homework? Probably more helpful than worksheets, but I can see how it could take longer because you have to watch the video and can’t go through it quickly. </p>
<p>Suzy - your post about the hard grading for summer English reminded me of my S’12’s summer homework for AP Lit. He had to read two books and take at least two handwritten pages of “meta cognition” notes over each and every chapter. Had to be handwritten, not computer. Of the 5 teachers who taught the course, the other four either gave it an easy completion grade, or had the student pick their best two entries and just graded those. S’s teacher actually read the whole thing - over 100 pages each kid. And graded them hard. And took all grading period to grade them. And had very few other assignments that grading period, all of which totaled about a third of the points she gave to the summer assignment. So two days before the end of the grading period, she finally entered his grade for it, and his course grade went from an A to a C overnight, with no other assignments due for that period. And then she spent the rest of the year grading everything like it was a real AP test. Which was fine, but then she didn’t curve at all. So if a student got a 75% on something, which would be a 5 on a real AP test, they got a C for it. When the kids argued that work that earns a “5” on the test shouldn’t get a “C” in the class, she just said she couldn’t figure out any other way to do it. The whole thing was ridiculous. S wasn’t a straight A student, but there were a lot of really strong students completely stressing out over receiving their first non-A in such a weird way. All the other AP Lit teachers were way more reasonable. It was stressful for us, I can imagine how it felt to kids aiming for those top GPA’s. </p>
<p>I do not know why teachers are allowed to do this. We have the same thing here-is it too much to ask for consistency? Our school now has a uniform curriculum for classes and the same final exam-sounds great in theory but my daughter was in the class where the teacher not only didn’t teach all the material but didn’t even alert them what was coming-so on the final they are asked to do something they have never been taught and the highest grade was a low B-that takes any kid in that class probably out of the Val race as a freshman-just ridiculous!</p>
<p>PN and Pepper, both of those situations would drive me crazy. I’d be particularly peeved if the teacher didn’t get those grades in until the very end of the semester with no way to make it up - that is crazy and unfair. My D’s grade was a complete shock to her. It was a 76 and one of the higher grades in the class, but there was no curve. This is a straight-A kid, and English has always been a favorite subject. I’m glad (and honestly surprised) she isn’t letting it color her view of the teacher or the class thus far.</p>
<p>We will see our first ranking sometime in September. I’m not looking forward to it.</p>
<p>I hope I didn’t sound like I was putting down English as a subject. I happen to think it is extremely important. But we just don’t seem to get decent English teachers until maybe 11th or 12th grade. More movie watching than reading assignments. On essays, they either give really high grades with no comments or very low grades with no comments. Don’t think they are even reading them. AP History classes seem to be the ones that teach writing.</p>
<p>Oh, I didn’t think you were, STEMFamily! I really mean it - I always am thrilled when my mathy kids get a great English teacher or history teacher. Both are subjects than can be sooooo interesting or so boring, depending on the way they’re taught! My kids have had great teachers and lazy teachers in both subjects.</p>
<p>My son is in APUSH and had no summer homework. I knew this was going to be an issue when school started because my dd13 took it and had 3 or 4 chapters to do in the summer. School started last week and he has had HOURS of APUSH homework every night. We have the meet the teacher night next week so hopefully we will get a feel for how the rest of the year will go. I agree that the AP history classes really help with writing. My dd13 (who scores very well on ACT and SAT writing) told her brother that she would not have done as well on those tests if she hadn’t taken APUSH. And she has had GREAT English teachers throughout her high school. My kids go to two different schools because they go to single sex high schools. Now trying to talk son into not wanting to drop back to regular history.</p>
<p>Hi everyone! First of all, I want to thank you for sharing your perspectives on SATII BIO subject test. I think we’ve figured it outshe’ll take AP Physics and AP Bio and no history next year (as a junior) then for senior year she’ll double up on history with AP World and APEcon (?) and rather than taking AP Spanish fill in with either AP Chem or AP Stats. That way she’ll be ready to pick and choose which SATII tests to take the spring/summer before senior year and have everything in order before applying ED at JHU in the fall. And she won’t have to self-study for AP Stats like she was planning to. Your advice really helped clear her head. :)</p>
<p>I have another question for everyone. (And another apology for writing such long posts!) What courses are your sophomores taking and are they planning on taking four years of the “big five” academic classes? It sounds like all of you have kids who are taking a full complement of English/History/Science/Math/Language throughout high school. But I think my daughter is one of the few in her class who is planning to take that kind of schedule, and now it looks like she’ll be dropping Spanish after junior year although she will have taken through Spanish IV (two years of junior high Spanish allowed her to place into Spanish II as a freshman). In Illinois you have to add four years of PE, as well as a semester each of Driver’s Ed, Consumer Ed, and Health to that. When you add Band into the equation and figure that AP Science classes are scheduled for a period-and-a-half each day, she’s completely booked up with seven (or the equivalent of eight) classes every semester and three summer school courses to finish off on the other classes required for graduation. Would you recommend that I try to talk her into taking a lighter courseload? I have trouble just trying to follow what classes she’s taking when! Or does that put her at a disadvantage when applying to schools like JHU, Emory, and Tufts? (Those are her three favorites right now if you don’t count reach schools like Brown and Stanford.) </p>
<p>Sorry to be such a pest, but I keep getting looks from other parents and counselors that suggest that they think I must be a wacko Tiger Mom when I ask this kind of question at the Band Booster meetings or try to schedule a meeting with a counselor to discuss college plans for a kid who is still an underclassman!</p>
