Counting Credits and Listing Them as Activities

With this strategy, you take a sticky note and write down each different thing describing the activity your student did. For instance, you might write a course title to put on your transcript later on,  the year the activity was completed, the grade that you gave, the hours that you spent, and possible subject areas the activity might fall into.  

You do this for each kind of experience your student had, like boy scouts or 4-H, which are common things that kids do an awful lot, where they accrue lots of  little pieces of experiences. If you use the sticky note strategy for each of their accomplishments, each thing they did, and each award they received, you can group those small experiences together (including delight directed learning) and put them on their transcript as a stand-alone class. For instance, if you group together a whole bunch of things that they did through 4-H or Boy Scouts, and you discover that your student is artistic in nature, all of those small art activities can be combined together to form one class called Art.

One thing to be careful of with this method is the concept of double dipping, which is a hazard. Because you are not using a curriculum, you must make sure that you’re not double dipping by counting the same experience as credit for two different classes. Each of your sticky notes can only be used one time – you can’t say that digital photography is both a computer science class and also an art class; you have to choose one. Each hour of work can only be used for one class.

On the other hand, it’s okay to use an experience as both an activity and a credit at the same time. When I was in high school, I was involved in choir, and choir  was listed on my transcript every single year. However, it was also put on my activity and awards list, which was part of my transcript every single year. Other people may be involved in journalism, such as being on the yearbook staff,  and they might get English or Journalism credit.  They could also list this experience on their activity and awards list.   Double counting for credit and an activity is just fine, but  don’t use the same experience or hour of work for two different credit classes at the same time.