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Paring Apologia Down
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My family is using a co-op that uses Apologia Biology, edition 3. I am hating it, my son is hating it. But I’m trying to get through the year. The students are given several assignments a week but I can say yes or no to each assignment. I’ve already said no to everything but reading the text, vocabulary, doing the labs (that’s at co-op), lab reports and tests. But, he is doing at least one lab report a week.
I asked an honors highschool student how many lab reports she did in AP science and she said 3 or 4 a semester. Does anyone know what a realistic number of lab reports per semester or year would be. I want him to learn but I’m not interesting in the amount of work she is asking for.
Also, he is passing the tests, but I’m questioning having him do them. This is our first year of high school science. Can I just ask for written narrations for biology?
My oldest is doing Apologia Biology this year. She is using it through an online class this year and while challenging is enjoying it.
I’ll share how she is using it as it might give ideas about what to expect from your student.
In her class they take two weeks to go through each module and her class is on Wednesday.
Week 1 –
Monday watches videos from her teacher. She likes these, they break down the module and give an overview in video format. She takes notes and has to scan and submit her notes.
Tuesday- She reads the module taking notes.
Wednesday – online live class (1.5 hours) teacher teaches as well as answers questions and preps the students for the lab.
Thursday and Friday – has the opportunity to finish up her module reading if she did not finish it and gather supplies for lab Week.
Week 2 (lab week)
Monday and Tuesday – she completes her experiment doing a lab report for the experiment.
Wednesday – live class to review experiments with teacher and continue teaching on the module.
Thursday and Friday – scan and submit lab reports as well as study for module exam which has to be completed by Saturday.
In the end she does usually one lab report per module, or one every 2 weeks. This schedule helps her space things out in a challenging class. The class has really taught her time management as well as encouraged study habits.
I don’t know if she will pursue college, she is uncertain, but we have talked how the skills she is learning are also good “life skills” for her such as time management and study skills.
That looks way more doable that what we are dealing with.
They are expected to read over the module over the course of two weeks. Write out all the vocabulary. Do all the OYO questions. Complete a study guide. Do lab every week. Do one or two lab reports every week. Lab reports are not done during the lab. They do them at home the next day. And take a test every two weeks.
I’m supposed to meet with the teacher tomorrow to figure out how we are adjusting it. I don’t have him doing OYO. I don’t want lab reports every week. Study guides are useless because they aren’t graded until after the test. But that’s how he’s supposed to make sure he’s ready for the test. My child would learn the vocabulary better reading the definitions than writing them. I so regret putting him in this class but we are trying to make it work.
I can share what I did with my oldest daughter when she did some Apologia in high school. I had her read a section and narrate it. When she first started Physical Science, I literally had her come and orally narrate when she finished reading a section. Even if she read several sections for the assignment, she still came and orally narrated after each section. She didn’t do the On Your Own questions or the study guide or tests. At the end of a module, I gave her a CM style test. She had already been orally narrating throughout the reading of the whole module so the CM style test was in written form. This worked really well for us. I do not like the study guide or tests that come with Apologia material.
With my youngest daughter who is in 8th grade this year, she is doing the second half of General Science this year and she will read her assignments for the week and tell me what she learned. However, she does do the On Your Own questions but grades them herself. I don’t do CM style tests after every module for her. I do the traditional CM style term exams and that’s where I include questions from what she read in science in that term. Next year, we may switch that to doing CM style tests after each module.
Are you required to take the tests? Do you administer the tests yourself or do they take them at co-op? If you administer the tests yourself, do you have the to use the Apologia tests or can you do what you want? If you can do the tests how you want, then you could try doing the CM style tests if you thought it might work for you all.
Writing a lab report the day after the lab would be challenging to remember everything and time consuming. My daughter fills our her lab reports as she completes the lab, which seems like it would be easier.
I forgot that she does the study guide. On week 1, lecture week we call it, on Thursday or Friday she does the study guide questions, then corrects them herself and then scans and submits them to her teacher. She does not have to do On Your Own questions or submit vocabulary, because both similar assignments are included in the study guide questions.
I really appreciate all the thoughts.
I can excuse him from anything. I’ve been administering the tests at home, but this whole class has been so frustrating for me and it finally occurred to me it’s because it’s so traditional in it’s approach and that is so out of step with our homeschool. So I’m trying to find a way to make it fit better with what we do.
His last test had a question that I couldn’t find an answer to. I teach Spanish at a Christian school and asked the upper math and Science teachers the question and they said, “That isn’t a 9th grade question.” But his teacher is sure that what she’s doing is appropriate for his age. Because I really trust my co-workers opinions, I’d like to find an alternative to the test.
If it were me I would let the teacher know how much I appreciate her, how much my kid enjoys the labs with the other students and lecture portion of her class, but he will not be turning in any work to her. I would tell her I will be handling all of the assignments, tests and grading. Then just do it however I want. Read and narrate. Test if you want. Chuck the lab report. Our science classes have them do the lab reports alongside the labs, occasionally they have to finish a few things at home if they run out of time. You can explain your educational philosophy to her if you want, or not. I am sure your coop must be similar to ours in that teachers are very accommodating to different learning styles, teaching styles, and what parents want from the class. As long as you are correcting and grading his work it wont make her job any more difficult.
Most teachers at our co-op are very accommodating. But this teacher is a “real” teacher and she was pretty upset the week he didn’t turn anything in (last week) and said he probably shouldn’t be in her class. We are probably going to pull him from the class at the end of the semester. But, she and the co-op leadership seemed to listen when I explained how I’ve asked many teachers, students and homeschool moms and everyone says this load is too much. So, maybe she’ll become more accommodating.
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