Creating Exams for High School guides

[Elsie]

Hi everyone,

My oldest daughter, who has been using HOD since CTC and is currently getting ready for the newest guide, is going to be involved in a homeschool program at our local christian school. My daughter is going into 11th grade and it is required that we meet all the state standards to be involved in this program and at the end, they will issue her an actual diploma. Anyhow, before I get into my question, I just have to say that HOD met and exceeded my states guidelines for curriculum which was really exciting to me. I am so thankful I didn't have to back-track and add in stuff. It was funny because every time she asked me about a subject that hasn't been covered yet, I was like, "Oh that is already scheduled this year." or "Oh, that is part of next years plan".

Now onto my question. One of the requirements is I have to give my daughter an EXAMS over the work she is doing in HOD in December and at the end of the year. So I will have to create my own since HOD doesn't have anything like that and I am looking for suggestions on how to go about it. I have an idea, but I am interested to see if anyone has already done something like this or if there are some creative suggestions out there. This will be pretty new to me also because she has been very independent in her schooling for the last several years. I am also a full-time college student and am homeschooling 3 other kids so I need a plan now on how I am going to tackle this rather than later. So any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated.

[lmercon]

Are there any guidelines as to the type of exam you must give? If it can be an essay format, I would just create a rubric for her written narrations and use those scores.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I haven't seen anything created already, but I am in the same boat. dd14 will be participating in sports at the local private school and we need mid-term and finals as well. I haven't figured it all out yet. I am probably going to make a multiple choice format with an essay or two and maybe some map work for World Geography. World Religions and Cultures will probably be essay that she can just transfer answers from her notebooking pages. I will probably just take some of the questions and written narrations from the notebooking and turn them into more of an exam style on the computer and have my dd transfer her work. I am not going to try and re-invent the wheel.
We do have tests for math, english, german, and science already. I think logic has tests as well.

[Elsie]

Are there any guidelines as to the type of exam you must give? If it can be an essay format, I would just create a rubric for her written narrations and use those scores.

There are no guidelines really other than I need to give the exam in December and at the end of the year. I could use some of her narrations as ideas for essays, but I would need to give them at those times. How would you recommend creating a rubric?

[Elsie]

I haven't seen anything created already, but I am in the same boat. dd14 will be participating in sports at the local private school and we need mid-term and finals as well. I haven't figured it all out yet. I am probably going to make a multiple choice format with an essay or two and maybe some map work for World Geography. World Religions and Cultures will probably be essay that she can just transfer answers from her notebooking pages. I will probably just take some of the questions and written narrations from the notebooking and turn them into more of an exam style on the computer and have my dd transfer her work. I am not going to try and re-invent the wheel.
We do have tests for math, english, german, and science already. I think logic has tests as well.

I like your idea... Multiple Choice question - Essay Questions - Map Work. Will you give her a study guide prior to the exam in order for her to review the material? I guess I am trying to make it a real exam in some respects. I know that Charlotte Mason actually did exams. (Part of post removed by board moderator per board rules.) Board rules linked here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3

[Tidbits of Learning]

I really have no idea if I will do a study guide for the World Geography or not yet. We school year round and will have 3 weeks off in October. That is when I plan to make them in preparation for mid-terms in December. I will have a feel for how the reading and content go for World Geography, World Religions, and Bible by then and I think it will be a good time to create the exams. We will have another break in the spring in March with 3 weeks off when I will make the final exams. I will tell you the Literature exams that I have for dd already from the publisher recommend giving them open book for the essay style questions to reference back on theme, conflict, and other such high thinking questions. I will have to read through the to the teacher part again to see exactly how it is worded.

[Mumkins]

So, I guess I never thought much about if there were exams or not. How will they be ready for post secondary exams if they have no practice taking them?

[my3sons]

If it were me, I'd have something from within the months of December and May for each subject area that represents the best of the work she has completed and what she has learned. Off the top of my head as I'm editing the WH guide, I think it would be great to use the 3-5 paragraph written narration assigned using Critical Thinking Using Primary Sources in World History. The answers to the "Critical-Reading Questions" and the "Mock Trial" box alongside the written narration would be good to use, as well as the "guilty or innocent" verdict dd has to support with primary source documents. You could have dd do one of these assignments on lined notebook paper and make copies to glue them in her WH Student Notebook. I'd have her use the key idea to write an over-reaching essay type question as a heading for this assignment and turn that in, and I'd include the words "Critical Thinking Using Primary Source Documents in World History" in the title as well. Fine Arts will have questions dd answers on notebook paper in Exercises and Activities for Short Lessons in Art History. There are study questions answered in "Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study," as well as in "Pilgrim's Progress." There are reviews in the Spanish course. There are Chapter Tests and quizzes in the Health course complete with terms to define, questions to answer based on the text, Biblical application questions, discussion questions (she can write her answers that time instead), and suggested activities you could include or not. You can have dd write her answers to the novel discussions in the Literature portion, citing the classic novel being read, or use the written narration if you'd rather with a rubric based on the guidelines in the Appendix for Written Narrations, or include her guided reflection including literary devices from her literature journal (again being sure to mention the classic novel being read). You can include one of her essays she completed from "Essentials in Writing Grade 11" again mentioning title EIW Grade 11. There are chapter reviews in R & S English, as well as math. There are also activity books completed in science you could photocopy a portion of that she completed. I think once you receive the WH plans you will see that this is not going to be hard to do! I hope my response is not overwhelming, but I wanted instead to put your fears to rest that I think this is going to be quite easy to do within the framework of what dd is already doing in her daily plans of WH.

In Christ,
Julie

[Tidbits of Learning]

So, I guess I never thought much about if there were exams or not. How will they be ready for post secondary exams if they have no practice taking them?

I am not stressing my kids ability to take a test or be ready for a test. They did HOD for several years prior to us joining a charter school that used k12 for almost 2 yrs. They had daily quizzes and tests in k12. They took them fine and did well on them without having taken "tests" for several years with HOD. Mine were less stressed over tests than their peers at the state testing as well. I think they are learning material in a way that they will retain it long term (not regurgitate it short term). To me the narrations required are much harder than the multiple choice quizzes the kids had to do daily with k12.

[LynnH]

Mumkins as you can see from Julie's reply there are tests scheduled for certain subjects. In the WG guide their are tests for the Art of Argument. We don't use the recommended math, but most math texts have either chapter reviews that you could use as a test or they have actual tests. Rod and Staff has chapter reviews. The Bob Jones Literature book has Chapter reviews. The way it looks each year will have some subjects with scheduled tests so they get practice with that. AS Tidbits of Learning has said the written narrations and the short answer and essay type questions they have to answer on a daily basis are much more challenging than many high school tests.