Level 100 for High School? Modification? 4.11.05
Sonlight’s literature-based curriculum cannot be directly compared to the grade-level system used in public schools. All Sonlight levels will work for a range of ages (with modification, a fairly wide range of ages). This enables parents, using a single core product, to teach children of different ages.
In the past, Sonlight’s sequential product numbering system created the appearance that our curriculum choices extended only through 10th "grade." As our customers know, however, this could not be farther from the truth. Although each level’s schedule covers the same 180-day, 36-week cycle normally thought of as a school "year," the reality is that there is more material scheduled in any particular "year" of our curricula than would be covered in two years at most public schools.
Sonlight has been struggling against the public school grade-level paradigm for years. We have consistently attempted to explain, especially to new customers, that our materials must be judged by their content—not by their labels.
Last year, Sonlight added the first half of a new World History-based 2-year program (new Level 6) and planned the release of the second half of this program for this year (new level 7). This addition caused us to make several substantial changes that we knew would be difficult to explain. Nevertheless, here goes . . .
Old Level 7 (now Level 100):
Sonlight has always stated that Level 7 was, without modification, appropriate for children ages 12-16 (with modification, it could work for children ages 10-18). Since we knew that "old" Level 7 was more than robust enough to be used as a "high school" course, it was included in the re-numbering of all of our upper-level materials. Level 7 became Level 100. Nothing in the content changed.
The Logic Behind the Junior and Senior High Designations:
This year, Sonlight broke the catalog product pages into three logical groups: Elementary (Levels Pre-K through 5), Junior High (Levels 6 through 100), and Senior High (Levels 200 and above). The Junior and Senior High catalog sections each feature an article explaining how Sonlight supports these traditionally-designated education levels, both from an educational challenge perspective and a student maturity perspective. In the Junior High article, we specifically state:
With a strong understanding of world history, your children will be well-prepared for the spiritually strengthening Core 100 program. This "transitional" program—good for mature junior high and high schoolers—provides an in-depth overview of American History.
In an attempt to visually explain where Sonlight’s curricula fall in comparison to traditional public school grade levels, we included Choosing Charts in the new catalog. Unfortunately, this seems to have caused some confusion. When we created the brackets on the Choosing Charts (pg. 51 in the catalog) for Junior High and Senior High, we never expected people either to ignore the actual chart which states how challenging a course is or to ignore the descriptions and the appropriate age designations in the actual product pages.
However, that seems to be the unintended consequence of adding these designations. We apologize for this confusion. Neither our catalog nor our choosing chart is considered a legal document. The labels we have placed on our curricula are in no way intended to restrict your use of our materials for any age or in any fashion that would best fit the unique needs of your homeschool.
Sonlight does realize that the requirements and regulations of school districts are wide and varied. If the labeling on our choosing chart is causing you difficulty with your school district, please feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to provide you with a new choosing chart without the Junior High and Senior High labeling.
About modification ...
Whenever you see the term "modification" in our Core descriptions it is primarily referring to a couple of things.
- If it's referring to modification for use with multiple children across an age range, it could mean the need to provide some additional age-appropriate materials for either younger or older students.
- If it's referring to modification for use with older children, it most likely means that the literature is not at a reading level that is adequate for older students. It also may mean that there are not sufficient writing requirements or literary analysis for an older student.
If "modifying" core 100 is something as simple as, say, adding the literature portion from core 400, then that's easy. But if you think the Hakim is not in depth enough for 11th and 12th grade, then it needs a different kind of "modification". It would help make decisions.
That is not something that Sonlight as a company is going to be able to determine for you. Every state has different requirements for high school, and every college has different requirements for admission. We can provide high school forums for veteran SL users to share what they've done to modify levels for their students. We can also provide Curriculum Advisors who can share from their own personal experience and the experiences of customers they have counseled. But saying that you have to do xyz to modify a particular Core for an older student is going to be difficult because we don't know your students and there is no way we can make recommendations that will satisfy the varying regulations that exist across the US and overseas.
I would be happy to share with you what I'll be doing to modify Core 100 for a 10th grader this fall. Even though this student has done Core 7 (in grades 7 and 8), my school district requires a high school American History. So I am planning to purchase Core 10 and use the American Lit. portion and *parts* of the Civics and Government. Then I will take the History of US books and some of the other history literature from Core 100 and mix that in. I'm planning to purchase the Student Questions for the History Study Guide (#120-02) and the Student Questions for the Hakim books (120-02H) and expect that she will do those independently. I am *not* expecting that we will do two complete Cores this coming year, but as a sophmore I do expect that she will get through a good percentage of the American Lit., all of the history student questions and a portion of the Civics/Gov't materials (yet to be determined once I've looked it over some more!). We will also participate in an American Lit. discussion group that our co-op is planning to hold. Having homeschooled in this state for 11 years now, I know that this will satisfy my state's requirements for high school (and most likely will exceed the regulations).
Bottom line ... our statements of the need for modification are generally made because of the reading levels of the literature and based on overall customer feedback based on experience. I would urge you to spend some time in the Parents of High Schoolers forum http://www.sonlight-forums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46 or call our main number and leave a message for a Curriculum Advisor to call you back.