C (or B) in English Honors or A/B in English

My sons school offers 3 levels of English: English, English Honors and English AP. He has always been a veracious reader so he enrolled in English honors. He is currently sitting at a C, but he might get a B depending on his finals. He isn’t taking any other honors classes at this time. What is better a C in English Honors or a B in English? Writing hasn’t been his strong suit but he has progressed a lot this first semester. Would it be best to have him continue with English Honors next year knowing it is a slight stretch for him? He adjusted well from regular English in 8th grade to English Honors in 9th grade which was technically one a half year leap in English.

Thoughts?

You could consult with your son’s teacher.

What does your son want to do?

Writing in high school can prepare for writing in college, most majors require English composition I and II.

Find out what he can do to improve his English grade.

My son had a similar choice to make regarding honors math. He chose not to continue in honors math after sophomore year, he wasn’t going to take Calculus in senior year of high school, and his college major didn’t require higher math, so taking honors precalculus and risking a C, which would affect his unweighted GPA, didn’t make sense.

But he did continue in honors English.

On the SAT he scored about equal in ERW and math.

Variant of “which is better, A in easier course or B in harder course?” question.

The answer is always “A in harder course”.

Is the class finishing now or does he have the second semester to improve his grade? Is he not writing with enough detail, are the mechanics bad, or is he not analyzing the material thoroughly enough? I would have him meet with the English teacher for more insights. If he can’t or won’t (not always easy with freshman boys), I would email the teacher to see if you can find out what is keeping him from better grades and what he/she thinks he should do moving forward. If it is something “fixable” and he is willing to work harder, then stay in honors.

Will he be in honors for other subjects next year?

One frustration we had with our kids in HS was the major difference between honors and college prep classes. In math, for one of mine, the college prep meant an effortless A while the honors meant a low B or even a C. He jumped back and forth between tracks. He had to really learn to study properly in math. He would “get it” and not really have questions for the teacher, but then did poorly on the mid-term. I think he thought he “got it” but didn’t really have a deep enough understanding to solve problems that were a bit tricky (as on an honors test). He eventually realized how much harder he had to work, which was really good for him.

One time, I kept getting B- on my English essays. Being the STEMhead that I am , i wanted to know “What did the teacher want” so I could get better grades.

So I sat down with her on one of my essays, and I kept rewriting it and getting feedback until she would have graded it an A- . I do remember that one thing she wanted is in the concluding sentence, for us to tie something in the reading to something in the real world.

So that might be a thing to try…keep working on an essay (not for a grade but to learn) until he can get a B or an A or what ever he wants. He may just be doing the same thing and not really learning.

He could also get a tutor (The National Honor Society usually has free ones).

Also, is there a particular area he doesn’t do well on?
Is it that he isn’t reading the books? Or reading while watching TV?
Does he have any language processing issues?

I think the best thing to do is for him to try to figure out where he is weak and work on that and get help.
Recognizing you aren’t doing as well as you would like and changing how you study/work is a major thing to be able to do as you go forward.

FWIW, both my kids were in honors English for grades 9-11. In grade 11 they had a choice to take AP English language, but neither did. In 12th grade they had the option of taking AP English Lit, Honors English or an English elective. They both thought the electives looked a lot more interesting and fun. Older kid ahd been B+ to A- students before, younger son a B to B+ student before. Both got A+ grades in senior year English. Older son got into Harvard and Carnegie Mellon. Younger son into Tufts, Vassar and U of Chicago. Finding the reading material interesting and not having to do the kind of literary analysis they’d been forced to do before really made a huge difference. Younger son got to do some creative writing along with reading mysteries and really loved his class. He loved having one easy and fun class to go with all his other AP classes. In fact, that younger kid ended up taking several creative writing classes in college because of that high school class.

Obviously this is a risky approach if you are aiming for the tippy top colleges, but it ended up working fine for my kids.

Definitely time for your son to discuss with his teacher as posted above. He needs to get the skills and not knowing him we can’t tell you which class at your school will be best for him. Regardless of the class he takes it is up to him to learn those skills and he needs to find out what he needs to do. The A-B-C grade is not as important for doing well in college (any major) as acquiring the skills.

Likewise my son had to choose between classes due to scheduling difficulties as a HS junior. The AP class is not always the best choice (regardless of ability to do well, btw). The best choice is the one where he will have the best chance of honing his skills. Start now for the rest of this year.

Another person who believes that it’s time to talk to the teacher. English is one of those subjects that has so many different parts (grammar, writing, literature), and how a child does depends a lot on how well he (or she) does on the part that is emphasized the most. One of the things that I loved about my daughter’s freshman English teacher was that he had a policy that essays could be rewritten for partial credit. I don’t remember how many times, but the teacher wanted the kids to learn how to write well, and he said that if they only get one chance, they usually won’t take the time to figure out what they were doing wrong and correct it. (See post #4 for something similar.) After rewriting one or two essays, my daughter figured it out and is now a great writer. Also, as mathmom pointed out in post #5, a lot depends on what you’re reading. DD20 doesn’t want to take AP Lit because she doesn’t want to study Shakespeare. She’s ADHD and a slow reader anyway, and she thinks that the language in Shakespeare will cause her to struggle. She’s probably correct, and fortunately her school has lots of electives from multicultural literature to mythology for her to choose from.

And I can still remember in my own 11th grade American literature class how much I hated a certain beloved American author. We had to do a year-long thesis on an author we chose from a hat, and I’m certain that my grade would have been at least one grade lower had I been stuck with that author instead of the one I did get - one of my favorites. My kid who hated Harry Potter is devouring Faulkner like an old friend.

My son’s freshman year English teacher had them write and rewrite the first assigned essay until they had at least a B grade or until they got whatever grade they wanted. It took three tried, but eventually my son got some sort of A. I agree that too often papers get graded, but the kids don’t really internalize the comments. I wish rewriting were required. I know it’s a lot of work for the teachers, but it really works.

Honestly, I wish teachers would just make students watch Shakespeare - especially some of the comedies and see how much fun they are. I am particularly fond of Josh Whedon’s filming of Much Ado about Nothing.