I’m finding my Italian class very difficult. There is a large workload, and I actually spend more time on Italian than any of my AP courses. The teacher grades mostly based on oral exams and presentations, which I have a lot of trouble with (slow verbal processing speed). This is just a regular class, so I don’t get any GPA benefit. I really would like to do an online language program so I can work at my own pace and learn by reading instead of by listening to the teacher. Would colleges look down on my doing an online course instead of taking Italian at my school?
Good for her!!
Effective foreign language learning encompasses reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Learning by reading is not learning a foreign language.
@skieurope I’m not saying the teacher is wrong to grade based on verbal skills. I’m just saying it’s very difficult for me. I don’t feel like I’m learning much (if anything) at the moment. I don’t plan on majoring in languages and they are not something I feel particularly passionate about. Given that learning italian is not a personal priority, I’m wondering if it would hurt my high school resume if I opted for an online alternative.
Does your teacher know about the verbal processing issues, and has your school’s resource team helped her develop instructional adaptations that work for you? Start with that. Language teachers deal with all kinds of learning issues in their classrooms every single day. If you need extra time to formulate a spoken response, your teacher needs to know that so she can accommodate your needs.
Learning a language online does not automatically mean that it would be self-paced. Many online courses have strict due-dates for all activities. It also does does not mean that you would never be required to speak the language. A good distance-ed program would include a certain number of hours of live video-chat type instruction.
I appreciate the responses and info I’ve gotten, but I’d like someone to give an opinion on my main question: would taking an online Italian course possibly hurt my application?
@happymomof1 The teacher does know, but she is very old-fashioned and seems skeptical about the existence of learning difficulties. I’ve noticed that any teachers that I’ve requested accommodations from have graded much harsher since (and the school board has very little control over teachers), so I’d rather not risk anything with my Italian teacher.
How selective are the schools you plan to apply to? And how many years of Italian have you done so far? Most schools want to see at least 3 years. Check the language requirements for the schools you are thinking of applying to. If you’ve done 3 and want to do the 4th on-line, I don’t think it will matter even to highly selective schools. If you have done less than 3 years and are going on-line for the second or third year, it will probably be noticed and there will be questions about whether you met the 3 year requirement. You also want to make sure that if you drop this course and do it on-line that your guidance counselor will not reduce his/her rating for the level of rigor in your transcript overall. Selective places want to see ‘most rigorous.’
If Italian is a bad fit for you for whatever reason and you are a freshman, why not switch to another language? You’d still have time to get 3 years in.
@N’s Mom I’m applying to pretty selective schools (ranked in the 10-30 range). I’m a junior and have completed 2.5 years already, and I would come back next year to take Italian 4 with a much less difficult teacher. I get that selective universities want to see rigor, but since I’m just taking regular Italian, it doesn’t seem like I have any rigor for foreign language to lose.
@ambitionsquared , please read this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1839213-9th-grade-dyslexic-son-bombing-spanish-should-he-drop-it-p1.html
My son is dyslexic and is having trouble, and there are many ideas in this thread that you might find useful. Yes, you CAN take language online, it must be from an accredited source. Please go in and discuss this all with your counselor at school. There is no need to ruin your GPA if you don’t have to.
Are you thinking of dropping Italian this year and finishing up the third year online? That move may raise flags unless you and/or GC can address it. I’m not sure your current reason will satisfy selective colleges. It would look even more odd if you dropped your Italian class now, finished up the year online, and then returned to taking Italian in your high school - if the rest of your schedule this year remains the same. Can you talk this over with your GC?
Talk to the teacher. Is it possible to hire a tutor? What is your current grade in Italian?
I think it would be fine to take the fourth year online.
Probably not, but none of us work for a college, so opinions are all you will get.
Unless any of them are engineering schools, you will most likely have to fulfill a language requirement to graduate college. Better to get whatever challenges you have out of the way now, because it does not get any easier trying to learn a language in college. As others have said, use the resources at your school. Good luck.
“I’ve noticed that any teachers that I’ve requested accommodations from have graded much harsher since (and the school board has very little control over teachers), so I’d rather not risk anything with my Italian teacher.”
If you have an IEP and/or a 504 plan, and your school is not providing appropriate accommodations, then the district is in violation of a number of federal legal statutes. It’s not just you, it’s all the kids in the district. Maybe it is time for your parents and some of the others to lawyer-up - or just threaten to do so.
I took the plunge, and even though I thought such a move would make me anxious, it feels like a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders.
@Lindagaf I read through the thread, and a lot of interesting points were brought up. Thanks for sharing it.
@SlackerMomMD I don’t think my counselor is knowledgeable about this kind of thing. I could’ve hired a tutor, and my grade would’ve probably end up ok (I barely got an A last semester). However, the time investment was more than 3 of my AP classes combined, and while I usually enjoy a challenge, studying for Italian made me miserable. The vice principal said that I could explain my dropping the course as simply a schedule mishap, but I don’t know if colleges would buy that.
@skieurope “[…] it does not get any easier trying to learn a language in college.” I understand, but I’m trying some things at the moment (including neurofeedback) that will hopefully help me with languages in the future. Besides, for UCLA (a priority school), I can complete the language requirement by just doing a single class during the summer before school starts.
@happymomof1 My school has a reputation for having some corruption, and also a reputation for shutting down any legal threats. To prove I’m being graded unfairly, I would have to show friends’ work of similar (or lower) quality with higher grades, but I would never want to put my friends on the school’s blacklist. From my friends’ experiences, sending a parent to complain about misconduct by a teacher will usually lead to ramifications by the teacher in the future.
Your vice principal is 100% correct about the “schedule conflict” line. Those do indeed happen all the time, and no college/university in the country is going to question it.
Oh, and my comment was not about being graded “unfairly” (which is something that is very hard to define). It was about being denied appropriate support as required by your IEP and/or 504. If you are a student in a public school and you have one of those in place and your teachers aren’t following it, then that is indeed a Really Big Issue. As in big enough to bring the state board of education crashing down on the public school district in question. If you are at a private school of course, they can do as they please.
I’m just gonna be blunt here in my case with online languages: they’re a pain in the butt, but it’s ridiculously easy. My recommendation is proficiency=stay in class , grades=go w/ online
@CCSenioritis Thanks for the advice. If they’re ridiculously easy as you say, I think going online is the right call.