MPOA Biology Pacing Question

[rmurnane]

Anyone else taking Biology through MPOA this year? I've been really surprised at the pacing of this class compared to what MP has outlined in their plans/guides. For example, the MP guide has it broken down into about 6 chapters each trimester. I thought the MP pacing in the guide was what we'd get in MPOA, but that hasn't been the case.

We're headed into the 3rd week of school and the MPOA class has already covered 3 chapters and had a unit test on all 3. Based on the MPOA syllabus, they plan to cover nearly all of that monster book! I have heard such great things about Mrs. Peterson, but the kids hardly get a chance to know her as a teacher because she is speeding to get through the material in class. Most classes they don't even cover all the slides. Does anyone know why they decided to deviate from the MP plans?

[tanya]

Hello.

Paul is currently on vacation, but he will be back in the office next week and can take a look at this. You are correct that this class is covering lots more than we do at MP, but I'm not sure why that is. I apologize for the delay, but Paul is the one with the answers on this one!

Tanya

[jenniferjb]

Part of the reason could be that the MPOA course existed before the MP materials were released.

[tanya]

I've continued to think about this too. It could be because the online classes aren't a cohesive whole. Our curriculum follows the HLS model, so we know we have a second year with the text to do Anatomy. But the online academy is meeting the needs of students involved in all kinds of curriculum and circumstances, so maybe the consideration is that this may be their one year for biology, so they have to cover more content. It's a more stand-alone situation instead of the four year plan we have mapped out at HLS.

Tanya

[Katie]

What you are saying makes sense, Tanya. This class is pretty jam-packed though. My daughter is in it now and she is doing fine but it’d be nice if the course used the rest of the MP materials that we’ve come to love and find comfort in. When my kids have an online course that still has them utilize the student guides, I feel like I can still be involved with helping them study using my TM or spot checking to see if they are on the right track. Hard to do with this beefy book alone.

[Mom2mthj]

There actually are many classes at MPOA that use MP materials without using the MP plans and some that don’t use the same materials in the cores at all. Writing and literature come to mind - the short novel class has no equivalent in the cores and the high school classical composition classes cover 3-4 levels per year. Some of this history courses use different texts. My daughter took the biology class a couple of years ago and really liked it even though she doesn’t really like biology. I was actually disappointed at how much less material was covered in the MP set since we will not be dedicating a second year to biology.MPOA really does draw students who have not been following the cores or who only want a specific class. I believe that MPOA was around longer than the cores, especially the high school level classes, which probably adds to the differences. I encourage you to stick with it...I predict your daughter will like the class especially when they start playing review games.

[Katie]

There actually are many classes at MPOA that use MP materials without using the MP plans and some that don’t use the same materials in the cores at all. Writing and literature come to mind - the short novel class has no equivalent in the cores and the high school classical composition classes cover 3-4 levels per year. Some of this history courses use different texts. My daughter took the biology class a couple of years ago and really liked it even though she doesn’t really like biology. I was actually disappointed at how much less material was covered in the MP set since we will not be dedicating a second year to biology.MPOA really does draw students who have not been following the cores or who only want a specific class. I believe that MPOA was around longer than the cores, especially the high school level classes, which probably adds to the differences. I encourage you to stick with it...I predict your daughter will like the class especially when they start playing review games.

Very much understand and agree with what you are saying. My daughter is enjoying this class and her instructor and I’m sure will have a great year. I suppose it’s my own selfish desire to still have one hand in the pot and also the ease on my part regarding the use of the MP Guides and TM’s.

[pschaeffer]

Hi Katie,

I apologize for my tardiness, but thank you for bringing this up. While what others have said is true (regarding why we have a different scope, etc.), it did cause us to have an internal discussion to evaluate whether what we are doing is the best. We have concluded that for now it does fill the needs of our families better than the sequencing in the study guide. I hope your daughter continues to enjoy the class.

Peace,
Paul