Language Arts 10 Honors

Course Overview:

This Language Arts 10 Honors is an integrated curriculum consisting of thematically related lessons in five domains: analyzing literature, analyzing informational text, writing, speaking and listening, and language study, which includes word knowledge and grammar skills. The course provides challenging assignments aimed at preparing Honors-level students for advanced work in the study of literature and language arts. An introductory lesson at the start of each unit helps students identify any areas of weakness and review those topics if needed. 

Assignments that are specific to the Honors level of this course ask students to apply advanced skills earlier in the course and more often than students in the regular version of English 10. For example, students move immediately beyond the identification of literary elements or aspects of informational text to the analysis of these components. Likewise, Honors students don’t simply recognize and describe rhetorical strategies—they also use these strategies to create specific effects. Some Honors assignments require students to go one step farther in developing an assignment—for instance, writing an essay after generating ideas for the essay using the worksheet provided to students in the regular course. Clear and extensive guidelines are provided for each Honors assignment along with a detailed rubric for evaluation.

Semester 1 Concepts:

Speaking and listening lessons in Semester A cover collaborative discussion skills, the peer review process, and how to plan and deliver informative speeches and presentations. Vocabulary development instruction is integrated into literature and informational text lessons. Each unit ends with an authentic assessment that presents students with a real-world scenario requiring some of the skills they learned in the unit.


Semester 2 Concepts: 

Like semester A, semester B consists of integrated units focused on a theme or mode of study. Literature study in semester B focuses on the analysis of different forms of literature as well as the evaluation of various modes and forms of writing. Writing and informational text lessons guide students through the stages of a rigorous research process and demonstrate how to evaluate, integrate, and share the information gathered during research. Students are required to share their ideas and analysis using several different modes, including oral and multimedia presentations. As in Semester A, Honors assignments in this semester require students to take a more analytical or active approach to many of the assignments and activities in the course. Honors students will write more often and more deeply about topics and also reflect more critically on the processes they use to read and write.

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