Students focus on the theme of “Challenges,” as they read works by Ray Bradbury and Walt Whitman, an essay
about Civil War heroes, narratives about the Holocaust, and Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech. They learn
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about the hero archetype and hero’s journey narratives, write narratives, explanatory essays, argumentative essays,
research an issue in current events and create a multimedia presentation, and read scenes from Shakespeare’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, then watch the scenes on film to analyzehow the adaptation differs from the source.
Grammar instruction includes sentence formation, usage, and mechanics; and students develop vocabulary skills
through a variety of methods. Honors course instruction emphasizes critical thinking about the literature read as
students learn to make connections to the world around them. As a result of the increased rigor of the Honors
course, students read more texts than the regular course and instruction is delivered at a faster pace.