Honors Language Arts 8: Research, Presentation, and Public Speaking

Choose the right level

This course is recommended for students entering Grade 8 or 9. We recommend students enroll in Language Arts courses at grade level.

Curriculum

Each 18-week term will cover 2 units, with each unit featuring a long-term project that integrates a variety of reading, writing, critical thinking, and grammar skills.

Honors LA 8A

• Investigative Journalism: By reading articles by the world's top journalists, students learn to gather and organize facts, conduct interviews with sources, and synthesize the information they've gathered into a magazine-quality investigative article and a live report on their investigation during the AoPS Nightly News.
• Essay Writing: Students study and join the long tradition of the personal essay, articulating not just their belief, but also the experiences that have led them to hold it.

Honors LA 8B

• Documentary: Students build their research skills by becoming documentarians, tracing the historical development of an aspect of the modern world. At the end of the unit, students create a documentary detailing the historical patterns they’ve uncovered.
• Scientific Research: Students master the skills crucial to clear scientific communication, including framing the thought process, guiding an investigation, and articulating complex and abstract concepts to a lay audience. At the end of the unit, students present their findings in the form of a TED Talk, blending hard data with engaging public speaking.

Students must purchase the required books before the start of the course.

Format

Our instructors hold classes virtually, in a small-sized (10-16 students) videoconferencing classroom.

Homework and projects

Students should expect to spend about 60-90 minutes on homework every week. Homework will include practicing skills learned in class through short answer questions, long-term writing assignments connected to the unit project, and assigned reading in one of the four quarterly textbooks.

Drop and refund policies

Visit our tuition page to learn more about our drop and refund policies.

Schedule

Each course runs for 18 weeks, meeting for one 105-minute lesson per week.