9th Grade Honors Courses

A challenging, literature rich curriculum that also includes challenging written assignments. The literature selections include classic short stories, excerpts from The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, A Tale of Two Cities, Catcher in the Rye, and I am Malala. Additionally, various thematically related poems, selected myths, newspaper articles, magazine articles, and other related materials are included in the course work. This course will require students to employ reading comprehension skills, critical thinking skills, and to develop the ability to closely and attentively read texts in a way to help them understand and enjoy complex works of literature. Students will be challenged to make connections, analyze complex text, and support responses with text support. Students will compose written responses of varied lengths and complexities in responses to readings that require analytical thought . Students will develop cogent reasoning and evidence collection skills, organization, the use of proper mechanics, usage and grammar (all of the proper conventions of the English language). The goal of the course is to help prepare students to be successful on the New York State English Regents for graduation and to be literate people prepared for success in college, career and life. This course is writing intensive and tests are longer and more involved. Assignments are lengthier and require more time and effort. Homework expectations are heavier. Students who enroll in the course should expect a heavier workload and to be able to work more independently. This is an honors course.
 

This is the second course of the three-year sequence in Regents math for the accelerated ninth grade math student (see Geometry Regents description above). This honors level course follows the syllabus for Regents Geometry, extending some topics and drilling to greater depth in several areas of the curriculum. Students will take the Geometry Regents exam in June that covers all of the material in the NYS Geometry NGLS. Prerequisite: Successful completion of Algebra I.
 

The honors section of Earth Science follows the Regents Earth Science syllabus. Students will take the Physical Setting/Earth Science Regents exam in June providing the lab requirement is met. Students will be studying the Earth Science topics in more depth than the Regents Earth Science class and will be expected to complete more extensive labs and projects. The class meets daily with an extra period every other day. Students are expected to maintain at least an 85 average.
 

Pre-AP World History and Geography focuses deeply on the concepts and skills that have maximum value for high school, college, careers, and civic life. The course builds students' essential skills and confidence and helps to prepare them for AP European History. The learning model is that of a disciplinary apprenticeship, with students using the tools of the historian and geographer as sources, data, and analytical reading and writing take center stage in the classroom. In this course, students learn that historians and geographers are investigators intent on using the tools of their disciplines to uncover new evidence about the world and its inhabitants through higher order questioning, in-depth evidence based writing, and evidence based conversations. This course will focus on developing students content-area writing through short answers, long essay questions and document-based writing to help prepare them for the AP European History exam at the end of tenth grade.