Readington Township Schools meets students' academic needs through differentiated instruction and by different levels of courses. Honors Language Arts is a full-year course offered to 6th, 7th and 8th grade students that includes both reading and writing.  Students qualify for the course through multiple assessments, report card grades, teacher recommendation, and writing samples.  In Honors Language Arts, student writing is organized around three types of writing mandated by the New Jersey Student Learning Standards. This includes argument, information, and narrative writing.  Instruction is set into four to six week units.  Honors Language Arts differs from regular language arts in that the units of study have additional rigor and students will read additional novels, maintaining a pace of reading and writing that is beyond the regular language arts class.  Students can expect to read 1,200 to 1,800 pages per semester and write long and strong with a high level of writing proficiency.  

Over the course of the year, students will read many independent texts that are self-selected as well as unit texts that coincide with the unit of study in reading.  Through the course, students will develop their own understanding of the world around them and human being's changing relationships through literary analysis, discussion of current events, and first-hand experience.  They will broaden their understanding of major themes in literature, history, and culture.  Students will acquaint themselves with various authors representing different life experiences and relationships.  They will tackle writing for social activism and write to illuminate complexity.  Students will compose literary essays that analyze craft and theme, write arguments that include counterarguments about themes in texts, and support their writing with details of plot, character, and author's craft.  Students will compose principled arguments that draw on evidence, contextualize their position, and address multiple perspectives.  

 

The Honors ELA program starts in 6th grade, and all students are screened during the spring of their 5th-grade year.  No referral is necessary from either the student's family or teacher. During the summer, incoming 6th-grade students receive a placement letter via email, indicating either an Honors or Grade Level ELA placement.

 

Students' academic abilities develop each year, which is why all grade-level students at RMS are screened for Honors ELA each spring.  A referral from the family or teacher is not needed for this process.  The criteria for the Honors ELA Program can be found below.