Honors ELA 8 is a writing-intensive course that goes beyond ELA 8 with rigorous learning activities. Students will increase their use of critical thinking skills to include analysis, synthesis, and problem-solving.  The curriculum moves at an accelerated pace with a more concentrated focus on literature, writing, vocabulary development, public speaking, and research.  Students who do not maintain an 80% class average will be placed into the regular ELA class.  

Honors ELA 8 is anchored in the Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) Grade 8 curriculum, which provides students with a rich foundation in literary and informational texts across a variety of genres and subjects. Through CKLA, students engage in knowledge-building units that integrate reading, writing, listening, and speaking, with an emphasis on critical thinking, text analysis, and evidence-based writing. The curriculum also supports the development of oral communication skills through structured discussion and public speaking opportunities. Throughout the year, students explore a diverse and challenging selection of texts through CKLA units such as “Us in Progress”, a collection of short stories that highlight the modern Latinx experience in America; The Squatter and the Don, which examines issues of land rights and cultural identity in 19th-century California; and “The Harlem Renaissance”, which introduces students to key literary, artistic, and cultural figures of the era. Additional units include The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, “The Civil Rights Movement”, and “Realms of Gold”, a unit that features classic works of literature and poetry. In addition to the CKLA curriculum, students will read the young adult novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, which supports themes of identity, belonging, and social conflict explored throughout the year.