For all Core Classes, students are able to sign up for Regular or Honors classes.
(All course descriptions are from the DVISD Course Catalog)
Honors classes prepare students for PAP and AP classes in High School. If a high school student passes an AP class and the AP test at the end of the year, the student will earn college credit. For example, Ms. Birdsong (School Counselor) took and passed the AP Literature and AP Language classes/tests in high school, so she did not have to take English 1 or English 2 while in college.
Honors classes tend to move more quickly and cover more content than regular classes. Because of this, Honors classes may be a bit harder for students and require more time, effort, and focus.
Passing the STAAR exam
Successful progress on DAs
**Students who do not meet these requirements may still sign up, but please meet with your teacher, counselor, and parent/guardian to make sure it is the best decision for you**
~45 mins to 1 hour of HW per course per night (potential)
Independent research/projects/group projects
Maintain a 70 avg or above
It is possible to leave a Honors class if it is too much, but removal is not automatic. All withdrawals from Honors courses will require a conference with the student, parent, appropriate administrator, teacher, and counselor to determine the best placement for the student.
Students will expand vocabulary, read in varying genres from a wide variety of classical and contemporary literature, and begin to develop skills in literary analysis and interpretation. Sixth grade students will apply development of ideas, focus and coherence, organization, voice, and conventions of writing to develop writing skills for a variety of purposes and audiences.
This course is designed to prepare students for high school Pre-AP English classes. Outside reading will be required. Honors students are expected to have mastered the skills required in a regular reading/English class. In addition, students will develop critical reading skills by studying literature that is more complex and layered in meaning. Students will begin to develop skills in literary analysis. Students will also build a foundation of written and communication skills that focus on various purposes and forms, using recursive stages of prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing to develop their writing as well as evaluate the writing of others.
The primary focal areas in Grade 6 are number and operations; proportionality; expressions, equations, and relationships; and measurement and data. Students use concepts, algorithms, and properties of rational numbers to explore mathematical relationships and to describe increasingly complex situations.
Students are expected to devote more time and energy than they would to the standard math curriculum. (Participation in academic UIL competition is strongly encouraged).
This lab-oriented integrated science course in grade 6 includes concepts in all disciplines: earth, life, and physical sciences. As students learn science skills, they study systems and complex interactions between them, life processes and the relationships between organisms, properties of matter, energy transformations, forces and motion, space travel, and cycles such as the rock cycle.
Students taking this Honots course will be given additional opportunities to extend their knowledge in the areas of physical, chemical, life, Earth, and space science with 6th grade TEKS as a foundation. Students will be expected to use advanced math skills to analyze data and solve problems. Students will be encouraged to be self-directed learners as they complete independent projects and in-depth enrichment activities that will prepare them for future Pre-AP/AP coursework
This course is an overview of the world and its geographic, economic, and political systems. Students will examine the people, places, and societies of the contemporary world including Europe, Russia and the Eurasian republics, North America, Middle America, South America, Southwest Asia-North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Realm. Cultural, economic, technological, and geographic features of each of these regions will be compared as will their relationships to current world events. Additionally, concepts such as limited and unlimited government are introduced, and students will begin to analyze the role of citizenship in various societies to compare to the rights and responsibilities of the American citizen. Students will use a variety of primary and secondary sources.
The world and its problems will be the focus of this class. While students analyze the various cultures of Europe, Russia and the Eurasian republics, North America, Middle America, South America, Southwest Asia-North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Realm, they will also investigate the historical, geographical, economic, cultural, technological, and political bases for conflicts that exist in our world today. Additionally, students will analyze the types of political systems in the world and will compare those systems to that of the United States. Students will be expected to use and work independently with a variety of primary and secondary sources such as biographies, autobiographies, novels, speeches, letters, poetry, songs, and artwork. This course parallels the study of the regular class; however the instruction adds more depth, complexity, and rigor at a faster pace.