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Welcome to 8th grade Honors English and AVID Excel!   As we progress through the end of middle school, your student should be prepared for some challenging experiences, but also several opportunities for academic and personal growth, learning, and fun!  

In English 8H, we'll be exploring themes related to:

• Culture and Belonging-A Glimpse into Immigration
• The Thrill of Horror
• Approaching Adulthood and Career Exploration
• The Holocaust  
• The Move Toward Freedom and Equal Rights

The literature and informational texts will be the basis for discussion, analysis, writing, vocabulary development, and grammar instruction.  In addition, your student will be presenting varied forms of speeches and working collaboratively to create projects.  All of our activities are aligned to California's Framework Language Arts, The Redlands Unified School District Scope and Sequence for 8th Grade ELA, and the Common Core State Standards.  In addition, all activities are designed to prepare students for high school, higher education, entry into a career, and to encourage a life-long love of learning.  It will be a great year full of academic challenges, rigorous curriculum, and thought-provoking themes.

The mission of AVID Excel is to change the trajectory of long-term English learners by accelerating language acquisition, developing literacy, and placing students on the path to high school AVID and college preparatory coursework.

AVID Excel focuses on six consistent learning strands—reading, writing, oral language, academic vocabulary, study skills, and selfdetermination and leadership—that help to accelerate language acquisition, increase overall achievement, and give students access to rigorous coursework. Students start AVID Excel courses in the summer between 6th and 7th grade with a 5 day Summer Bridge program, which focuses on building a sense of family among the students, and on helping them shape their 7th grade academic personas and take control of their learning and language building. They then continue as a cohort with the 7th grade Elective class, where they participate in intensive academic language building during the entire school year.  Summer Bridge also occurs between 7th and 8th grades where the focus of which is language building and leadership skills. This is followed by an 8th grade Elective. 

Each AVID Excel course builds upon the previous courses, introducing new skills in each of the six learning strands while enhancing the skills the students have begun to develop.