SAHS Academics > English Department Web Site > Special Programs

Souderton Area School District offers Drama, Honors, Journalism, and Transition special programs. Please see the program details below, listed in alphabetical order:

For more information on Special Programs offered through the English Department, please contact Dona Italiano at ditaliano@soudertonsd.org

Drama
Drama I, II, and III are available to students. Students will be exposed to character analysis, costuming, make-up, blocking, and portrayal of dramatic mood, voice projection, stage design, and other elements of theater craft. Performance will be a required part of this program.

Honors
The honors program has grown in popularity in recent years and is viewed as a desirable choice by many students. The qualifying criteria include teacher recommendation, A's and B's in class grades, and proficiency in reading and writing. These course overviews are taught with the expectation of advanced reading and writing skill. There are, however, some issues that should be considered before electing honors. The first of these is workload. Most honors courses demand a large time commitment and characteristically contain numerous independent or group projects. Second is skill level. Students are expected to enter these courses with a high degree of competency in reading, composition, grammar and usage. Students who have needs in these areas will struggle in the honors program since the program does not have a remediation component. Finally, organizational skill will be essential since most honors students participate in sports, school activities, and other high challenge course work.

Encouraging your child to use his/her talent to the utmost is quite valuable as long as the expectations remain realistic. Placing your child in an overloaded schedule will create frustration and stress. Finally, placing your child in a curriculum that does not meet his/her individual needs will create learning gaps.

Qualifying
To enter the honors program, begin with the current classroom teacher, then seek out the guidance counselor. Finally, look for school announcements in February about course selection. Qualifying data regarding the criteria is compiled for each child with the help of the building guidance staff. The data is given to the building principal who makes the final determination as to placement in the honors program.

For specifics on curriculum or classroom policy in honors, please contact ditaliano@soudertonsd.org or the building principal.

Journalism
The Journalism program produces the award-winning Arrowhead. Incoming tenth grade students are recruited and selected by the course instructor. Students are expected to fully participate in gathering information and writing articles, editing, layout, and the sale of ads for the newspaper. Students will be required to use the Pagemaker computer program to create the paper so knowledge of Pagemaker is desirable, but not necessary.

Journalism may be taken up to three times for elective credit. The course instructor selects an editorial staff from among experienced journalism students. Extensive after school hours are required as well as summer hours for editors.

Co-taught
The Co-taught program was established in the 1999-2000 school year to meet the needs of motivated but struggling students. A special education teacher and an English teacher are present each day in class. The curriculum is highly individualized with a solid emphasis on essential language arts skills. Classics of literature are introduced in ways that help students connect them to their own lives.

The instructors ask for a high degree of parental participation; they insist on consistent attendance and demand task completion. Disruptive or off task behavior is not tolerated.