K to 5 honors

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Home : 2002 : January : 29

K to 5 honors
By Cathy-Dee

I don't have any program information myself. However our school debated this for some time before finally coming to a concensus. We do not have a district wide policy for the most part, other than in grades 3 to 6 honours
would be decided based on the grading system that is district wide. I believe the top grades are 85% or higher.
Our decision was that we would not do honours in grades K to 2. We would do honours in grades 3 upwards.
Our reasoning was this.
- grades K to 2 tend to be mastery grades. Thus it is very difficult to give honours. For example I teach grade 1, would I give honours

to the student who entered grade 1 reading at a grade 3/4 level, knowing already how to add & subtract, etc., or would I give honours to the student who entered not knowing how to read, but mastered reading by the end of grade 1. You can see how in the early grades honours is not based so much on "knowledge" but on skills which is very developmental in these young children.

- Once students reach grade 3 (at least in Alberta) the curriculum changes quite a bit and becomes less "skills" oriented and more "knowledge based", those top students from grade one have usually leveled off now and the playing field (so to speak) is much more even.