Acting 4 Honors   (#0400400)

Version for Academic Year:

Course Standards

General Course Information and Notes

Version Description

Students create characters for theatrical and film/video productions through scene, character, and technical analysis. Through improvisation, script writing, and aesthetic creation and collaboration, actors refine their working knowledge and independent thought, articulating and justifying their creative choices. Students’ “critical eye” becomes more developed and significant mastery of artistic choices becomes evident. An inquiry-based capstone project may be required. Public performances may serve as a culmination of specific instructional goals. Students may be required to participate in rehearsals and performances outside the school day to support, extend, and assess learning in the classroom.

General Notes

Honors and Advanced Level Course Note: Academic rigor is more than simply assigning to students a greater quantity of work. Through the application, analysis, evaluation, and creation of complex ideas that are often abstract and multi-faceted, students are challenged to think and collaborate critically on the content they are learning.

General Information

Course Number: 0400400
Abbreviated Title: ACTING 4 HON
Course Length: Year (Y)
Course Attributes:
  • Honors
Course Level: 3
Course Status: Course Approved
Grade Level(s): 9,10,11,12
Graduation Requirement: Performing/Fine Arts

Student Resources

Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this course.

Original Student Tutorials

Setting, Characters, Action: Creating Suspense in Dracula:

Read excerpts from Bram Stoker’s famous novel Dracula. In this interactive tutorial, you'll examine how the author created suspense by tying together the story elements of setting, characters, and action. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

How Two Characters are Introduced in Things Fall Apart:

Read the first chapter from Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart about a father and son who couldn't be more different. In this interactive tutorial, you'll identify their important traits, examine the importance of their differences, and explain the impact of the author’s choice to introduce these two characters by highlighting their differences.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Analyzing the Impact of an Author's Choices -- Part Three:

Read and study excerpts from Willa Cather's classic novel My Antonia to analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding the selection of the narrator, where the story is set, and how the main character is introduced and developed. 

This interactive English Language Arts tutorial is Part Three of three. Click below to open the other tutorials in the series.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Analyzing the Impact of an Author's Choices -- Part Two:

Analyze the impact of an author's choices using excerpts from Willa Cather's classic novel My Antonia. In this series of interactive tutorials, you'll analyze the impact of an author's choices regarding the selection of the narrator, where the story is set, and how the main character is introduced and developed. 

This is the second tutorial in a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Analyzing the Impact of an Author's Choices -- Part One:

Read and study excerpts from Willa Cather's classic novel My Antonia to analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding the selection of the narrator, the setting, and how the main character is introduced and developed. 

This interactive tutorial is Part One of three-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in the series.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Exploring Beneath the Surface: Irony in Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” (Part Two):

Learn how to identify use of verbal and dramatic irony in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" in this interactive two-part tutorial. Students will also examine how Poe's use of irony with first person point of view affects the story. This tutorial is Part Two of a two-part series. In Part One, students read and analyzed the first two excerpts from the story. In Part Two, students will read and analyze the last three excerpts from the story.

Make sure to complete Part One first! Click HERE to complete Part One.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Exploring Beneath the Surface: Irony in Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” (Part 1 of 2):

Learn how to identify use of verbal and dramatic irony in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" in this interactive two-part tutorial. You'll also examine how Poe's use of irony with first person point of view affects the story. You'll read and analyze the first two excerpts from the story in Part One, and the last three excerpts from the story in Part Two.

Be sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to open Part Two. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Hallowed Words: Evaluating a Speaker's Effectiveness:

Learn how to evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence. In this interactive tutorial, you'll examine Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" and evaluate the effectiveness of his words by analyzing his use of reasoning and evidence. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Literacy in History: The Pullman Strike, Part 2 (of 2):

In Parts 1 and 2 of this interactive tutorial series, you'll analyze the Pullman Strike of 1894, a dramatic event in the American labor movement.  In Part 1, you'll focus on the history of the strike.  In Part 2, you'll practice your literary skills while learning more about the same event.  

Click HERE to open Part 1. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Literacy in History: The Pullman Strike, Part 1 (of 2):

In Parts 1 and 2 of this interactive tutorial series, you'll analyze the Pullman Strike of 1894, a dramatic event in the American labor movement.  In Part 1, you'll focus on the history of the strike.  In Part 2, you'll practice your literacy skills while learning more about the same event.

Click HERE to open Part 2.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

The Power of Words: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address:

Practice analyzing an informational text using President Abraham Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address. In this interactive tutorial, you'll determine Lincoln's purpose in this historical speech. You'll also analyze how his specific word choice and use of parallel structure help support his purpose.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

What the Dead Can Teach Us:

Learn to analyze the use of irony to distinguish what is directly stated from what is really meant within the text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll examine humorous epitaphs from Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology. You'll learn to interpret an author’s true feelings and intentions versus what is actually stated in the text.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

How Story Elements Can Affect the Meaning of a Text:

Practice analyzing an author’s specific choices regarding characterization, setting, and plot structure within a text. In this interactive tutorial, we'll use excerpts from the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison to analyze the how various narrative elements impact the meaning of the text.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Parent Resources

Vetted resources caregivers can use to help students learn the concepts and skills in this course.
In addition to the listed benchmarks and standards, the following mathematical practices are required content:

MAFS.K12.MP.5.1: Use appropriate tools strategically.
MAFS.K12.MP.6.1: Attend to precision.
MAFS.K12.MP.7.1: Look for and make use of structure.

In addition to the listed benchmarks and standards, the following clusters and Language Arts standards are required content:

LAFS.1112.SL.1.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.