Honors English Colloquium will incorporate learning to develop skills and cultivate interest in the essential enterprise of effective communication. This course will engage students with Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate curriculum focused on topics of a conjunction course to deepen the understanding of the topics and solidify critical thinking and research skills. Students read and carefully analyze a range of nonfiction prose selections or prose literature and poetry (dependent upon the conjunction course), deepening their awareness of rhetoric and style works. Students will acquire and use rich vocabulary, standard English grammar, and understand the importance of diction and syntax in an author’s style. Through frequent writing, students develop their ability to work with language and text with a greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composing abilities. Strategies of close reading will be taught and employed. Students will engage with objective and open-ended questions, journals, Socratic seminars, and project based learning (PBL). The course will enhance skills and abilities by focusing on interpersonal and presentational communication through both written works and presentations. Students will also be provided with the opportunity to develop analytical and interpretive writing skills, practicing constructed and selected response questions similar to items on high-stakes exams (e.g. Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, PSAT, SAT, CAASPP).