Honors Course Contracts provide students who are pursuing an Honors graduation distinction the opportunity to turn existing courses into an Honors experience. The Honors Course Contract experience varies depending on the discipline, course material, and instructor. No matter what the expectation, though, students can expect an Honors Course Contract to ask for higher-level thinking and reflection.
The post below, bilingual education major Kristen Carvalho ’20 from Liberty Hill, TX shares more about her Honors Course Contract for SPAN 320 – Introduction to Hispanic Literature with Dr. Alessandra Luiselli.
In the application for her course contract, Kristen wrote:
My experience will be deeper than that of other students because I will not only be analyzing a story, but I will be finding ways to teach it to students in a K-6 classroom. This will be a great bridge between what I am learning in SPAN 320 and my junior methods (BEFB) courses (ie. lesson planning, fitting things into a curriculum, etc.).
We asked Kristen to respond to several questions about how and why she decided to pursue this contract as an example for other students who may have similar interests:
Q: Why did you decide to pursue a contract for this course?
A: I decided to pursue a course contract for this course because although it didn’t directly relate to my major, I could create a project that did tie it directly.
Q: What did your contract project involve?
A: My contract project involved using kids poetry written by an author we discussed in class, and then creating a lesson plan (in Spanish) around it.
Q: How does this project relate to your personal and/or career interests?
A: As a bilingual educator, I will have to create lesson plans in Spanish, and it is beneficial to use materials materials in both English and Spanish. I may be able to use these exact plans in my classroom.
Q: What advice would you give to other students interested in pursuing an Honors Course Contract?
A: I would advise students to create course contracts that allow them to explore a topic that connects the class to their major or interests, or create a project that will be useful to them in the future.
To learn more about contracting a course for Honors credit, please visit http://honors.tamu.edu/Honors/Earning-Honors-Credit.
From Promise to Achievement 