|
What's going on in Humanities class this fall?
Strand A: Exploring ourselves as writers and readers
Most days for part of the period
Support on college essays, exhibitions, and exploring writing and reading topics of your own interest. In this strand
there is a lot of room for individual exploration (like in the book projects) and to get help in your areas of challenge.
We will also read several novels as a class, some will connect directly in theme or topic to the other strands, some will
not. We will continue to write college type essays, without doing to much instruction on how. It seems you learned a lot
of it from Mr. Kinory already. As we discover who still needs to work on it we will convene groups of students to work on
particular skills, rather than teach the entire class things you have already learned. We may also do a unit on Spoken Word
Poetry, although I may save that for the spring.
Strand B: Self and others
Mondays and Wednesdays
What does it mean to be human?
Using the lense of Anthropology (the study of culture) to gain insight into the human conditions, human tendencies. This
enables us to look at history, current events and ourselves with a broadened perspective. Some topics we may focus on are
community structures, family structures, gender roles, communication styles, stereotypes, survival strategies, responses to
confrontation… We will also study some philosophical approaches to the nature of humanity, current events, and
view some films that shed light onto the human condition.
How can people best communicate and approach each other to maximize understanding?
After exploring what it means to be human, we will look at the challenges to mutual understanding and communication created
by differences in gender, culture, class, age, personality, etc. We will do games, activities, and exercises meant to highlight
these challenges and eplore solutions. We will read articles about the role of language and culture in shaping interactions.
Students will do oral Histories video documentaries of someone they perceive as different from themselves.
Strand C: Strategies for making change, in the U.S. and abroad.
Wednesdays and Fridays
This strand will begin with a survey of the major tactics used in the Civil Rights Movement (about 3 weeks). We will
be looking at approaches including legal, literary, non-violent and militant.
At the end of the Civil Rights unit students will choose research topics pertaining to liberation movements (can be Black
Panthers, Young Lords, Feminism, Zapatistas, Tiananmen Square, Irish Republican Army, Karen people of Burma, South African
Blacks during Apartheid etc.). Research will end in a paper contrasting the movement studied with the Civil Rights Movement,
as well as a dramatic presentation to the class (possibly video documentary).
While students are working on research projects the class will shift to an international focus and compare and contrast
militance and non-violence and other key issues to a movement as they pertain to two significant historcal leaders: Mao Zedong
(China) and Mohandas Gandhi (India).
|
