Humanities 4
Humanities IV Grade 12 2 Credits
This two course program is required for all seniors.
Students have the option of taking either Honors or Regular Humanities IV. Students must select the same level for both English and Social Studies.
English – 12th Grade
This course is the capstone of the ECS Literacy program as it cultivates the reading and writing skills that students need for college/career success and for intellectually responsible civic engagement. The course guides students in becoming curious, critical, and responsive readers of diverse texts, and becoming flexible, reflective writers of texts addressed to diverse audiences for diverse purposes. The reading and writing students do in the course should deepen and expand their understanding of how written language functions rhetorically to communicate writers’ intentions and elicit readers’ responses in particular situations. Reading and writing activities in the course also deepen students’ knowledge and control of formal conventions of written language (e.g., vocabulary, diction, syntax, spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, genre). The course helps students understand that formal conventions of the English language in its many written and spoken dialects are historically, culturally, and socially produced. This course will support the year-long development of the written/communication component of the ECS Graduation Project.
Social Studies – 12th Grade
This required course will focus on American history and society from the end of World War I in 1919 through the contemporary world, challenging students to understand the plethora of ways in which the reality of the American experience has so often fallen short of the lofty ideals enshrined in this nation’s founding documents. This class will devote particular attention to political, economic, religious, artistic, scientific, technological, and cultural ideas and developments – including the struggle for racial, gender, and economic equality and the ways in which American society still falls short on those measures – and students will analyze major themes, cause & effect, historical patterns, and the myriad ways in which events, trends, and conflicts from the past can inform our understanding of the world today. This course will also provide opportunities for students to read and analyze primary source documents and conduct historical research, and through the Humanities model, students will pursue a thorough interdisciplinary experience that is synthesized with their English class.