Our Middle School students gain from a unified humanities approach to language arts and social studies. Our humanities courses develop a capacity for clear and informed communication, empathetic connection through the understanding of multiple perspectives and the diversity of life experiences, and a commitment to collaborating and contributing as empowered citizens. Students analyze the ways people have interacted with geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures and connect past experiences to present-day realities.
The humanities program focuses on three foundational objectives:
- Developing a breadth and depth of historical understanding to form a coherent narrative of the past and offer insight and perspective on contemporary challenges and opportunities.
- Cultivating precise, skillful, and powerful writers, who use the written word as a vehicle to connect with others, communicate their ideas with authority and substance, and clarify their reasoning.
- Harnessing critical-reading skills to discover and analyze content in literary and nonfiction works and to find inspiration that spurs imagination and action.
By analyzing literature and examining story structure, character development, and the elaboration of enduring themes, we not only gain insight into the art and beauty of the written word, but we also achieve deeper understanding of ourselves and our perspectives. Our students study fiction and nonfiction works to enrich their content knowledge, develop their analytical skills, and gain mastery of vocabulary and writing conventions.
Exposure to conflicting ideas and opportunities for meaningful debate help students develop autonomous thinking and strengthen identity and values – important developmental tasks for Middle School students.
Through the study of social studies, our middle schoolers explore early civilizations, world history, and U.S. history with an emphasis on universal themes of human existence and interaction. They practice a number of note-taking and research techniques, and through well-researched and thoughtfully written essays, they develop focused and independent arguments, substantiate their reasoning through strong evidence, and cite the origin and inspiration for their rationale in MLA Style.
Students examine film, print media, digital information, primary text documents, photographs, artifacts, and music to enrich their access to history. They have multiple opportunities to use a variety of media to demonstrate their understanding of the past and to make connections to their present and future.
Hands-on Learning
- Students research a topic of their choosing based in an ancient civilization and write a research paper connecting their study of the past to a contemporary question or issue related to leadership, the arts, citizenship, or religion.
- Students study allegorical stories and paintings, then create their own allegorical piece to comment on contemporary issues.
- Integrating elements from their unit on ancient mythology, students pen their own original myth stories, which highlight values and messages relevant to today.