Humanities Courses
Humanities Department Courses
Theater Arts
Theater Arts is a broad area of performing arts that includes the understanding of musicals and plays in front of a live audience. This course also taps into the broad spectrum of film and television. Theater Arts was designed to give the basic actor an understanding of theater history and what it means to be a performer.
Communication Arts
Communication Arts is designed to help students master skills of written and spoken communication. Students will work on their public speaking skills and will learn techniques to help them become more confident and more effective communicators. Throughout the year, students will survey basic writing techniques and will analyze models of successful speeches to discover effective methods of intrapersonal and interpersonal communication. In addition, students will explore the world of modern journalism to discover how to analyze an argument, how to detect bias, and how to determine the credibility of a source. Since this is a class all about modes of communication, active participation is very important! Students will engage in various projects that will allow them to communicate through writing, multimedia, speeches, and group presentations. In this class, students will learn how to become a better speaker, writer, listener, and overall communicator.
Classics
This course is designed to introduce the student to the classical world of antique Greece and, secondarily, to that of Rome. The student’s study will progress through an organic curriculum beginning with the attempts of the imaginative mind of the cultural forbears of Western civilization to grapple with the complexity of the universe, first in mythological concepts, then through a revolutionary, empirical approach. The course will then proceed to an examination of the antique anthropology and the development of its ethical system. In a broadening spectrum, the student will explore such phenomena as social structure, will, fate, and personal relationships as envisioned in antiquity. Where advantageous to the student’s widened cultural development, the course will include later works of art and music which the civilization of Mediterranean antiquity inspired. True to content, the course will expose the student to a select sampling of the great minds of the ancient world; but, as a complementary addition, the course will balance these readings with the position of the Judaeo-Christian tradition relative to the studied topics. Relevance is a key factor within this curriculum. The student will come to see that the ancients dealt with those questions of universal human significance still facing humanity today. Throughout the term, the student will be required to respond with regularity in both reflective writing and class discussion.
AP Human Geography
Offered to select Sophomores, this course includes both the study of physical geography and human behavioral patterns as a result of environmental changes. It also requires familiarity with reading data-driven models such as tables and graphs. Students will become competent with analyzing various types of maps and making inferences about human activity in those regions.
AP Psychology
The AP Psychology course is designed to introduce students to the systematic and scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of human beings and other animals. Students are exposed to the psychological facts, principles, and phenomena associated with each of the major subfields within psychology. They also learn about the ethics and methods psychologists use in their science and practice.
College Psychology
College Psychology includes the study of human and animal behavior and cognition. Topics that are covered include, Methodology, Statistics, Neuro-Psychology, Sensations & Perception, Motivation & Emotion, Abnormal Psychology and types of therapy to treat mental illness, Social & Developmental Psychology. Enter your text here...
American Sign Language
American Sign Language will allow students to acquire skills to communicate using ASL, and will have an understanding of Deaf Culture. Hands-on experiences will allow students to decipher the lexicology, grammar, syntax, and semantics of ASL, and put these into practice, while immersing their minds into Deaf Culture.
Performing Arts
A Zero Period was introduced in 2022-2023 featuring a Performing Arts course. This course covers the basics of theater education, audition preparation, public speaking, and “how to theater."