Humanities I
Students at ASPIRA Early College take a four year Humanities sequence. Humanities at the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade levels is a year-long 2 credit course fulfilling the English and social science requirement. Humanities I at the freshmen level is focused on world studies. Humanities II at the sophomore level focuses on American studies. Junior year humanities focuses on British studies and the senior year humanities course focuses on Latin American studies. During the year students study the arts of literature, painting, music, sculpture, and architecture and the discipline of philosophy as it relates to a given timeperiod and civilization. These subjects are not studied in isolation but within the context of important developments in science, technology, economics, politics and general history. A major intent of the course is to help students understand their own world through a careful examination of diverse cultures and civilizations. Throughout the course, the accomplishments of the past are considered not as relics of a bygone era or museum artifacts, but as living evidence of enduring responses to the perplexities of life and a part of mankind's attempt to make sense of the world and the universe. The work in this course is centered on reading, writing, note-taking, projects, testing, discussion and visual literacy. Students will be given opportunities to see, analyze, and respond to pictures of major works of painting, sculpture, and architecture. In addition, inquiry-based projects center on furthering students’ development of skills of historical inquiry, organization, analysis, and communication which are demonstrated through major performance based assessment tasks.
At the freshmen level, all students take the College Literacy course. In College Literacy, students work on the reading, writing, speaking, an dlistening skills they need both in high school and in college. In the area of literature, students engage in literary interpretation, analysis, and critique as they explore themes within and across texts. Thematic units are constructed to expose students to a variety of literary genres such as short stories, poetry, plays, novels, film, as well as non-fiction selections. Students learn to identify and work with a variety of literary and figurative terminology and devices. In addition, students engage in intensive independent reading to gain a deeper understanding and exposure to the various literary genres and themes. Students also develop their writing skills by studying and practicing essay writing in various styles and genres.
