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Division 1. This year, we used the
Essential Question "What Really Matters?" to explore global
literature, history and art, and our own lives. We began the year by applying the question to students' personal
lives, asking them to identify what matters most to them and why those things
are of consequence. We then read Romeo and Juliet, focusing on
Shakespeare's literary techniques and performing many of the scenes. Students answered questions and memorized a
passage from the play, performing it in character. We studied multiple versions
of Romeo and Juliet, including West Side Story, to see how the play has
been translated into different art forms, and students translated a scene
themselves. Classes learned about the
Renaissance to provide context for Shakespeare's masterpiece and students completed
a research project and "I-Search" paper on any aspect of the
Renaissance era. The second unit focused on Israeli-Palestinian relations. Classes investigated the roots of the
current situation, identifying the "things that matter" to
individuals and groups involved and analyzing how these issues have created
conflict. Students read the novel One More River and listened to sections
of the novel Habibi. At the end of
the unit, students played the role of a real person involved in the conflict,
presenting a persuasive rally speech and engaging in peace negotiations with
representatives of other interest groups.
Classes began the final unit, entitled "Ancient Rituals and
Traditions," by studying early human history, from hunter-gatherer
cultures to the first settled societies.
We focused on mythology, with all students learning and retelling a
Greek myth using storytelling techniques. Students listened to and read myths
from Asia, Africa and Scandinavia and were asked to compare and contrast the
stories. The year culminated with a
research project. After gathering
general information about an ancient culture of their choice and deeply
examining an aspect of the society that "really mattered", students
wrote a creative narrative and created a clay artifact that demonstrated what
they had learned.
Division 2. Based upon our
essential question, “What really matters?” Division 2 Arts and Humanities
students explored global issues focusing first on two nation case studies
followed by a broader exploration of cultural identity in a post-colonial
world. Our first case study asked,
What really matters in Mexico, Why, and How do we know? Students examined cultural artifacts,
Mexican literature and history, and Mexico’s unique muralist tradition
(including a trip to Dartmouth College to view the Orozco murals there). Students wrote an analytical essay about
conflicting perspectives on Mexican history.
The study culminated with each student creating an original mural
depicting a major theme of Mexican culture.
The next case study, China, began with an inquiry into the Tiananmen
Square massacre of 1989. Through a
focused study of Chinese films, contemporary Chinese memoirs, and related
history, students gained insight to fuel a debate, an original research
project, an analytical essay, and a fictional memoir. In February, we broadened our perspective on cross-cultural
contact by studying the work of Jamaica Kincaid and her focus on third
world-first world issues. This work
linked with a look at the geographical and economic implications of wealth and
poverty on a global scale. To round out
the year, we continued our look at cross-cultural issues by reading several
novels, learning the culture and history of the setting for each one (South
Africa and the Dominican Republic), studying Shakespeare’s Tempest, and
developing our performance skills. Each
student created an original monologue based on formal research into the
cultural context surrounding the character they chose to depict. Each student also wrote an original play
which demonstrated their understanding of the elements of dramatic style.
Note: In Division Three, students are offered a small array
of classes from which to select in Arts and Humanities and in Math, Science and
Technology. The courses below may be
quarter, semester or year-long offerings.
This course is devoted to understanding, appreciating, and writing
various forms of the essay. As a class, students formed a community of writers
and thinkers as they analyzed and composed a new essay each week. The first two
weeks were spent reading Annie Dillard’s A
Writer's Life and writing personal narratives, with subsequent weeks
devoted to description, analogy, character analysis, argument/persuasion, and
opinion. Careful consideration was paid to conventions and process, and
students played a critical role in providing feedback for one another’s work.
This course focuses on the skills of research. Students undertook independent projects that
resulted in either a paper, an oral presentation, or a piece of artistic
expression. They learned how to find
good topics, how to become an effective investigator, how to manage a big
process, and how to construct a meaningful presentation of findings. Several
essential questions drove our work together:
1.
Why research?
Why work from a variety of sources?
Why document sources?
2.
What are essential questions and how does one find rich
and worthy topics to investigate?
3.
How does a product demonstrate good research?
4.
How do you know what you say you know?
The projects could be on any topic in any discipline. While there was choice in topic and in means
of expression, the criteria for excellence in research were not a matter of
choice. Whatever their topic and
medium, students had to work hard on the skills and habits involved in doing
good research.
Visions of Australia
How does a nation started as a prison colony find pride in
its heritage? How does a once
homogeneous population deal with its new diversity? How does the modern nation face its aboriginal inhabitants? This
course was primarily a cultural study, where our task was to look at a place
and work to understand who the people are, what the land is like, and how
different people see themselves and the society around them. The following essential questions drove that
study:
1.
What is culture?
2.
What are the elements of Australian culture?
3.
What are the myths and realities of life in Australia?
4.
What has shaped and what shapes these definitions?
We looked at history, literature, film, music, art, and
other sources to see these different visions of what Australia is all
about. Our aim was to take in as much
as we can and to create our own visions in the end. The exhibition was an open project that asked students to figure
out what they saw when they looked at Australia and to express their visions in
written or oral or artistic form.
Visions of India
What are the elements of culture? How does an ancient culture adapt to the forces of
modernization? How does a
once–colonized people form their own independent nation? How does a poor country provide for its
people? This course was primarily a cultural study, where our task was to look
at a place and work to understand who the people are, what the land is like,
and how different people see themselves and the society around them. We looked at history, literature, film, and
other sources to see these different visions of what India is all about. Our aim was to take in as much as we could
and to create our own visions in the end.
The exhibition was an open project that asked students to figure out
what they saw when they looked at India and to express their visions in written
or oral or artistic form.
Collision 1492
The world changed forever when Columbus' ships landed in the
Caribbean. Cultures that had formed in
almost complete isolation from one another came together with devastating and
powerful results. Soon the cultures of
Africa would get added to the mix. This course looked at the cultures of Europe
and the Americas before contact and at what happened when they came
together. As primarily a history
course, the aim was to give students an understanding of the past and how that
past shaped subsequent events and even today’s world. The major project of the
semester was a trial that students prepared and enacted. A lawsuit had been brought against the
Spanish Government accusing it and its representatives of crimes against
humanity in its conquest of Mesoamerica between 1492 and 1575, the year of the
trial. Students researched participants and created witnesses who they
portrayed at the trial. They also
served as the lawyers, preparing direct and cross examinations. They were formally assessed for their
witness portrayals (Artistic Expression) and their lawyer performances (Oral
Presentation). Students were also asked
to understand substantial content and to use their minds well at every step,
though there is no single skill to recognize that learning.
Evolution of Human Rights
This semester-long course investigated the idea of human
rights over time and in the current day.
The first half of the course focused on a document-based examination of
major human rights treaties and declarations, including the Magna Carta, the US
Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, and
various United Nations documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and its various protocols.
Students completed an artistic expression piece to synthesize their
understanding of the tensions and issues in human rights from this
perspective. Using only brown craft
paper and ebony pencils, the challenge was to select and then represent a theme
from this study, then explain and support this choice in an artist’s
statement. In the second half of the
semester, students examined several case studies of recent human rights issues,
including the Killing Fields of Cambodia and the state of human trafficking and
the international slave trade today. In
conjunction with the Cambodia study, students read First They Killed My
Father and then wrote a listening thesis paper based on what they had
learned in class, including lectures, film and guest speakers. Finally, each student researched a modern
human rights issue of their own choosing and presented their findings in either
a formal research paper or an oral presentation. This final project was portfolio-eligible if completed to
expectations.
State of the World
This course is about understanding some of the complexities
and interdependence of the modern world.
Over the next semester, we will explore a series of issues that affect
the whole world, looking at their causes and their effects. With each issue, we will try to formulate a
number of different possible actions that might address the problems. After researching, analyzing and
problem-solving 3-4 such issues, we will conclude the course by debating the
different proposals we generated through the course and negotiating a common
agenda for the future. Through this
course, the objectives were to learn or improve habits of inquiry and critical
thinking, to understand multifaceted causes and effects of important world
issues, to face the difficulties of solving complex problems and negotiation,
to know more about the world around us, and to leave with a sense of a personal
agenda for what the world needs from us and others.
World Literature
This course was about reading, writing, and culture. Over the semester, we journeyed to different
parts of the globe, entering the lives of individuals and their cultures
through novels, short stories, and films.
Students had to leave behind these comfortable shores and go to homes
and villages and situations that they’d never seen in their lives and perhaps
never even imagined. We entered these
worlds as guests and observers, not to judge or evaluate but to try to see and
understand. Yet they also compared what
they read to their own lives, finding differences but also finding
similarities. We chose a thematic focus
around issues of tradition and change, and we also looked at situations where
individuals crossed cultures. In the
end, the hope was that students would learn or improve their skills as readers,
they would be able to see what writers do, they would explore themes about
culture, and they would explore and learn about cultures of the world. Major assessments for the course included
reading assessments on Things Fall Apart and Dreaming in Cuban, as
well as Radio Plays centered around A Small Place and a final synthesis
based off of Heart of Darkness.
Masks
Masks class consisted of looking at and discussing the
rituals and ceremonies of masks, as well as a historical overview; Why we wear masks,
and what they do for the individual and for society. We constructed animal masks using construction paper, Mardi Gras
style masks using large balloons and paper-mache and finally a four sided mask
using chalk and charcoal, paint, and newspaper on a paper bag as a base to tell
the story of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.
Murals
During murals class this term we have looked at and created
color block murals, murals focusing on repetition, positive and negative space
with geometric shapes, and a final project designed to incorporate all of these
elements. Students have worked with
marker, chalk and charcoal, and paint.
Each project has increased in size, starting with an 81/2 X11” sheet of
paper up to a 3X7’ panels and doors. We
have discussed what a mural is, what a mural contributes to a community, and
the obligation of a muralist to the work, the form and the community.
Set Design
In this semester-long class, students have been reading
plays and examining the themes and ideas in the text. Then through a series of exercises, students have been designing
the scenery for those plays with hypothetical productions in mind. The class has read Sophocles’s Antigone,
where they worked in groups to design and build a half inch scale model. Next we read Ibsen’s A Doll’s House,
drawing a scale ground plan, then painting a wallpaper swatch of original
design. Students then designed The
Metamorphosis and built models of their designs. We finished the semester with Athol Fugard’s My Children! My
Africa! creating designs which required consideration of all the concepts
learned in previous studies
Collage
In this course, students have been given opportunities to
explore not only the technique of collage, but also how to create different
designs and patterns on paper. They
have been asked to look at color texture and competition. We have used watercolor, India ink, tempera
and acrylic paints applying them to different types of paper using not only
brushes, but also plastic wrap, wax paper and toothbrushes. We have used tea to stain papers as well as
bleach to strip away existing color. We
have used salt to alter wet watercolor paintings, and added pigment to liquid
soap to stain paper with bubble prints.
We have used color-saturated pasts to create texture and design. Once
students had a substantial supply of hand made paper, they set about to create
collages out of that paper. Students
were asked to choose five different sheets of their paper that related to one
another and overlap then in an interesting way. Next students were asked to use a minimum of three different
papers and weave them together incorporating two objects. Finally students were asked to choose an object
or a symbol and render their chosen form six different ways, using any material
they wanted using their paper as a jumping off point.
Shakespeare in Adaptation
This eight-week class explored Shakespeare’s classic dramas Macbeth
and Hamlet. Through comparative,
interactive, and interpretive classroom activities, close textual reading, and
video analysis, students grappled with the questions and meaning of Macbeth.
Students completed word logs, in which they followed a single word throughout
the play in order to trace the evolution of its symbolism and significance to
the play and the characters. This led
to an analytical paper on Macbeth, which was revised by all students as
the final assignment for the class. Hamlet
was also studied, although with less intensity and more individual
responsibility than the first play. Class
preparation and participation were enormously important for successful
understanding of the material and completion of the class.
Russia Before 1900
This course was an overview of Russian history and
literature prior to 1900. Through
analytical study of the short works of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Leskov
and the novel A Hero of Our Time by
Lermontov, students gained an understanding of and familiarity with themes in
Russian history and culture. Course
work included analytical and creative writing, written responses to daily
readings, and listening. Students
created their own timeline of Russian history.
Morality in Global Politics
This semester-long course explored the theme of morality in
global politics by focusing on dilemmas and decision-making in 20th
century world history and current events.
After reading and working with some philosophical texts on the nature of
war and the moral complexities of war, student engaged in an in-depth study of
World War II through a German lens.
This study brought them back to the unification of the German state
under Bismarck, through World War I, the rise of the Nazi Party, and the war
itself. The ethical nature of bombing,
civilian targeting, the Holocaust, the role of ordinary citizens and obedience,
and American foreign policy were all examined.
The war on the Pacific front was also studied. Students then engaged in a choice project involving reading,
research, and/or oral presentation in which they could examine questions about
the nature of war crimes by studying the Rape of Nanking, the Bosnian conflict
or the Rwandan Massacre. The course
concluded with a look at the concept of globalization as a current paradigm for
global politics and the many philosophical and foreign policy choices the
United States has as it determines the role it should play in the world
today. The culminating project of the
course was a synthesis piece about the content and themes of the course that
could be expressed in writing or through oral presentation. Throughout the course, students wrote weekly
current events papers in which they selected articles on topics of personal
interest in world affairs and then responded to them formally in writing and
informally in class discussion.
World Religions
This eight-week class explored Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam as practiced by people around the world.
By exploring the tenets, rituals, symbols, texts, histories, and beliefs
of these three world religions, students came to a better understanding of the
basic components of the faiths themselves as well as some overall conclusions
about the nature and function of religion.
This class used readings, lectures and guest speakers to explore what
“really matters” about each religion.
All students worked in small groups to research and then present
findings about one aspect of a chosen religion. With optional additional work above and beyond the requirements
for the presentation, portfolio-eligible work was available in the skills of
research and oral presentation. All
students completed a journal that reacted to and reflected on the speakers and
the information communicated by the small group presentations and
lectures. This journal was assessed for
listening and was portfolio-eligible.
Identity Seminar: Who Decides Who I Am?
What is
identity? How is identity shaped? How do we perceive and project
ourselves? How do others perceive us? How and when are we able to alter our
identities? Throughout this
literature-based seminar, students explored these complex questions of identity
by investigating the many factors that influence who they (and others)
are. The first unit focused on the
novel, as together students read and discussed Esmerelda Santiago’s When I
Was Puerto Rican. Students then
selected an additional novel to read and analyze either through an essay or an
oral presentation. For the second unit,
students read a series of short stories with a particular focus on the elements
of character, setting, narration, and climax.
As the culminating synthesis, students then demonstrated their
understanding again through writing or oral presentation (a Mock Trial). The third unit involved an exploration of
identity-related poetry from around the world, and students simultaneously
worked toward the creation of their own poetry collections. Finally, in the fourth unit, students read,
analyzed, and discussed two provocative plays: a theatrical adaptation of
Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and
Fugard’s Master Harold and the Boys. As a transition between each unit, students
also viewed and discussed four global films: Life is Beautiful (Italy), All About My Mother (Spain), Shall We Dance
(Japan), and Cyrano de Bergerac (France).
For the culminating assignment of this course, students synthesized and
applied their understanding of identity by generating their own personal
memoirs and author’s statements. Class
participation and diligent completion of homework assignments also were
critical components to each student’s success in this seminar.
Dance
The two components of this course were Modern Dance
technique and movement exploration and composition. Technique classes focused on safe and efficient alignment,
musicality, and the retention of increasingly complex movement combinations. Students expanded their range, control, and
confidence as they mastered the concepts of alignment and developed greater
physical strength and flexibility. The
movement challenged them to take risks and to dance "full-out,"
pushing the edges of their comfort zone.
Composition class included exercises aimed at generating, exploring, and
developing original movement. After a
series of studies exploring shape, dynamics, movement initiation, contact
skills and other compositional elements, students embarked on original choreographic
projects, which they shared before an informal audience of parents and peers.
20th Century Russia
This course was an overview of Russian history, culture and
literature in the twentieth century. Through research, reading, lectures, and
guest speakers we explored the artistic blossoming of the first decades, the
revolution and its aftermath, Stalin’s purges, the cultural changes of the thaw
and Brezhnev years, and current issues.
Course work included a small research project and oral presentation,
written responses to all readings, listening, and a major final research
project on a current issue, which was shared with the class.
Satire
This course examined the goals and methods of the satire
genre through a study of classic and contemporary literature, film and TV. After studying works by Swift, Gogol, Lu
Xun, Bulgakov, George Wolfe, Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Stanley
Kubrick, Tim Robbins, Matt Groening and others, students created original
projects. Course work included
analytical essays, informal written responses to readings and films, and
original satire.
The Art of Public Speaking
This course was devoted to understanding, appreciating, and
experimenting with various forms of public speaking. Students studied essential techniques and strategies for
effective oral communication, and they delivered three formally-assessed
speeches throughout the quarter. For
the first speech, students were required to show the audience how to do
something by demonstrating the process.
In the second speech, students utilized a “manuscript” to describe,
analyze, or persuade the audience about a topic of their choosing. Finally, for the third speech, students
reflected upon their experiences at the Parker School and delivered
“commencement addresses” for potential inclusion in our graduation ceremonies. Throughout the quarter, careful
consideration was paid to drafting and revision, and students played a critical
role in providing feedback for one another's work.
Philosophical Pursuits
In 1908, Bertrand Russell wrote, “Philosophy is to be studied,
not for the sake of any definitive answers to its questions, since no definite
answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the
questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is
possible and serve to enrich our
intellectual potential…” In this
seminar, students took to Russell’s edict by becoming philosophers and asking
fundamental questions about themselves, the world, and the intersection between
themselves and the world. The course
was divided into five parts. Part One
was an introduction to philosophical thinking and logic, as students learned
the major logistical fallacies and were immersed in a number of “classic”
philosophical dilemmas. Part two
utilized Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World as the central text in
exploring the broad history of Western Philosophy. In Part Three, students chose and researched a particular
philosopher and then explained, analyzed, and applied an aspect of his
philosophy in a manner of their choosing.
Part Four was a case study in Moral Philosophy as students grappled with
the timeless question of “How Should We Live?”
After reading such classics as Plato’s Republic and Hesse’s Siddhartha
as well as excerpts from Machiavelli, Jefferson, and the Bible, students
ultimately composed their own manifestos in response to this question. In Part Five of the course, students were
required to live according to their own philosophies and record their daily
successes and frustrations; ultimately they shared their ideas and experiences
in a course-ending Symposium.
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