Ninth grade students are required to take Humans in the Natural World, which integrates English, Social Science, and Natural Science. This is a three-trimester course.
American Studies and Writing and Research are required for juniors in lieu of 11th grade English and U.S. history to provide a richer exploration of American society, culture, and history.
Required - Grade 11
What does it mean to be American? In this year-long, interdisciplinary course, students trace American identity from precolonial North America through the mid-twentieth century, using history to study literature and literature to understand history. Major readings have included Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, and Sweat by Lynn Notage. Throughout the three-term course, assignments include regular reading and preparation, class discussions, short analytical writing responses, formal essays, and researched presentations. Weekly current events posts and responses provide contemporary context for historical themes. The course challenges students to engage deeply with complex texts and ideas, work collaboratively, and make meaning of American experiences across time. (Three Terms)
Humans in the Natural World: English, History, and Science
All 9th-grade students are required to take the full-year interdisciplinary program Humans in the Natural World. The course series is composed of three distinct but thematically connected courses in English, history, and science, which are designed provide new students with foundations in analytical thinking, creative expression, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Students earn three academic credits (1 in English, 1 in history, and 1 in science).
Using the tools and methods of each discipline, Humans in the Natural World begins with the essential question: How do we know what we know? Students start by observing and investigating their local environment and expand outward to global contexts. They engage with literary texts, scientific investigations, and historical documents to explore the human relationship with the natural world—its patterns, resources, and meanings.
Throughout the year, students complete a series of long-term projects, including in-depth studies of a plot of land, a country, and a commodity. They develop skills in analytical and creative writing, oral presentation, research and data analysis, and collaboration. Core habits such as reflection, perseverance, and critical thinking are intentionally cultivated across all three courses.
Students demonstrate their learning through essays, experiments, presentations, wikis, and teaching peers.
They will emerge from this program able to:
- Observe and critically analyze their environment
- Collect and interpret GIS data
- Write in both scientific and literary forms
- Synthesize scientific and historical facts into meaning
- Embrace complexity, ambiguity, and the iterative nature of learning
Required - Grade 11
How can we develop the skills of historical thinking, research, and argumentation to produce compelling academic writing? In Writing and Research, students learn to navigate a wide range of library resources, online tools, and scholarly databases. Emphasis is placed on historical inquiry, particularly the development of meaningful research questions. Students engage deeply with primary sources; refine their ability to identify context, audience, purpose, and point of view; and learn to integrate these insights in their interpretations. The course is closely connected to American Studies, often drawing on its central themes and materials. By the end of the term, each student will have produced a well-researched, engaging, and persuasive argumentative essay, using methods designed to strengthen current and future academic writing. (One Term)