Horizons ISLANDS is a one semester interdisciplinary course, anchored in the Humanities but supported by the arts and science, designed to provide a collaborative learning experience for identified highly-able ninth grade students at CHRHS. Begun in 1996, the ISLANDS course has been an anchoring course for many G/T students who began their four-year journey in this very class!
The ISLANDS course (and it’s companion course CITIES) emphasizes the necessary relationship between one’s self, a sense of place, experience, and perception as the fuel for creation, expression, and communication. The two courses are grounded in the core adolescent experience of learning to be SEPARATE BUT CONNECTED—balancing
The necessary tensions between ownership and self-direction with collaboration, cooperation, and a sense of community. ISLANDS uses the themes and images of ‘islands’, near and far, as a working metaphor for its starting and connecting in the first semester of high school.
Course Goals
• Gain a broad understanding of the major populated ISLANDS of Penobscot, Muscungus, and Casco Bays
• Use written and spoken language effectively to describe, analyze, and reflect on first-hand experiences of island life, history, work, and culture
• Identify, compare, debate, and resolve strong opposing viewpoints about the uses, accesses, and protection of Island ways of life
• Design, develop, conduct, and report both individual and small group research investigations about ISLANDS in our midcoast region, using a variety of resources, contacts, and organizations [eg: The Island Institute]
• Employ the forms, meanings and values of ‘non-verbal’ symbol systems (visual arts, photography, film, music) as effective ways of representing complex ideas and experiences embodied in island life
• Communicate well as a public speaker by using effective speaking and organization skills, alone or with others, and supported by visual work
Horizons Humanities I: ISLANDS
Dr. Thom Buescher, CHRHS Horizons G/T Programs
FALL 2010 0.5 credit [Frosh only]
DESCRIPTION:
Horizons ISLANDS is a one semester interdisciplinary course, anchored in the Humanities but supported by the arts and science, designed to provide a collaborative learning experience for identified highly-able ninth grade students at CHRHS. Begun in 1996, the ISLANDS course has been an anchoring course for many G/T students who began their four-year journey in this very class!
The ISLANDS course (and it’s companion course CITIES) emphasizes the necessary relationship between one’s self, a sense of place, experience, and perception as the fuel for creation, expression, and communication. The two courses are grounded in the core adolescent experience of learning to be SEPARATE BUT CONNECTED—balancing
The necessary tensions between ownership and self-direction with collaboration, cooperation, and a sense of community. ISLANDS uses the themes and images of ‘islands’, near and far, as a working metaphor for its starting and connecting in the first semester of high school.
Course Goals
• Gain a broad understanding of the major populated ISLANDS of Penobscot, Muscungus, and Casco Bays
• Use written and spoken language effectively to describe, analyze, and reflect on first-hand experiences of island life, history, work, and culture
• Identify, compare, debate, and resolve strong opposing viewpoints about the uses, accesses, and protection of Island ways of life
• Design, develop, conduct, and report both individual and small group research investigations about ISLANDS in our midcoast region, using a variety of resources, contacts, and organizations [eg: The Island Institute]
• Employ the forms, meanings and values of ‘non-verbal’ symbol systems (visual arts, photography, film, music) as effective ways of representing complex ideas and experiences embodied in island life
• Communicate well as a public speaker by using effective speaking and organization skills, alone or with others, and supported by visual work
Our Critical SKILLS Framework in ISLANDS