HUMANITIES 2 SYLLABUS (2016-2017)

School: Boston Arts Academy

Course: Humanities 2, Spring Semester 2017, Blocks F&G
Teacher: Ms. Brown, 617-779-8979(cell) until 9:30pm, sbrown@bostonartsacademy.org
Office Hours: Room 205 Wed 3:00-4:30pm and by individual appointment

Humanities 2: The Art of Power and Politics in

the U.S.

I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think
them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to
inform them by education. - Thomas Jefferson

Money, power, and respect. Whatchu' need in life.

Money, power, and respect. When you eatin' right.
Money, power, and respect. Help you sleep at night. - The Lox

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. Alice
Walker

OVERVIEW: From the encounter of Native Americans and European Americans in the 1600s, to pop
cultures impact on our current society, issues of power have fundamentally shaped the United States
as we know it today. Thus, in Humanities 2, we look at what power is and how different groups in the
U.S have (ab)used it and been affected by it. Using sociology, history, civics, media, literature, and
art, we will examine historical case studies and current events. Specifically, we will investigate how
unequal access to critical societal resources such as land, education, government, jobs, and housing,
has contributed to unequal power between groups in U.S. society based on 1) race/ethnicity; 2)
gender; 3) class; and 4) citizenship status. Ultimately, through understanding power and its effects on
our past and present, we aim to empower ourselves, and others, to create a more just society now
and in the future!

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Who has power in the United States and why? is the main question
you will examine in this course. During the semester, you should apply everything we study to
deepening your thinking about this question and developing a rich, well-thought out response
supported with evidence.

EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION: For your exhibition, you will work with a team of 3-4 classmates to
create a civic engagement project. The project will center on a critical issue of your choice that
connects to our essential question of Who has power in the United States and why?. Over the
course of a month, you will conduct research, prepare products, and craft a civic engagement project
using your scholarly and artistic skills. Then, during the week of May 23, you and your team will
present your project to an audience of classmates, families, community members, and civic and
organizational leaders.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In humanities at Boston Arts Academy, students and teachers continually seek to deepen their insight into
the human condition, and their connection to the human family across time and place. Ideally, students,
through completing the four-course curriculuman integrated academic and artistic, constructive and
deconstructive, and individual and collective processwill have empathetically developed their unique
forms of creative and critical knowledge, skills, perspectives, and voices, and feel empowered, as well as
motivated to take on roles and responsibilities that contribute positively to humanity and its natural and
social environments.
By the end of Humanities 2, the goals are that you:

1. Demonstrate proficiency in writing analytical paragraphs and essays (analytical, literary, and
persuasive).
2. Demonstrate an ability to identify, apply, and analyze thematic elements, sociological concepts (e.g.
power, privilege, resistance, and solidarity) and evidence within source material, history, literature, and
our
current society and use it to support your ideas.

3. Demonstrate an ability to analyze and apply thematic elements and sociological concepts (i.e.
oppression,
privilege, resistance, and solidarity) within history, literature, and our current society.

4. Read, think, and discuss for comprehension, application, and analysis, with special attention to subtext
(implications, tone, etc), literary elements & devices (character, theme, motif), and human condition.
(reading and thinking skills)

5. Demonstrate key historical thinking skills: identify, analyze, and evaluate cause-and effect
relationships, historical parallels, accurate chronological timeframes, and key continuities and changes;

Examine historical case studies in order to develop empathy and identify, analyze, and question who
has
power in U.S. society and why in order to empower yourself as an agent of social change. (historical
knowledge and thinking)

6. Examine the functions of key institutions in society such as education, housing, government, and land
access, and explain how these relate to power in the U.S. Understand multiple forms of civic
engagement
including accessing local, state, and/or federal government, and examining founding documents
and landmark cases. (social studies/civics)
7. Examine the role of art(ist)s with regard to access to power.

8. Implement effective research strategies in order to locate, access, evaluate and synthesize relevant
information for resource-based learning.
9. Consistently demonstrate student habits and responsibilities that support your learning and the
learning
of the other students in the classroom community (being on-time, not distracting oneself or others
from the

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 lessons, sharing your questions and ideas, taking notes, completing assignments, bringing required
materials
to class and keeping them organized, etc.) (student habits)

OPEN HONORS
The Open Honors Program is designed to deepen the skills, rigor, and challenge of work for students
who would like to do significantly more independent reading, writing, and research. Students who
participate in the program are expected to complete all required honors program components in
addition to the regular course work in order to earn honor credit on their transcript.
This year there will be NO QUALIFYING GRADE to enroll in the Open Honors Program .
Instead students should indicate in the term 1 mid-term reflection the intention to enroll in the
program. (See the Humanities 2 Open Honors sheet for more details about the program.)
FILM/LITERATURE/TEXTS
Selected primary documents, academic texts, poems, historical accounts, and novel excerpts.
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
Flight by Sherman Alexie
Open Honors: Two additional novels or reading packets

MAJOR PRODUCTS:
Three Analytical Essays
A Raisin in the Sun and Flight reading packets
All products from your exhibition (see Exhibition Description above) including research note
cards, argumentative essay, and artistic product.
EXPECTATIONS See Classroom Expectations and Rules handout

MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED FOR CLASS EVERYDAY :

a three-ring binder to hold notes, handouts/readings, assignments and journal writes.
at least two writing implements.

COURSEWORK AND GRADING

Term Grades Final Semester Grade
Reading and Writing Skills 40% Term 3 Grade
40%
Analytical & Creative Thinking 20% Term 4 Grade
40%
Work Habits & Process (e.g., attendance, on-task, hw) 20% Exhibition Presentation 10%
Research Skills 20% Final Exam/Assessment(s) 10%
TOTAL 100% TOTAL 100%

Daily Learning Habits Grade

Includes being in class on-time, completing the daily classwork, sharing your voice at least once,
etc.
TOTAL 20pts/day
(100pts/wk)

LATE WORK POLICIES:

Homework Assignments
1. Late homework assignments for a particular unit may be passed in until the last day of the unit. It
will receive on-time credit. After that I will not accept them for credit and they will be
counted as a 0 in your grade.
Major Assignments (e.g. essays, reading packets):
1. Major assignments will go down one grade for each day late. For example, if an assignment is
B quality but passed in one day late, it will receive a C grade.

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2. Major assignments passed in five or more days late can receive a maximum of 59 points.

NOTE: Extra Learning Assignments/Work will not be counted as make-up up work for major
assignments.

CLASSROOM SYSTEMS :
Absent If you miss a class: 1) get the handouts from the day you missed from the humanities
handout bin; 2) get the days notes from a classmate and; 3) pass in any work that was due that
day.
Leaving the room if you need to leave the room (e.g go to the bathroom, nurse, office, etc.):
sign-out, take the room pass, and then sign in when you return. You are given one free time per
week to leave the room. Each time you leave the room after that, points are subtracted
from your
Daily Learning Habits grade. If you do not leave the room during the week, you get and extra
5pts
toward your Daily Learning Habits grade.

Classwork/Homework - Should 1) have the standard humanities heading at the top, right corner;
2) should be put out in front of you on the table to be check and then kept in the assignments section
of your binder, unless you are asked to hand it in.
Standard Hum 2 Assignment Heading

Your Name
Hum 2
Ms. Brown
Date