Humanities

Guiding statement? The capstone is an independent learning project which synthesizes learning from the electives in a career pathway and demonstrates command of core 21st century skills in a real world context.

[|2010-2011 Program of Studies] (Humanities Academy starts on page 29)

Students pick a theme and then do a capstone project around that theme. The themes are common to the electives in a pathway.

Should we make a list of common themes by pathway ?
 * < **Career Pathway** ||< **Common Themes** ||
 * < Education ||< * Child Development
 * Language Acquisition and Development
 * Character Education ||
 * < Criminal Justice/Law ||< * Advocacy (Victim's rights)
 * Violence Prevention
 * Ethics
 * Media Violence ||
 * < Journalism/Communication ||<  ||
 * < Psychology/Counseling ||< * Nature of language ||
 * < Politics/Public Service ||< * Propaganda
 * Foreign Policy ||
 * < Liberal Arts ||<  ||

Once we have a working list of themes, it may be easier to actually come up with specific capstone projects

o Example: curriculum unit on poetry for 6th graders or the American Revolution for 4th graders o Would need to work one on one with a teacher to create this o Shadow teacher? o Actually “teach” a lesson or part of a lesson to the proposed grade? o Would allow students that glimpse into what it would be like to be a teacher and give them that leg up when going on to college (i.e. I’ve already done that once) o Portfolio creation of lessons || Every year another group of students at Weymouth High School becomes eligible to vote. Traditionally some faculty members have led registration drives to encourage students to become active citizens. Instead of this effort being led by faculty students would be responsible for educating their peers about how to register and why they should register. They would be responsible for insuring that paperwork is filled out correctly and delivered to the Town Hall. They could also make certain that the student body was aware of the dates of elections and the candidates and issues involved.
 * ** Career Pathway ** || **Capstone Project idea**s ||
 * Education || Creation of curriculum for lower grades
 * Criminal Justice/Law || * Students will integrate their knowledge of law, current events, violence in American culture and media to form a victim's rights advocacy group to help victims of domestic abuse find resources and counseling. They will also write, direct and film a media campaign designed to raise awareness of the issues of domestic violence and direct victims to resources they did not know existed. Strategic reading - they would read the current research on their topic. Research - field studies, from internships, scholarly articles, surveys, interviews and their own research. Written communication - they may develop a survey, write about their findings, script a series of videos for the campaign. Oral communication - presentation of the project at the fair, presenting information in their videos . Collaboration - they may work in a group. Problem solving - must use critical thinking to integrate content learned in classes with most effective demonstration of their skills through an authentic product.
 * Students will do a comprehensive study of the types of violence prevalent in their community and develop specific comprehensive violence prevention strategies that would effectively address those issues. Strategic reading - they would read the current research on their topic. Research - field studies, from internships, scholarly articles, surveys, interviews and their own research. Written communication - they may develop a survey, write about their findings, script a series of videos for the campaign. Oral communication - presentation of the project at the fair, presenting information in their videos . Collaboration - they may work in a group. Problem solving - must use critical thinking to integrate content learned in classes with most effective demonstration of their skills through an authentic product.
 * Students will write, produce and film a multi-episode dramatic series that focuses on conflict resolution, ethical decision making and responsible behavior for use in grades 5-8 classrooms. This production will be part of the health curriculum, and must conform to all standards of the Mass. DESE. Strategic reading - they would read the current research on their topic. Research - field studies, from internships, scholarly articles, surveys, interviews and their own research. Written communication - they may develop a survey, write about their findings, script a series of videos for the campaign. Oral communication - presentation of the project at the fair, presenting information in their videos . Collaboration - they may work in a group. Problem solving - must use critical thinking to integrate content learned in classes with most effective demonstration of their skills through an authentic product. ||
 * Journalism/Communication || * Ad Campaign (digital and physical) to promote the WHS Free Press and increase viewership
 * Series of Articles/art/photos tackling a proposed topic
 * Requirement of investigative reporting?
 * Attempt to get articles run in larger paper? Weymouth News? Ledger? Globe?
 * Ad Campaign to bring awareness to an issue (example: Global Warming, Recycling, Genocide, hunger in America etc…)
 * Must attempt to reach broadest audience
 * Presentations for town people?
 * Presentations for school? (assemblies)
 * Can use Free Press
 * Creation of blog? ||
 * Psychology/Counseling || * **Research Study** - Students in this pathway may want to model their capstones after the steps in real psychological studies. They would pick one of the themes from the pathway (say the nature of language) and do some preliminary descriptive research (most likely a survey or naturalistic observation.) After getting these results they would then form a hypothesis and conduct a study or experiment to test this hypothesis. For example, they could study the way communicating via texting is impacting peer relationships of high school students. After the research is complete they would need to find a way to bring their study to the public, a final step that the APA is constantly struggling with. This would hit all 7 core skills and keep it real. Strategic reading - they would read the current research on their topic. Research - both from scholarly articles and their own research. Written communication - there would be a paper. Oral communication - presentation of the project at the fair and/or the use of Technology to create an animoto video on the study. Collaboration - they would work with another student? Problem solving - I think we should frame the whole capstone in the four step problem solving process. ||
 * Politics/Public Service || * Students will promote and run a voter registration drive.

Many Americans (some who are and those who are not affiliated with a political Party) are very active in groups that promote causes that are important to them. Students would be responsible for educating their peers on the issue (e.g. environmental causes, women’s issues, teen issues, etc.) The group could be an already existing organization that starts a chapter @ WHS or students could create their own group. Students would then decide how to proceed to the next level (e.g. petitions, PSAs, rallies, etc.). Ultimately this could lead to students @ WHS linking up with other area high schools. ||
 * Students will create a campaign to get fellow students to become active in a political issue.
 * Liberal Arts || * ||