Humanities

Humanities courses at Wasatch Academy provide students with learning opportunities to think critically about and experience the world they live in through various methods of research and reflection, reading and writing, and verbal expression and presentation.

Curricula focus on encouraging inclusivity of perspectives and inspiring richly diverse discussions, honoring both a global world and the school’s diverse student population. The humanities department guides students in how to access and analyze a variety of sources, including literary and non-literary, print and non-print publications, and subsequently how to develop a thoughtful and informed response to a global world. 

Courses

  • This course introduces students to writing and reading fundamentals, like paragraph construction, style and clarity of prose, the fundamentals of organization, and adequate source/perspective integration. It also introduces them to foundational concepts in literature, like theme identification, character roles, plot fundamentals, and literary analysis.

  • English and global studies' integrated curricula introduces literary and non-literary readings, including topics about humanity and issues that affect the world from a modern and historical perspective. Students are presented with learning opportunities to develop comprehensive critical reading, writing, and thinking skills including basic essay structuring, thesis statement construction, and the recognition of nuances and literary devices in informative or literary texts. Additionally, students learn to consume and analyze information and address themes and realistic solutions. Students demonstrate proficiency through assessments appropriate for grade-level academic standards.

  • This course helps students enter academic discourse and honing the skills essential to its implementation. Specifically, it builds on the essay writing and drafting skills already introduced in prior courses and introduces them to the challenges particular to academic writing, like the MLA Citation system, and it builds on the rhetorical knowledge they’ve already acquired by introducing more rigorous argumentative models, literary devices, as well as more in-depth research methods.

  • This class prepares students for college-level literature classes. They will do so by reviewing critical or “active” reading strategies, essay writing argumentative models including counterarguments and rebuttals, and a more comprehensive review of citational systems and embedded disciplinary values. They also hone their critical-thinking skills with regard to the academic peer-review system.

  • This course prepares students to take the AP English Language and Composition Exam as provided by the College Board. As such, it reviews claims and argumentative development and support, rhetorical devices, the theories and foundations of rhetoric, critical essay engagement and analysis strategies, as well as literary devices fundamental to rhetoric and rhetorical analysis.

  • This course prepares students to take the AP Literature Course as provided by the College Board. The focus is on refined, highly detailed analytical thinking with regard to literature, including attention to character, thematics, perspective, and figurative language

  • English Elective & ELL Class

    Socratic Seminar focuses on the Socratic Method and the art of persuasion in writing and speaking. Students have the opportunity to explore different texts and media and engage in a variety of inquiry-based dialogues

  • US History is a course in which students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes at various time periods. The end goal of the course is to understand pivotal moments in American history in its temporal context but also as it helps to frame the narrative of current events.

  • General Psychology is designed to introduce students to the field of psychology, while aiming to answer the question, “why do we behave the way we do?” Through this exploration students also build empathy to the human condition.

  • This course will provide students with a theoretical basis and functional knowledge of economics. Economics is the study of how individuals, businesses, and governments make decisions about the use of scarce resources in a world of seemingly unlimited wants and needs. At the microeconomic level, students will investigate the smaller units of the economy and individual firms and markets. In macroeconomics, students will study the global economy and economics of nations and governments as they attempt to foster growth and stability. The course is useful in helping students acquire many life skills, including personal financial literacy, and in establishing a foundation for a more advanced study of economics. 

  • AP US History is an introductory college-level course, where students cultivate their understanding of United States history by analyzing historical sources and learning to make connections and craft historical arguments. They explore concepts like national identity, migration and settlement, politics and power, America in the world, and social structures. Course description provided by the College Board’s course overview.

  • Modern is an introductory college-level modern world history course. Students cultivate their understanding of world history from c. 1200 CE to the present through analyzing historical sources and learning to make connections and craft historical arguments as they explore concepts like humans and the environment, cultural developments and interactions, governance, economic systems, social interactions and organization, and technology and innovation, as stated by the College Board's course overview.

  • AP Psychology introduces students to the systematic and scientific study of behavior and mental processes of humans, as well as the psychological facts, principles, and phenomena associated with the major subfields within psychology. Course description provided by the College Board’s course overview.