Humanities
At Monte del Sol, the English and History disciplines are combined in one Humanities Department. English and History courses are taught with an interdisciplinary approach, but as separate subject areas, often overlapping in their material, thoughts, and ideas. Humanities courses acquaint students with many historians, writers, artists, and philosophers who have shaped our ideas about humanity. An interdisciplinary approach to learning allows students to develop connections with other fields of study and creates a more integrated and focused curriculum. We stress learning through multiple intelligences, appreciating different learning styles and noting the importance of emotional intelligence. This approach also allows for deeper content mastery and establishes a more meaningful curriculum that fosters educational, personal, and social development of students. Common goals will attempt to develop students' cultural, creative, historical, literary, and social awareness. We hope these teachings instill in students a confidence that leads to accomplishment and pride. Critical and creative thinking skills and inquiry become especially important when teenagers must think abstractly and relate course concepts to their own lives, reflecting on questions such as: "Where do I fit into the world?" "What are our human origins?" and "What is our destiny?"
English
Grade 9: World Literature I
This course uses the journey as a metaphor for the development of self and as a means to explore, engage with, and, possibly, answer the essential question (Where do I fit into the world?) for students. Unit by unit, we move from individual journeys to societal quests for self, meaning, order, and harmony. The course begins with creation stories; moves through personal quests for religious enlightenment and individual struggles with the natural world and, later, with authority; and finally raises questions about our modern multi-ethnic society's ability to achieve both inner and external harmony. Students will read literature that springs from conflict arising between cultures, races, and ideologies and will discuss real, potential, and ideal resolutions to both historical and current conflicts. The readings will trace multiple movements that comprise the global journey: pastoral to urban, homogeneous to heterogeneous, simple to complicated, and single to multi-ethnic, keeping in mind the individual journeys that take place within the context of the more universal development of society. Students will write daily in and out of class, in pieces ranging from personal narrative to analytical essay, often responding to the reading and, just as often, attending to their own personal journeys as adolescents, as Americans, and as global citizens.
Grade 10: World Literature II
Sophomore English at Monte del Sol provides students with an eclectic collection of reading and writing activities. A "multi-genre" approach is used to broaden students' writing experiences and to prepare them for their daily lives and post-secondary educations. A portfolio, in which students collect their writing artifacts, includes freewrites, lists, notes, journals, drawings, double entry reading responses, webs, letters, parodies, poems, stories, drafts of essays, and final drafts. The challenge for the instructor is to help students find their authentic writing voices while at the same time requiring them to maintain the standards of correct usage and mechanics.
Students read a wide variety of genres and landscapes as well. Their primary text is The Story and its Writer, a balanced collection of classical and contemporary stories and authors. This curriculum includes a symmetrical representation of male and female protagonists and attention to world geography that complements the sophomore humanities offering. We study international writers from the traditional canon as well as more contemporary authors. Included are Faulkner, Cisneros, Anderson, Silko, Updike, Oates, Carver, Allende, Tan, Borges, Cisneros, and Kafka, among others. We also read novels such as Siddhartha, Obasan, and Cry, The Beloved Country.
Grade 11: U.S. Literature
This course focuses on American literature and corresponds in theme and chronology with American History, which most students take in 11th grade. Students explore what it means to be "American" and study poetry, novels, short stories, plays, and non-fiction by a diverse selection of American authors, both American-born and immigrant. Students write often about their own experiences with America, as well as in response to the literature.
Grade 12: Electives
During their senior year, students will pick from a variety of English electives. These semester-long courses will focus in-depth on a particular genre, time period, writing style, or population. Some offerings include: Chicano Literature, Women's Literature, creative writing, Shakespeare, Victorian Literature, Native American Literature, and Writing of the Southwest. Seniors are expected to read and write extensively; classes are conducted seminar-style. In short, these classes are similar to college English courses.
History
Grade 9: Peace, Geography, and Global History I (until 1800)
The over-arching theme of this course focuses on efforts to bring about a world that exists in a state of peace, instead of war. In the four units of study, (Prehistory; Classical Civilizations; Religions, Castles, and Crusades; and the Development of Monarchy and Revolution) we will be studying the Big Bang, pre-history and early civilizations, classical civilizations, monarchs, the Reformation, the Crusades, the Age of Discovery, and the Age of Revolution, up until the 1800's. Students will work on each unit using "Masterworks," described by the Leonard Bernstein Foundation as tools for "artful learning." These "masterworks" act as focal areas for learning within the project structure. This year's masterworks include: readings from Homer's Odyssey, the words of Mother Teresa, Kafka's Metamorphosis, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Voltaire's Candide, Bernstein's "West Side Story," Elie Weisel's Night, and the philosophy of Gandhi, among others. We will also be studying the lives of peacemakers in history, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Ralph Bunch, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Intertwined within this curriculum is the study of current events, world geography, and vocabulary.
Grade 10: World History (since 1800)
Sophomore world history will begin at approximately 1800, at the point where the 9th grade world history class ended. It will provide a basis for each student's understanding of world geography and relevant periods, persons and events in world history, with an emphasis on selected in-depth studies. This course will satisfy the New Mexico Standards and Benchmarks for Social Studies in the areas of geography, world, European and United States history. This class will be partially project-based; students will be allowed to work individually or in pairs, as they choose. Projects will compose a substantial portion of the grade for this class.
Grade 11: Government (for 04-05)
The government course will be divided into a one semester study of the United States Constitution, using the "We The People" curriculum and materials, and a second semester study of civics, politics and economics. Our study of the Constitution will culminate in our entire class's participating in the December, New Mexico "We The People" competition in Santa Fe. This course will satisfy the New Mexico Standards and Benchmarks for Social Studies in the areas of constitutional law, government and civics. It will be taught was a pre-AP course, and with substantial additional work on the part of an individual student, will provide a basis for the taking of the AP exam or a college level government class.
AP U.S. Government
This is a college level, advanced placement class, requiring a sincere commitment and willingness to participate and complete assigned work on the part of each participating student. The government course will follow the AP curriculum and will be divided into a one semester, in-depth study of the United States Constitution, using the "We The People" curriculum and materials, and a substantial number of outside texts and miscellaneous resources. The second semester will be an intensive study of civics, politics, and of the general principles of economics. Our study of the Constitution will culminate in our entire class's participating in the December, New Mexico "We The People" competition in Santa Fe. This course will satisfy the New Mexico Standards and Benchmarks for Social Studies in the areas of Constitutional Law, government and civics, and will provide a strong preparation for the AP exam, which each student will be expected to take and which may provide college credit.
US History
This course will cover the United States from the colonial period through approximately 1990. Students will be provided an overview of relevant facts and will do more in-depth studies of selected periods, persons and events in history. This course will satisfy the New Mexico Standards and Benchmarks for Social Studies in the area of United States History. It will be taught as a pre-AP course, and with substantial additional work on the part of an individual student, will provide a basis for the taking of the AP exam or a college level government class.
AP U.S. History (for 04-05)
This is a college level, advanced placement class, requiring a sincere commitment and willingness to participate and complete assigned work on the part of each participating student. The AP US History course will follow the AP curriculum and will cover the United States from the colonial period through approximately 1990. Students will be provided an overview of relevant facts and will do more in-depth studies of selected periods, persons and events in history. This course will satisfy the New Mexico Standards and Benchmarks for Social Studies in the area of United States History and will provide a strong preparation for the AP exam, which each student will be expected to take and which may provide college credit.
Social Studies Electives:
Mock Trial
Mock Trial covers basic principles of law and civics, including trial preparation, practice and procedure, elements of proof, courtroom demeanor, and speech preparation and presentation techniques. Students will be given a variety of fact situations and will prepare for trial based upon their research and application of the relevant civil and criminal laws of the State of New Mexico and of the United States. They will apply a condensed form of the Federal Rules of Evidence and given procedural rules. Those students selected to be members of the competitive teams(s) will participate in the regional and state mock trial competitions. This course satisfies the New Mexico Social Studies Standards and Benchmarks for civics, law and Constitutional law.