Advanced Mandarin Honors is an advanced, literature-based course that focuses on developing richer vocabulary, different writing styles, and reading authentic materials.  Students enrolled in these courses are expected to communicate in the target language in class. Reading advanced texts will enhance the student’s mastery of both written Chinese and the grammar and syntax of the spoken language. Character writing will be further developed through increased practice and training. The course engages students in an exploration of both contemporary and historical Chinese culture and Chinese language.  By the end of this class, students achieve an Advanced-low to Advanced-mid proficiency level according to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines.

Prerequisite: Intermediate-Advanced Mandarin 

Requires Department Chair Approval

Students are expected to speak and listen in Spanish throughout the school year while communicating with the instructor and one another. Intermediate Advanced Spanish Honors students read short cultural selections with scaffolding and guidance. Students grow the skills and confidence to read longer and more complex reading assignments over the span of the course. Assessments may take the form of short answer questions, personal response, or written summaries and oral interviews. Class discussions include grammar and vocabulary while analyzing an advanced level topic, such as global warming or personal wellness. Students build their cultural knowledge of the Spanish-speaking world. Previously learned grammar is reviewed more quickly in the Honors class and new concepts are introduced early in the year. Students will have learned all verb tenses. Students are expected to retain previously taught vocabulary words and be able to use them along with the new terms in context. Students work on developing their written skills with short essays, reflections and creative works that synthesize grammar concepts. The textbook for this course is the Senderos Level 3 and other supplemental materials are used. Upon completion of this course, students achieve an Intermediate-mid proficiency level according to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines.  

Prerequisite: Intermediate Spanish

Requires Department Chair Approval

Each trimester of Advanced Spanish through Media is designed for students to experience the Spanish speaking world through the context authentic media resources. The media may include, but is not restricted to news sources, social media, film, television, commercials, podcasts, music recordings and videos, theater, and interviews. In this advanced level Spanish class, while grammar is one component graded on written assessments, the emphasis is on circumlocution, building vocabulary, communication, comprehensibility, and cultural empathy and identity.  Creative projects, student-choice presentations, written assessments, reading assessments, listening assessments, and oral assessments are examples of the variety of evaluations given for students to demonstrate their proficiency.  Risk taking, active participation, effort, and analytical, outside-of-the-box thinking are all valued and practiced skills in this course.  The expected outcomes of the Advanced Spanish through Media I, II, and III courses are to gain a broader knowledge of Latin American and Spanish cultures, to understand grammar at a conceptual level, to acquire real-world vocabulary and knowledge, and to have a greater ease with natural and spontaneous speech while not worrying about making too many mistakes. According to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, the goal is for students to complete this course at an Intermediate-high to Advanced-low level of proficiency.

OFFERED: Fall

Prerequisite: Intermediate-Advanced Spanish

Each trimester of Advanced Spanish through Media is designed for students to experience the Spanish speaking world through the context authentic media resources. The media may include, but is not restricted to news sources, social media, film, television, commercials, podcasts, music recordings and videos, theater, and interviews. In this advanced level Spanish class, while grammar is one component graded on written assessments, the emphasis is on circumlocution, building vocabulary, communication, comprehensibility, and cultural empathy and identity.  Creative projects, student-choice presentations, written assessments, reading assessments, listening assessments, and oral assessments are examples of the variety of evaluations given for students to demonstrate their proficiency.  Risk taking, active participation, effort, and analytical, outside-of-the-box thinking are all valued and practiced skills in this course.  The expected outcomes of the Advanced Spanish through Media I, II, and III courses are to gain a broader knowledge of Latin American and Spanish cultures, to understand grammar at a conceptual level, to acquire real-world vocabulary and knowledge, and to have a greater ease with natural and spontaneous speech while not worrying about making too many mistakes. According to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, the goal is for students to complete this course at an Intermediate-high to Advanced-low level of proficiency.

OFFERED: Spring
Prerequisite: Intermediate-Advanced Spanish

This pinnacle will offer a full range of topics in language and literature and in art, architecture, and archaeology. Ancient Greek and Roman culture is distinctive because it’s simultaneously both near and far, familiar and foreign. Much of what we experience in our own lives has its origins in the ancient Greek and Roman world, from the architectural elements of our campus buildings to elements of tragedy showing themselves in TV sitcoms. We will study Greco-Roman literature presented in tragedy and mythology which contains profound and challenging insights in the human condition that are as relevant today as when the works were first composed. Much the same is true of Greek and Roman art and architecture, which likewise holds a central place in the western artistic tradition. Because of these connections, it’s easy to assume that we can clearly understand that world. Looking more closely, however, the stranger it appears: the world and humanity’s place within it, the nature of the divine, all require careful reorientation on our part. Yet looking more closely still, the fundamental issues confronting people then were the same as those that confront us now. Through the in-depth study of Classics, you learn that near and far, familiar and foreign, are just a matter of perspective.

This class is taught in English. A background in Latin is helpful, but not necessary. 

Prerequisite: Completion of level three of a language or a language waiver

Requires Department Chair Approval