The Humanities Program

Our Humanities Department is located in the newest building on campus – our Humanities Center – which houses the library, Marcella-Sands Lecture Hall, and our College Counseling offices. With a keen eye towards skills-based learning, our Humanities courses are diverse and varied – and interesting. They’re designed to engage our students, rather then steer them towards regurgitating facts and reciting lines.

Humanities Department Skills

  • Reading Skills (input and processing)
    • Identify different writing styles to reveal author’s message
      • Research, compare and contrast, response, narrative, persuasive
      • Differentiate between primary and secondary sources
        • And identify bias in either
    • Understanding the Reading process
      • Reading for a purpose
        • Pre reading, During Reading, Post reading
        • Know the story line (overarching summary), read closely, (read with a pen/annotate), start making connections
    • Identify a thesis/argument in the writing of others and write a persuasive thesis/argument.
    • Identify specific evidence in persuasive writing and how an author uses evidence to support their argument
    • Identify ways authors create themes and reflect on them.
      • Pathos, Logos, Ethos
    • Annotating Text
      • Note taking, highlighting, interpreting text for greater meaning (connections within text or with life experience).
  • Writing Skills (output)
    • Understand writing as a process
      • Creating questions to answer
      • Prewriting
      • writing
      • multiple revisions including writing center
      • editing
    • Develop and Refine Foundational skills
      • Write a complete sentence, write a topic sentence, paragraph with topic sentence and concluding sentence, develop an argument with appropriate structure, descriptive writing
        (show not tell).
    • Implement foundational skills via the following methods:
      • Research, compare and contrast, response, narrative, persuasive
  • Listening and Speaking
    • Engage critically and constructively in oral exchanges of ideas (i.e. class discussions, peer group assignments, panel discussions).
    • Offer constructive feedback.
    • Participate actively and effectively in cooperative groups
    • Deliver a clear, coherent oral presentation using information and diction suitable for subject, purpose, and audience.
    • Show respect for the diverse dialects, traditions, and opinions of their classmates.