Humanities Portfolio, 2011

Throughout English and World History, it has been gradual process of learning and working. Throughout these courses, we have all been asked to form opinions and beliefs about the various world issues of yesterday and today.
In my opinion, I hope that every single student does not hold the same beliefs, opinions, and learning techniques and skills that they had in September. Hopefully, we all have grown in our educational journey and process.

In English, I feel that we have been encouraged to use our opinions more to decipher the text we read and to find "deeper meanings" within. One of the key examples of this is the very first Q1 Benchmark about The Lord of the Flies. In this paper, I expressed an idea through my opinion, and then I took the readers through my journey to reach my conclusion. This is a prime example of allowing one to understand multiple perspectives of the same topic in order to receive a well-rounded education.

Throughout the English course, I was also encouraged to immerse myself into the world of various people, from prisoners to world leaders. This was the goal of the Jarvis Jay Masters' readings. In my response to the readings, the observations of the powerful effects of desperation is evident.

In World History, the focus has changed slightly. Instead of exclusive opinion-forming, we are also required to learn non-biased facts about the past and present them to people. A prime example of the was the Museum Exhibition Benchmark we created to education patrons about colonialism. In the presentation, we had to state the facts to our classmates and allow them to form their own opinions.

Also, History encouraged us to explore different fields, such as traditional art during the Renaissance. In the Exploration of a Renaissance Artist assignment, I had to highlight the work of a great artist of the day and try to find the meaning of their work.

However, one of my favorite assignments in History is by far the trials. In the Aztec trial, we had to learn facts about the topic, just had he had in the Museum Presentations, but then, we had to use those facts to alter the opinion of everyone else. This taught us a new skill of using facts to sway the opinions of a majority.

English and World History has merged and separated in order to teach us things about the the world, ourselves, and each other. The lessons we have learned here are invaluable.
Screen shot 2011-06-13 at 8.55.10 AM
Screen shot 2011-06-13 at 8.55.10 AM

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