The Sharon Academy

In the 11^th and 12^th grades, literature and social studies are no longer integrated. However, building on the integrated courses in the 9^th and 10^th grades, students are encouraged to continue connecting ideas across disciplinary lines while also pursuing greater mastery within the distinct disciplines of literature and social studies. The following curricula are taught in alternating years. 

Literature
To complement perspectives experienced through social studies aspects of Division III study, students will seek to hear the voices and ideas of individuals writing in those times and places. The reading list will include a variety of styles, genres and countries of origin. Visual and musical texts will expand our readings of the written word, allowing for exploration of how one media can enhance understanding of another work, opening up new avenues for discussion and interpretation.

Skills practice will focus on reading for deeper, more detailed comprehension, taking notes in-text and writing impromptu essays as well as drafting and revising written work.

Sample reading programs follow, but the lists remain flexible and open to adaptation based on changing focus ideas, themes and special interests of students. Reading selected plays of Shakespeare in conjunction with themes in either program is a priority.

2007-2008
European Program:
In the 16th and 17th centuries, we will focus on verse in poems and songs, for example, the secular and sacred poetry of John Donne and selections from Shakespeare’s sonnets.

Social satire would be a special focus of the 18th century unit, and could include Voltaire's Candide, Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, writings of Jonathan Swift, and the Mozart-Da Ponte The Marriage of Figaro.

The 19th century brings a focus on the prose and poetry of the Victorians, such as Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Some Russian literature of the “Golden Age”, short stories of Pushkin and Dostoevsky, could fill out our 19^th century reading list.

Shaw's dramas bridge the century into more modern and contemporary reading. A combination of two histories, such as Shakespeare’s Henry V with Shaw’s Saint Joan, could open discussion of how artists through the years have viewed war and sacrifice. Beyond this theme, the 20th century contains more and varied possibilities, such as essays of Woolf on women or Orwell on empire. Plays of Chekov and Havel bring in political change, and a world of poetry holds a limitless range of ideas for reading, investigation and inspiration.

2008-2009
American Program (further development pending for 2008-2009):
Starting with a look at the American ideals and experiences as expressed in songs and other earlier texts from our country's history, this level of literary study turns to essayists, poets, playwrights and fiction writers who have commented on how those ideals have evolved, strengthened, been lost or challenged in the 19th and 20th centuries. Dickinson, Melville, Whitman, Thoreau, Twain, Wharton, Miller, and Williams are some of the artists whose work we could consider.

 

Social Studies
The social studies program is transitioning to new courses that will provide broader scope, stronger international components, and better preparation for college level work. This year’s course and the next course for the 2008-2009 academic year are described below. 

2007-2008
Modern Europe: 1500 to the Present
In this course students will examine the foundations of modern Europe. They will explore the major political, social, religious, economic and cultural developments in Europe from the sixteenth century through the beginning of the twenty-first century. Some of the specific topics that students will delve into include: the Renaissance, the Reformation, constitutionalism and absolutism, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the rise of capitalism, new technologies and industrialization, nationalism, imperialism, Marxism and socialism, fascism, the World Wars, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throughout the year students will also be asked to track current European and international events with an eye to understanding how contemporary issues have been shaped by Europe’s history. A portion of the final marking period will be dedicated to an examination of current world issues and international relations. 

2008-2009
American History
In this course students will examine the broad sweep of American history from 1763 to the present. The course is divided into three parts: 1763 to 1877, 1877 to 1945, and 1946 to the present. In the first part, students will become familiar with the creation of American values and institutions from the Revolution through the Civil War. Students will focus on the tension between regional and central authority during the independence movement, the creation of the Constitution, economic and social change, slavery, and the increasing sectional conflict that led toward the Civil War. In the second part of the course, students will pay particular attention to economic and social changes and the rise of the United States as a world power.Specific areas to be covered include: the rise of an urban industrial society, issues of race, the changing role of women, and the Depression. This part of the course concludes with World War II. The final part of the course starts with the origins of the Cold War and then moves to the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the social and political turmoil of the 1960s, Watergate, the Reagan Revolution, and concludes with changing East-West relations with a particular emphasis on China, India and the Middle East. Students will also be asked to track domestic and international current events with an eye to understanding how contemporary issues have been shaped by America’s history.

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