Can any one enlighten me with what is actually taught in Historical Inquiries into Global Humanities ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they select new novels for this course for this school year?

Long walk ti water in mp1
Red scarf girl in mp2

Huh. My kid was assigned to read long walk to water in grade 5. We've relocated from another school district though.

Ya’ll do realize that books are targeted for just one grade or age? That one school can assign it at 5th and another in 6th and it be perfectly fine and on level. It’s not like it was assigned in 2nd some place and now 6th here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The absolute ignorance with which people are dismissing the HIGH books mentioned, and the repeated claims that historical scholarship challenge comes from how hard the source text is to read, not how hard the student thinks about the content, convinces me that these are excellent book choices, that have a chance at producing graduates far more capable of historical scholarship than their parents.

👆👏. It’s the same reason folks majoring in English Literature can study Alice and Wonderland or how Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass can be read MS/HS/University level. Same with Shakespeare.

Lexile level is only one indication about a text and a class.

[Anonymous]

Does this track prepare 8th grade students for the end of year state mandated history/social studies test? How much of class time is spent on covering what's on the test?

[Anonymous]

So far it’s the most enriched class other than PreAlgebra

[Anonymous]

What schools have different levels of this course? My child’s middle school only has one level of each humanities class in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this track prepare 8th grade students for the end of year state mandated history/social studies test? How much of class time is spent on covering what's on the test?

The test is basically the skills taught all three years, plus US history topics.

So, yes, it will prepare students if teachers focus on the skills in 6-7 and then focus on content in 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What schools have different levels of this course? My child’s middle school only has one level of each humanities class in middle school.

There aren’t different levels of the course. There’s on-level (IWS) Global Humanities (HIGH), and, at only two MS, Humanities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do the kids get selected for this class? In my kid's school they have World history or Global humanities. One of mine was placed in the World History and the other in Global Humanities. Both were in Adv. English. This was in 6th grade.

Everyone is placed in advanced English - there is no on-level course.

HIGH placement is based on grades and MAP scores. Those who are waitlisted for the humanities MS magnets are placed by central office, and then schools have the discretion to pull more kids in. You could talk to the counselor if you want more info on how your MS approaches it.

Interesting. My kid did get into humanities magnet but rejected the spot for a whole school magnet program and got placed in HIGH. DC said that most of the kids in that class were not out of consortium.

I hope that is because he liked the topic better and not due a misunderstanding of what whole school magnet means in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Like all courses, HIGH is as good as the teacher. DC1 had a great teacher 2 of 3 MS years and learned a lot. DC2's teacher isn't inspiring much. It depends on them holding to high standards and creating coherence in a curriculum that has some sophistication to its design but that can feel very haphazard without strong guidance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools have different levels of this course? My child’s middle school only has one level of each humanities class in middle school.

There aren’t different levels of the course. There’s on-level (IWS) Global Humanities (HIGH), and, at only two MS, Humanities.

Sorry I don’t understand the above. Humanity focused magnet middle schools aside, do MCPS middle schools have the option of having an on-level humanities course and an above-level humanities course? My child’s school only has one option Historical Inquiries Global Humanities. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools have different levels of this course? My child’s middle school only has one level of each humanities class in middle school.

There aren’t different levels of the course. There’s on-level (IWS) Global Humanities (HIGH), and, at only two MS, Humanities.

Sorry I don’t understand the above. Humanity focused magnet middle schools aside, do MCPS middle schools have the option of having an on-level humanities course and an above-level humanities course? My child’s school only has one option Historical Inquiries Global Humanities. Thanks

It's probably just one course. Humanities is for the magent MS such as at Eastern MS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools have different levels of this course? My child’s middle school only has one level of each humanities class in middle school.

There aren’t different levels of the course. There’s on-level (IWS) Global Humanities (HIGH), and, at only two MS, Humanities.

Sorry I don’t understand the above. Humanity focused magnet middle schools aside, do MCPS middle schools have the option of having an on-level humanities course and an above-level humanities course? My child’s school only has one option Historical Inquiries Global Humanities. Thanks

Used to have two choices when HIGH was first introduced. And then just like every other honor course, HIGH falls unavoidably the same fate of honors-for-all.

[Anonymous]

"Historical Inquiry into Global Humanities" (HIGH) is not a _humanities_ course; it is Global Studies (on-level social studies) enriched with literary content, and is taught at regular middle schools. Technically access is supposed to start with kids who qualified for humanities magnets but did not win a lottery seat or did not go. Then they add in other kids who seem to have the track record to thrive in HIGH. It is a great course in the hands of the right teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools have different levels of this course? My child’s middle school only has one level of each humanities class in middle school.

There aren’t different levels of the course. There’s on-level (IWS) Global Humanities (HIGH), and, at only two MS, Humanities.

Sorry I don’t understand the above. Humanity focused magnet middle schools aside, do MCPS middle schools have the option of having an on-level humanities course and an above-level humanities course? My child’s school only has one option Historical Inquiries Global Humanities. Thanks

Correct. All middle schools must offer the enriched/above-level social studies courses to students who are centrally identified, and then it is their choice how many other students they want to offer it to, if any. Some schools enroll all kids in it (or all except kids who are below-level/ELL/etc.). Others have continued the standard on-level social studies course for many of their students. Overall about 40% of middle schoolers district-wide are in the enriched social studies classes, but at some schools it may be far more and at others far less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What schools have different levels of this course? My child’s middle school only has one level of each humanities class in middle school.

There aren’t different levels of the course. There’s on-level (IWS) Global Humanities (HIGH), and, at only two MS, Humanities.

Sorry I don’t understand the above. Humanity focused magnet middle schools aside, do MCPS middle schools have the option of having an on-level humanities course and an above-level humanities course? My child’s school only has one option Historical Inquiries Global Humanities. Thanks

Correct. All middle schools must offer the enriched/above-level social studies courses to students who are centrally identified, and then it is their choice how many other students they want to offer it to, if any. Some schools enroll all kids in it (or all except kids who are below-level/ELL/etc.). Others have continued the standard on-level social studies course for many of their students. Overall about 40% of middle schoolers district-wide are in the enriched social studies classes, but at some schools it may be far more and at others far less.

Thank you, this is very helpful information. I understand most of it, but I continue to be quite confused by some of the decisions my child’s school is making. My child’s middle school only offers Historical Inquiries in Global Humanities (HIGH), yet the school has a large population of emergent language learners. I’m left wondering if the HIGH curriculum is watered down in order to make it accessible to everyone. This feels like just another example of MCPS being disingenuous. Does anyone have a link to the HIGH curriculum that I can review?