Grade 13 - Electives
AP: Psychology (Credit: 0.50)AP Psychology provides an overview of current psychological research methods and theories. Students will explore the therapies used by professional counselors and clinical psychologists and examine the reasons for normal human reactions: how people learn and think, the process of human development and human aggression, altruism, intimacy, and self-reflection. They will study core psychological concepts, such as the brain and sense functions, and learn to gauge human reactions, gather information, and form meaningful syntheses. Along the way, students will also investigate relevant concepts like study skills and information retention. The equivalent of an introductory college-level survey course, AP Psychology prepares students for the AP exam and for further studies in psychology or life sciences.
This course has been authorized by the College Board® to use the AP designation.
Course Materials
Required
Psychology, 11th ed. David G. Myers (Worth Publishing, 2015).
ISBN-10: 1464140812 / ISBN-13: 9781464140815
Acceptable alternate: Psychology with Updates on DSM-5, 10th ed (2014).
ISBN-10: 1464164746 / ISBN-13: 9781464164743
Computer Science Essentials (Credit: 0.50)
Core: College and Career Preparation I (Credit: 0.50)High school students have many questions about the college application process, what it takes to be a successful college student, and how to begin thinking about their careers.
In College and Career Preparation I, students obtain a deeper understanding of what it means to be ready for college. Students are informed about the importance of high school performance in college admissions and how to prepare for college testing. They know the types of schools and degrees they may choose to pursue after high school and gain wide exposure to the financial resources available that make college attainable.
Career readiness is also a focus. Students connect the link between interests, college majors, and future careers by analyzing career clusters. Students come away from this course understanding how smart preparation and skill development in high school can lead into expansive career opportunities after they have completed their education and are ready for the working world.
Students who complete College and Career Preparation I have the basic skills and foundation of knowledge to progress into College and Career Preparation II, the capstone course that provides hands-on information about the transition from high school to college and career.
The course is based on the American School Counselors Association National Standards for school counseling programs.
Core: College and Career Preparation II (Credit: 0.50)High school students have many questions about the college application process, what it takes to be a successful college student, and how to begin thinking about their careers.
College and Career Preparation II builds on the lessons and skills in College and Career Preparation I. The course provides a step-by-step guide to choosing a college. It walks students through the process of filling out an application, including opportunities to practice, and takes an in-depth look at the various college-admission tests and assessments, as well financial aid options.
College and Career Preparation II also instructs students in interviewing techniques and provides career guidance. Students explore valuable opportunities such as job shadowing and internships when preparing for a career.
Students who complete this course obtain a deeper understanding of college and career readiness through informative, interactive critical thinking and analysis activities while sharpening their time management, organization, and learning skills that they learned in College and Career Preparation I.
College and Career Preparation II prepares students with the knowledge and skills to be successful in college and beyond.
The course is based on the American School Counselors Association National Standards for school counseling programs.
Core: Creative Writing (Credit: 0.50)Creative Writing is an English elective course that focuses on the exploration of short fiction and poetry, culminating in a written portfolio that includes one revised short story and three to five polished poems. Students draft, revise, and polish fiction and poetry through writing exercises, developing familiarity with literary terms and facility with the writing process as they study elements of creative writing.
Elements of fiction writing explored in this course include attention to specific detail, observation, character development, setting, plot, and point of view. In the poetry units, students learn about the use of sensory details and imagery, figurative language, and sound devices including rhyme, rhythm and alliteration. They also explore poetic forms ranging from found poems and slam poetry to traditional sonnets and villanelles.
In addition to applying literary craft elements in guided creative writing exercises, students engage in critical reading activities designed to emphasize the writing craft of a diverse group of authors. Students study short stories by authors such as Bharati Mukherjee and Edgar Allan Poe, learning how to create believable characters and develop setting and plot. Likewise, students read poetry by canonical greats such as W. B. Yeats and Emily Dickinson as well as contemporary writers such as Pablo Neruda, Sherman Alexie, and Alice Notley. Studying the writing technique of a range of authors provides students with models and inspiration as they develop their own voices and refine their understanding of the literary craft.
By taking a Creative Writing course, students find new approaches to reading and writing that can affect them on a personal level, as the skills they gain in each lesson directly benefit their own creative goals. Students who are already actively engaged writers and readers learn additional tools and insight into the craft of writing to help them further hone their skills and encourage their creative as well as academic growth.
All English elective content is based on the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) standards.
Core: Financial Literacy (Credit: 0.50)Financial Literacy helps students recognize and develop vital skills that connect life and career goals with personalized strategies and milestone-based action plans. Students explore concepts and work toward a mastery of personal finance skills, deepening their understanding of key ideas and extending their knowledge through a variety of problem-solving applications.
Course topics include career planning; income, taxation, and budgeting; savings accounts, checking accounts, and electronic banking; interest, investments, and stocks; cash, debit, credit, and credit scores; insurance; and consumer advice on how to buy, rent, or lease a car or house.
These topics are solidly supported by writing and discussion activities. Journal activities provide opportunities for students to both apply concepts on a personal scale and analyze scenarios from a third-party perspective. Discussions help students network with one another by sharing personal strategies and goals and recognizing the diversity of life and career plans within a group.
To assist students for whom language presents a barrier to learning or who are not reading at grade level, Financial Literacy includes audio resources in English.
This course is aligned with state standards as they apply to Financial Literacy and adheres to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM) Problem Solving, Communication, Reasoning, and Mathematical Connections Process standards.
Core: Liberal Arts Math (Credit: 1.00)Liberal Arts Mathematics 1 addresses the need for an elective course that focuses on reinforcing, deepening, and extending a student's mathematical understanding. Liberal Arts Mathematics 1 starts with a review of problem-solving skills before moving on to a variety of key algebraic, geometric, and statistical concepts. Throughout the course, students hone their computational skills and extend their knowledge through problem solving and real-world applications.
Course topics include problem solving; real numbers and operations; functions and graphing; systems of linear equations; polynomials and factoring; geometric concepts such as coordinate geometry and properties of geometric shapes; and descriptive statistics.
Within each Liberal Arts Mathematics 1 lesson, students are supplied with a scaffolded note-taking guide, called a Study Sheet, and are given ample opportunity to practice computations in low-stakes Checkup activities before moving on to formal assessment. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to formulate and justify conclusions as they extend and apply concepts through printable exercises and "in-your-own-words" interactive activities.
To assist students for whom language presents a barrier to learning or who are not reading at grade level, Liberal Arts Mathematics 1 includes audio resources in English.
This course is aligned with Florida's Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and Benchmarks.
Core: Liberal Arts Mathematics 1 Semester 1 (Credit: 0.50)This course is only semester 1 of Liberal Arts Mathematics 1.
Core: Liberal Arts Mathematics 1 Semester 2 (Credit: 0.50)This course is only semester 2 of Liberal Arts Mathematics 1.
Core: Liberal Arts Mathematics 2 (Credit: 1.00)Liberal Arts Mathematics 2 addresses the need for a course that meets graduation requirements and focuses on reinforcing, deepening, and extending a student's mathematical understanding. Liberal Arts Mathematics 2 starts with a review of algebraic concepts before moving on to a variety of key algebraic, geometric, statistical and probability concepts. Throughout the course, students hone their computational skills and extend their knowledge through problem solving and real-world applications.
Course topics include analysis of quadratic, polynomial, exponential and logarithmic functions, arithmetic and geometric sequences, trigonometry and trigonometric functions, coordinate geometry and proofs, statistical analysis, experimental design and applications of probability.
Within each Liberal Arts Mathematics 2 lesson, students are supplied with a scaffolded note-taking guide, called a Study Sheet, and are given ample opportunity to practice computations in low-stakes Checkup activities before moving on to formal assessment. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to formulate and justify conclusions as they extend and apply concepts through printable exercises and "in-your-own-words" interactive activities.
To assist students for whom language presents a barrier to learning or who are not reading at grade level, Liberal Arts Math II includes audio resources in English.
This course is aligned with Florida's Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and Benchmarks.
Core: Liberal Arts Mathematics 2 Semester 1 (Credit: 0.50)This course is only semester 1 of Liberal Arts Mathematics 2.
Core: Liberal Arts Mathematics 2 Semester 2 (Credit: 0.50)This course is only semester 2 of Liberal Arts Mathematics 2.
Core: Mathematics of Personal Finance (Credit: 1.00)Mathematics of Personal Finance focuses on real-world financial literacy, personal finance, and business subjects. Students apply what they learned in Algebra I and Geometry to topics including personal income, taxes, checking and savings accounts, credit, loans and payments, car leasing and purchasing, home mortgages, stocks, insurance, and retirement planning.
Students then extend their investigations using more advanced mathematics, such as systems of equations (when studying cost and profit issues) and exponential functions (when calculating interest problems). To assist students for whom language presents a barrier to learning or who are not reading at grade level, Mathematics of Personal Finance includes audio resources in both Spanish and English.
This course is aligned with state standards as they apply to Mathematics of Personal Finance and adheres to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM) Problem Solving, Communication, Reasoning, and Mathematical Connections Process standards.
Course Materials
Semesters 1 and 2: Required
TI-84 Plus, TI-83, or TI-83 Plus Calculator
Core: Mathematics of Personal Finance Semester 1 (Credit: 0.50)This course is only semester 1 of Mathematics of Personal Finance.
Core: Mathematics of Personal Finance Semester 2 (Credit: 0.50)This course is only semester 2 Mathematics of Personal Finance.
Core: Media Literacy (Credit: 0.50)Media Literacy teaches students how to build the critical thinking, writing, and reading skills required in a media-rich and increasingly techno-centric world. In a world saturated with media messages, digital environments, and social networking, concepts of literacy must expand to include all forms of media. Today's students need to be able to read, comprehend, analyze, and respond to non-traditional media with the same skill level they engage with traditional print sources.
A major topic in Media Literacy is non-traditional media reading skills, including how to approach, analyze, and respond to advertisements, blogs, websites, social media, news media, and wikis. Students also engage in a variety of writing activities in non-traditional media genres, such as blogging and podcast scripting.
Students consider their own positions as consumers of media and explore ways to use non-traditional media to become more active and thoughtful citizens. Students learn how to ask critical questions about the intended audience and underlying purpose of media messages, and study factors which can contribute to bias and affect credibility.
The course content is based on The National Association for Media Literacy Education's Core Principles of Media Literacy Education, as well as aggregate state standards and research into best pedagogical practices.
Core: Multicultural Studies (Credit: 0.50)Multicultural Studies is a one-semester elective history and sociology course that examines the United States as a multicultural nation. The course emphasizes the perspectives of minority groups while allowing students from all backgrounds to better understand and appreciate how race, culture and ethnicity, and identity contribute to their experiences.
Major topics in the course include identity, immigration, assimilation and distinctiveness, power and oppression, struggles for rights, regionalism, culture and the media, and the formation of new cultures.
In online Discussions and Polls, students reflect critically on their own experiences as well as those of others. Interactive multimedia activities include personal and historical accounts to which students can respond using methods of inquiry from history, sociology, and psychology. Written assignments and Journals provide opportunities for students to practice and develop skills for thinking and communicating about race, culture, ethnicity, and identity.
The content and skill focus of this interdisciplinary course is based on the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies as well as the National Standards for History published by the National Center for History in Schools (NCHS).
Core: Probability & Statistics (Credit: 0.50)Probability and Statistics provides a curriculum focused on understanding key data analysis and probabilistic concepts, calculations, and relevance to real-world applications. Through a "Discovery-Confirmation-Practice"-based exploration of each concept, students are challenged to work toward a mastery of computational skills, deepen their understanding of key ideas and solution strategies, and extend their knowledge through a variety of problem-solving applications.
Course topics include types of data; common methods used to collect data; and the various representations of data, including histograms, bar graphs, box plots, and scatterplots. Students learn to work with data by analyzing and employing methods of prediction, specifically involving samples and populations, distributions, summary statistics, regression analysis, transformations, simulations, and inference.
Ideas involving probability — including sample space, empirical and theoretical probability, expected value, and independent and compound events — are covered as students explore the relationship between probability and data analysis. The basic connection between geometry and probability is also explored.
To assist students for whom language presents a barrier to learning or who are not reading at grade level, Probability and Statistics includes audio resources in English.
The content is based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards and is aligned with state standards.
Core: Psychology (Credit: 0.50)Psychology provides a solid overview of the field's major domains: methods, biopsychology, cognitive and developmental psychology, and variations in individual and group behavior.
By focusing on significant scientific research and on the questions that are most important to psychologists, students see psychology as an evolving science. Each topic clusters around challenge questions, such as “What is happiness?†Students answer these questions before, during, and after they interact with direct instruction.
The content is based on the American Psychological Association's National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula. The teaching methods draw from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) teaching standards.
Core: Reading Skills & Strategies (Credit: 0.50)Reading Skills and Strategies is a course is designed to help the struggling reader develop mastery in the areas of reading comprehension, vocabulary building, study skills, and media literacy, which are the course's primary content strands. Using these strands, the course guides the student through the skills necessary to be successful in the academic world and beyond. The reading comprehension strand focuses on introducing the student to the varied purposes of reading (e.g., for entertainment, for information, to complete a task, or to analyze). In the vocabulary strand, the student learns specific strategies for understanding and remembering new vocabulary. In the study skills strand, the student learns effective study and test-taking strategies. In the media literacy strand, the student learns to recognize and evaluate persuasive techniques, purposes, design choices, and effects of media. The course encourages personal enjoyment in reading with 10 interviews featuring the book choices and reading adventures of students and members of the community.
The content is based on the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) standards and aligned to state standards.
Core: Sociology (Credit: 0.50)Sociology examines why people think and behave as they do in relationships, groups, institutions, and societies.
Major course topics include individual and group identity, social structures and institutions, social change, social stratification, social dynamics in recent and current events, the effects of social change on individuals, and the research methods used by social scientists.
In online discussions and polls, students reflect critically on their own experiences and ideas, as well as on the ideas of sociologists. Interactive multimedia activities include personal and historical accounts to which students can respond, using methods of inquiry from sociology. Written assignments provide opportunities to practice and develop skills in thinking and communicating about human relationships, individual and group identity, and all other major course topics.
The course content is based on the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies.
Core: Writing Skills and Strategies (Credit: 0.50)Writing Skills and Strategies develops key language arts skills necessary for high school graduation and success on high stakes exams through a semester of interactive instruction and guided practice in composition fundamentals. The course is divided into ten mini-units of study. The first two are designed to build early success and confidence, orienting students to the writing process and to sentence and paragraph essentials through a series of low-stress, high-interest hook activities. In subsequent units, students review, practice, compose and submit one piece of writing. Four key learning strands are integrated throughout: composition practice, grammar skill building, diction and style awareness, and media and technology exploration. Guided studies emphasize the structure of essential forms of writing encountered in school, in life, and in the work place. Practice in these forms is scaffolded to accommodate learners at different skill levels.
The content is based on the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) standards and aligned to state standards.
Texas Personal Financial Literacy (Credit: 0.50)Texas Personal Financial Literacy offers targeted instruction, practice, and review designed to help students develop fluency, deepen conceptual understanding, and apply financial literacy skills.
In this course, students engage with important skills and concepts such as college and career planning, applying for financial aid, understanding the typical costs of living, creating and maintain a budget, selecting and using checking and savings accounts, and using credit cards for purchases responsibly. They also learn about different types of credit, credit scores, as well as loans and loan payments including the real-world examples of mortgages and home ownership, car ownership, car payments, and car insurance. Finally, students gain knowledge about multiple types of investments such as CDs, bonds, and stocks.
These topics are supported by writing and discussion activities. Journal activities provide opportunities for students to both apply concepts on a personal scale and analyze scenarios. Discussions help students network with one another by sharing personal strategies and goals and recognizing the diversity of life and career plans within a group.
To assist students for whom language presents a barrier to learning or who are not reading at grade level, Texas Personal Financial Literacy includes audio resources in English.
This course was designed to meet the Texas Essential Skills and Knowledge standards for Personal Financial Literacy.
|
|
|
