Courses

Introduction to Communications (fall semester)
This course progresses through the history of human communications from storytelling to social media with a focus on how news, stories, and culture are delivered today. The course will examine how each wave of communication technology affected our history and look at the future that might be. We will spend time understanding why social media works as a communications vehicle but at the same time can be full of message manipulations. Students may expect light reading with this course as well as some short presentations. Open to sophomores and juniors.

Honors Rhetorical Analysis (spring semester)
This course is a deep dive into human persuasion and how we use communications to persuade others to do what we want or what needs to be done. We explore how the way words are said or interpreted may be more impactful than the actual words themselves, and we study messaging from a variety of perspectives and hope to understand why societal change is hard to implement. We spend time on advertising, the messaging of advertisers, and the delivery of news in a social media environment. Students should expect analysis work, reading, and active group discussions as part of this course. At the end of the course, students are expected to make a presentation of significance. Open to juniors and seniors.

Guided Inquiry: Research Seminar (semester)
While students utilize research and writing skills in class assignments and everyday life this seminar offers students the opportunity to select a topic of their choosing to deepen research, annotation, writing, and presentation skills. Following the research process - question and thesis development, source gathering and evaluation, note taking, outlining, and writing - students will deepen their knowledge of their topic and share their insights with their peers.  Culminating in a research paper and presentation of an infographic, this course helps students understand aspects of college-level research assignments. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
 

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