The Humanitas Program Model

Teacher Center Handbook

February 2005

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Humanitas Program Model………………………………. 3Conundrums and Confusions…………………………………………………. 5Interdisciplinary Teams………………………………………………………. 9Interdisciplinary Themes……………………………………………………. 10Interdisciplinary Essay……………………………………………………… 11More Assessments-Interdisciplinary and Otherwise………………………... 12Developing Interdisciplinary Essay Rubrics………………………………….19Developing Unit Curriculum Interdisciplinary………………………………. 21Teaching Strategies, The More The Merrier…………………………………..25Questions To Contemplate About the Structure of a Humanitas Program …...27First Year Evaluation………………………………………………………….30Appendix A-Examples of Unit Themes……………………………………….33Appendix B-Forms for “Unwrapping” the Standards………………………….34Appendix C-Sample Forms for “Unwrapping” the Standards…………………36Appendix D-Sample Essay Prompt, Rubric, and Student Essays……………...38Appendix E-Humanitas Interdisciplinary Thematic Unit Form………………..41

Introduction to the Humanitas Program Model

The Humanitas model was created in the early 1980’s as the curricular framework for the Cleveland High School Humanities Magnet Program. In 1986, under the joint sponsorship of the Los Angeles Educational Partnership (now known as theUrban Educational Partnership) and the Los Angeles Unified School District, theHumanitas Program was created to provide a vehicle for disseminating theHumanitas model, necessary training and curricular and financial support to thoseteachers interested in creating sound, innovative humanities programs in theirschools. The Humanitas Model provides teachers with a curricular framework forcreating interdisciplinary, thematic, team-taught, writing-based humanitiesinstruction. The success of the program over the ensuing years has required thecreation of the Teachers’ Centers at Cleveland and Roosevelt High Schools tomeet the demand for training new teams for teachers.This handbook is an attempt to provide new teams with both a theoretical andpractical framework to assist them as they build their programs. The HumanitasModel is based upon a method of curriculum development called the BackwardPlanning Process. The Backward Planning Process has three main components: