Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.

-Margaret Mead.

Now, more than ever, literacy and thinking skills are needed to navigate the world of current events, education and social issues at home and abroad.

This course will develop advanced literacy skills, global competencies, and cognitive abilities so that high school students can make sense of current events and enhance their ability to present their ideas through academic communication.

Analyze current issues/global issues through the development of:

• Critical thinking
• Critical literacy (ie. issues within larger social contexts)
• Academic writing skills
• Persuasive writing
• Academic reading
• Vocabulary building
• Online research skills
• Critical digital literacy skills (where to look for quality information, how language is used)
• The ability to Identify bias, tone, perspective and point of view
• Research literacy skills (what sources to use, but how to draw conclusions, triangulation of data, verification methods, evaluating quality evidence, online research)