Humanities

Our Sisters’ School students are curious, eager to question, and enthralled by the power of story. Unifying the interdisciplinary OSS curriculum is the humanities program -- a blend of story-rich subjects probing diverse people, language, history, society, and cultures.

The Humanities curriculum framework in grades 5-8 builds upon state and national standards, individual student data, and year-long essential questions. 

Grade 5

Know Yourself: Who am I? How does literacy help me understand myself and others? 

Grade 6

Know Your Community: What makes a community sustainable? 

Grade 7

Know Your World: What are our rights and responsibilities as global citizens? 

Grade 8

Know Your Rights: How does social change happen?

A culture of reading & writing   

Literacy skills and enthusiasm flourish at OSS. Students celebrate “luscious language,” learning vocabulary and word-solving strategies with broad applications. They develop an appreciation for code-switching that encourages mastery of standard English while embracing their home languages and dialects. We enjoy regular book-talks by students and faculty. 

We are committed to expanding our library collection to include more diverse books that serve as both windows and mirrors for every OSS student. Our reading scores on both the SSAT entrance exam and other assessment tools have steadily grown.

We help each other develop stronger reading stamina and become more literate individuals. Students share the experience of reading class novels and are encouraged to choose books and articles that ignite their passion and interest in literature. 

In writing workshop, students learn to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively through a practice of the recursive writing process: immersion in model texts, collecting and brainstorming, planning and drafting, revising and editing, polishing and publishing. They give and receive critical feedback that helps them craft their best pieces and become even better readers. 

Criticial thinking for justice & civic responsibility

Our humanities program is also marked by a rigorous examination of social justice issues and morality. What does it mean to be compassionate? An activist? An upstander? How does the past shape our present? It begins with fifth graders learning about empathy through Jacqueline Woodson’s picture book Each Kindness and progresses into eighth graders writing and producing an original play chronicling the history of the Women’s Suffrage movement in the United States.

Amelia ’18 reflected, “From humanities class this year, I have learned to pay attention to things and look at them from someone who’s never lived in that situation before. … As a global citizen, when we are faced with injustices or just things that could be better, we can’t just normalize and accept them, we have to act to fix them.” 

Cross-curricular & community connections  

Students embrace sustainability while studying the necessary balanced interplay among government, environment, economy, and social and cultural values through case studies in humanities and science classes. The investigation includes cross-curricular field trips to local sites like Round the Bend Farm in Dartmouth, an intentional community based on sustainable agriculture. It is one example of how the OSS Humanities teachers partner with other subjects to deepen learning and foster authentic community connections. 

Another example of cross-curricular connections and of how Humanities practices the OSS “Community as Campus” approach is the Grade 6 Humanities unit on the history of the whaling industry in New Bedford that culminates in the creation of a public exhibition at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. We collaborate closely with the visual arts team and also incorporate math and science lessons. 

Students, motivated by their inquiry work, have arranged for themselves additional visits to the Whaling Museum library archives to further pore over primary sources--on Saturday! By providing interdisciplinary field experiences, partnering with community organizations, and helping students identify the relevance of Humanities to their lives, OSS students become agents of their own learning. 

Humanities helps students develop the skills and passion to communicate clearly, think flexibly, and seek the whole truth.