9600 Bathurst Street, Suite #313 Business: (905) 886-6721 / E-mail: [email protected] Brain Power’s Senior 3 course is designed to provide students with the critical thinking, reading, and writing skills required for success in the arts, humanities, and social sciences in their last years of high school. In addition, it will introduce them to important issues and ideas in the arts humanities, and social sciences. Our instructor, Jason, has over fifteen years of experience at the university level, and he has designed this course with students’ success at both the highschool and university levels in mind. In addition, the President and Founder of Brain Power’s Language Arts Program, Karine, will be dropping in during the course of the year to a guest lecture on Surrealism, complete with her own work! Jason Boulet Karine Rashkovsky (Instructor) (Guest Lecturer) Associate Instructor – BP Language Arts B.A., M.A., Ph.D. English Language and Literature Queen’s University President and Founder – BP Language Arts B.Sc, B.Ed., M.Ed., Ph.D. Education Policy York University Students will practice the critical thinking, reading, and writing skills necessary to a) improve their high-school grades; b) produce outstanding high-school essays; c) engage in advanced intellectual discussion and debate; d) become familiar with the major disciplinary differences and expectations of university subject areas; and e) think across paradigms as well as approach intellectual questions in an interdisciplinary manner. In sum, this class is designed to improve students’ high-school performance on essays, examinations, research assignments, and presentations across all courses in the language arts, humanities, and social sciences spectrum. Furthermore, Senior 3 begins their preparation to excel in a university-classroom environment across an even wider variety of disciplines. In 2015-2016, Senior 3 will cover several exciting subject areas, including the classical traditions, myths, and legends that served as the basis of Western culture; psychoanalysis, as developed and elaborated by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Jacques Lacan, with its explorations of the Oedipus Complex, the Unconscious, dream analysis, and more; surrealism, which is perhaps the most influential twentieth-century art movement, and opened the doorways to the irrational through methods such as automatic writing, the exquisite corpse, the chain poem, and others (all of which we will employ for ourselves in class!); the philosophies of controversial poststructuralist trouble-makers, like Jacques Derrida (deconstruction ), Jean Baudrillard (simulation), Michel Foucault (discipline and surveillance), and Judith Butler (performativity); and Lewis Carroll’s maddening and fascinating Alice books, which may seem (at first glance) like simple nonsense stories for children, but have served as an inspiration for artists, mathematicians, philosophers, and psychologists for the past century and a half. All texts will be provided by Brain Power, either on Canvas or photocopied handouts. Each disciplinary block will also include research and writing components, such as the essentials of essay writing (e.g. thesis statements, structure, etc.), how to do relevant research for a variety of assignments, effective PowerPoint presentations, how to form logical arguments in speaking and writing, how to quote selectively from resources, how to integrate quotations into critical prose, how to cite resources in a variety of common formats (MLA, APA, Chicago Style), etc. We will explore each subject through lectures and classroom discussions, which will focus on a variety of short stories and novels, poems, essays, and other media (e.g. television and movies, advertisements, music videos, etc.). The readings will also acquaint students with seminal theorists in various disciplines (e.g. psychology, sociology, art theory, literary theory, philosophy), while familiarizing them with these essential authors’ most influential theoretical frameworks. For example, in the 2015-2016 school year, we will examine (among others) Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories, Salvador Dali’s paranoiac-critical method, and Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction. Furthermore, classroom readings are designed to provide students with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of intellectual tools, such as semiotics and hermeneutics, which will enable them to think critically and produce outstanding essays. Students are expected to read the assigned readings in/for each class and to demonstrate preparation through participation in class discussions and in the written assignments. Full attendance is beneficial for optimum learning. In addition to the weekly readings, writings, and grammar and vocabulary tests, students will be actively engaged in small group and full class discussion, in which they will have the opportunity to engage and debate with each other. Students will be assessed on vocabulary quizzes, writing assignments, mid-term and final vocabulary exams, and a final cumulative exam. Homework completion, novel studies, essay assignments, and overall progress will be evaluated on an ongoing basis throughout the year. Students will have a final June exam which will bring together all of the knowledge gained over the course of the year and report cards will be distributed thereafter. If you are interested in joining Brain Power’s Senior 3 class for the 2015-2016 school year, please fill out the application forms (PDF or paper). You can register in person at 9600 Bathurst Street, Suite #313. If you would like further information about registration, please contact us at (905) 886-6721. If you would like more information on the course, please email: [email protected]