The AIA Experience for Grades 9-12

In Chapter 1, My GPS, students will engage in self-reflection and self-management starting with recognizing the importance of finding one’s individual voice. This individual voice will guide them to create and maintain a positive and supportive learning environment led by their agreed-upon, Student Voices (optional lesson based on in-person student learning accessibility).

From this beginning place of mutual-respect, students build foundational and interdisciplinary knowledge, apply and develop skill-sets and practices relevant to self-reflection and self-management guided by the following concepts, topics, themes, and necessary life-skills for personal success via virtual learning lessons and activities:

• Responsibility and Behavior Self-Management for Success
• Brain Development: Thinking, Feelings, and Behaviors
• Motivation and personality: Self-Concept and Perspective
• Intelligence: Cognitive and Emotional
• Biological Response to Stress
• Nutrition, Exercise and Sleep
• Research Platforms, Methods, Ethics, and Valid & Reliable Sources
• Resources to Support Personal, Social, Physical, and Academic Development

In Chapter 2, The Roads Ahead, students will continue to engage in self-reflection and self-management maintaining a positive and supportive learning environment. Students continue to build foundational and interdisciplinary knowledge, apply and develop skill sets and practices relevant to self-reflection and self-management. They integrate social awareness for others in relation to individual perspectives and the influence of media on identity, culture, and the life stressors inherent in adolescent development.  

Students will be guided by the following concepts, topics, themes, and necessary life-skills for personal and relational success via virtual learning lessons and activities:

• Culture, Identity, and How I See Others
• Learning, Education, and Discrimination
• Defense Mechanisms and Anxiety
• Social Perspectives: Logic and Fallacies
• Media Influences Versus Evidence and Facts
• Diversity in My Future: Communication for Future Success
• Research Platforms, Methods, Ethics, and Valid & Reliable Sources
• Resources to Support Personal, Social, Physical, and Academic Development

In Chapter 3, Traveling Together, students develop applicable, real-world critical thinking skills to improve understanding and to communicate needs and ideas to both peers and adults. Using positive conflict resolution strategies and evaluative practices, students identify and apply logical-decision making and problem solving for agreed-upon group goals to benefit their school and community.  

Chapter 3’s Noble Focus: Critical Thinking for Academic and Learning Success 

Students will be guided by the following concepts, topics, themes, and necessary life-skills for personal and relational success via virtual learning lessons and activities:

• Creating Solutions: My Challenges are My Opportunities
• Critically Thinking to Critically Receive Information
• Individualism and Collectivism (Efficacy)
• Conflict Resolution and Communication

In Chapter 4, A Place for Us, students continue their Noble Focus by developing critical strategies for sharing experiences and applicable strategies to support others to overcome unhealthy and potentially risky behaviors. Students are charged to become intricately aware of the positive impact respecting the rights of others supports all individuals in achieving personal and social relationship goals. Students create a holistic understanding about the positive outcomes of environmental and social justice. They become socially aware and recognize the need for compassionate citizenship in a global community. 

Chapter 4’s Noble Focus: Critical Thinking 

Students will be guided by the following concepts, topics, themes, and necessary life-skills for personal and relational success via virtual learning lessons and activities:

• Social Norms and Collective Goals: Social Exchange Theory
• The Rights of Self and Others: Environmental and Social Justice
• Compassionate Citizens
• Noble Focus: Critical Thinking for Academic and Learning Success
• Interpersonal Perceptions and Future Decisions

In Chapter 1, My Future, students engage in self-awareness, reflection and assessment and learn to gauge how positive perceptions of their personal, familial, peer, and social interactions can support positive changes in ways that negative perceptions cannot. Their Noble Focus begins by developing practical skills, competencies, and self-efficacy beliefs needed for making effective decisions in their future work, college, career, and relationships. Students practice expressing emotions without blameful defense mechanisms and act as role model for others to do the same.  

Chapter 1’s Noble Focus: Becoming a Young Adult: Today’s Choices - Tomorrow’s Results 

Their learning is guided by the following concepts, topics, themes, and necessary life-skills for personal success via virtual learning lessons and activities:

• Logical Reasoning: Deductive and Inductive
• Relationships: Family, Peers, Co-Workers and Bosses
• Research Skills
• Employability Framework: Resumes, Skills, Needs and Choices

In Chapter 2, A Common Goal, students reflect on personal presumptive ideologies and media-driven social-fallacies to evaluate the influence of these factors. Through this reflection and evaluation, students examine how responding to fact-based information rather than personal opinion can increase a community’s understanding and acceptance of problems, thereby, engaging individual actions toward a common goal for the greater good of all those involved.

Chapter 2’s Noble Focus: Community Citizenship 

Students will be guided by the following concepts, topics, themes, and necessary life-skills for personal and relational success via virtual learning lessons and activities:

• Community Citizenship
• Historical Perceptions, Fallacies, Current Ideologies and Inequitable Impacts
• Facts Versus Opinions - Communicating in an Adult-World
• Social and Cultural Norms - Challenges, Strengths, and Skill-Set Adaptations
• Short-Term Goals Create Long-Term Goal Achievement (Tracking Progress)

In Chapter 3, Between You & Me is We, students develop evidence-based awareness of the issues directly affecting social and cultural groups in a variety of workplaces, laws, policies and other institutions. Recognizing how a lack of conflict resolution skills and socio-cultural awareness and tolerance can lead to violent actions, students demonstrate various approaches to resolving conflicts in positively impactful ways. Thus,they serve as role-models for others to do the same.  

Chapter 3’s Noble Focus: Working Adults: Strategizing, Budgeting and Goal-Setting 

Students will be guided by the following concepts, topics, themes, and necessary life skills for personal and relational success via virtual learning lessons and activities:

• Working Adults: Strategizing, Budgeting, and Goal-Setting
• Environmental Justice and Workplace Rights & Responsibilities
• Social Policy and Ethical Decision-Making: Local & Global
• Cyber-Etiquette: Emotional, Physical, Social and Professional Harms
• Role-Modeling: Mentor-Mentee

In Chapter 4, Contributing Citizens, students are motivated to identify, research and evaluate social issues that impact individuals and groups in different ways. As they fine-tune their critical thinking skills, students examine the relationship between their academic, social and emotional state and their Noble Future’s professional choices. They use honest and active mindfulness of their personal traits, skills, interests, and desire to be of service to others as a global citizen. They design an RFP (Request for Proposal) to fulfill a community need, locally or broadly societal. With Interdisciplinary teacher-team guidance, students create a collaborative cohort in an action-inquiry setting based on a participatory framework, to identify a need, design the project plan using feasibility projections, and then implement the agreed-upon plan. They fulfill their Noble Focus using evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the plan, personally and as a cooperative group,and communicate the results to relevant stakeholders.  

Chapter 4’s Noble Focus: My Noble Future 

Students will be guided by the following concepts, topics, themes, and necessary life-skills for personal and relational success via virtual learning lessons and activities:

• Conscience Actions and Mindful Approaches: Solutions-Oriented Approaches
• Request for Proposals (RFPS): Professional Competencies & Skills, and Needs-Based Identification & Assessments
• Identifying Stakeholders, Collective Goal Setting, Decision-Making, Planning, Implementing, Tracking and Communicating Results