Seminar

Seminar is a full-credit, academic class that helps students develop a strong sense of purpose, connection, and meaning with relationship to their own learning and their overall experience at GCDS. Students enroll in Seminar each year. The curriculum of Seminar is a dynamic framework for learning that fosters leadership, intellectual growth, and social-emotional development. Seminar focuses on the cultivation of all domains of emotional intelligence as well as skill development in the areas of organization and planning, civil discourse, problem solving, creativity, narrative construction, and civic action. Our goal is to build our “reason for being” as individuals, and as a community of scholars, through dialogue, individual and group project work, and meta-cognitive reflection.

During the year, students set and monitor goals, collect evidence of their work, reflect on growth, and evaluate themselves relative to the Portrait of a Learner Capacities. Students present their progress during the first semester Student-Led Conference. Students engage in a similar process for the Presentation of Learning assessing the entire year’s growth.

In the 9th and 10th grades, Seminar students establish their “reason for being” as individuals and as a community of scholars; develop independence and flexibility in learning and personal interactions; practice key skills for collaboration, communication, and project design; and examine the connections between personal experiences and academic learning in order to develop and pursue a sense of purpose. Seminar 9 focuses on building the skills of design thinking and explorations of identity. Seminar 10 centers on developing the skills of systems thinking. The Leadership Learning Lab program provides the opportunity for 10th grade students to apply this learning, in which students work with New York Metro Area non-profit organizations to identify community challenges and frame a solutions-oriented process. Students also explore topics in health and wellness.

In the 11th and 12th grades, Seminar transitions to support students in the exploration and pursuit of professional, learning, and service engagements beyond GCDS. The Seminar program serves as the home for the Junior Thesis and Senior Internship programs, and through these experiences, students define and begin to realize their post-graduation goals, both personal and professional. Seminar coursework is integrated with College Counseling and guides students through the college process as they reflect upon past and present, and plan for the future.

As part of Seminar across all four years, each student will create, curate, and reflect upon an evolving portfolio of his or her work. Through the extended, dynamic portfolio process, students craft a personal narrative of their learning, explore and act upon goals and aspirations, and learn to tell their unique “story.” GCDS graduates will move into the next phase of their lives with a demonstrable body of work that showcases their accomplishments.