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Destiny Cooper and Anna West began Humanities Amped in 2014 with one class of 25 students. Today, we are in residence at Tara High School, a public school that is part of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, serving students, educators, and community members. Our vision is to create a dynamic community of lifelong learners and innovative civic leaders, and it is our mission to model and share transformative educational practices that result in people's power to shape their world.
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am·pli·fy
/ˈampləˌfī/ verb to intensify
to increase the volume to plug into to energize |
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At TARA High School
Amplified Classrooms Humanities Amped increases the presence of culturally responsive, trauma-informed educators in classrooms who are able to facilitate dynamic, hands-on learning experiences that dramatically impact students' literacy confidence, communication and interpersonal skills, and resilience.
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9th Grade Literacy Leaders High-interest texts, literacy motivation, and explicit, proven instructional strategies to improve lexile levels, reading comprehension, and writing skills for students needing additional support.
10th Grade Writing & Performance Lab Writing workshop model with highly engaging strategies for students to engage with text, including reading comprehension, vocabulary development, writing with fluency, and foundation skills for dual enrollment composition. 11th Grade Writing the World (Dual Enrollment Composition) Project-based curriculum focused on college-level reading, writing, research, and presentation skills. 12th Grade Senior Capstone Literacy-rich project-based learning culminating in dynamic action research projects focused on student-identified community issues. |
Student Voice & Engagement Humanities Amped provides Tara High School students with targeted interventions designed in collaboration with school partners. Led by a licensed clinical social worker, these interventions increase access and engagement, emotional and relational wellbeing, and overall school connectedness.
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Adelante English Learner Volunteer Support Trained, multi-lingual volunteers support the unique needs of English Learners in classrooms, providing critical academic support and contributing to a sense of belonging.
Poetry Programming Humanities Amped hosts Fresh Heat, a series of community-wide open mics, as well as facilitating Tara High's poetry team and writing leader exchange with Andover Breadloaf Student Life Center & Activities Student Government Association, skills-based small groups, and Parent Support Circles positively impact school culture through connectedness, community, and skill building. Through the Student Life Center, Humanities Amped addresses emergent needs through restorative supports and connection to resources. |
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IN THE COMMUNITY
Youth City Lab is a coalition of four youth organizations, including Humanities Amped, that is developing Baton Rouge’s flagship youth community center on Government Street.
Baton Rouge Area Youth Network (BRAYN) is a network of over 50 youth organizations that is working together with EBRPSS, Wilson Foundation, and Capital Area United Way to strengthen youth services and school-community partnerships. Humanities Amped leaders are on the organizing committee of BRAYN.
Baton Rouge Area Youth Network (BRAYN) is a network of over 50 youth organizations that is working together with EBRPSS, Wilson Foundation, and Capital Area United Way to strengthen youth services and school-community partnerships. Humanities Amped leaders are on the organizing committee of BRAYN.
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OUR IMPACT
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At schools here in Baton Rouge, as many as 40% of students don't make it to graduation on time. This tragedy is the direct result of youth feeling disconnected from school, both interpersonally and academically. Because Humanities Amped facilitates joyful, meaningful learning that is grounded in supportive relationships, students are more likely to stay in, finish, and thrive in school.
STUDENTS IN AMPED PROGRAMMING WHO MAINTAINED AND/OR IMPROVED SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL SKILLS ACROSS ALL FIVE CASEL DOMAINs: 94%
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“Humanities Amped reminds us that we have a voice and that we can make a change. We believe that students should have a voice … that school doesn't have to be miserable.”
- Humanities Amped Student
Amped Practices & Methods
Democratic ParticipationDemocratic Participation is a set of facilitative practices that honor the voices and expertise of each person, thus empowering a group to share responsibility for the group’s design, interactions, decisions, well-being, and outcomes.
Methods include: Dialogue, Discussion, Debate; Classroom- Based Student Council; Consensus and Decision-Making Processes; Opening/ Closing Meeting; Student/Participant Jobs 
Project-Based LearningProject-Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects (from PBLWorks). Amped PBL emphasizes participatory action research with public-facing forums and outcomes.
Methods include: Challenging problem or question, scaffolded sustained inquiry, student voice and choice, critique and revision; public product/authentic assessment |
Restorative PracticesRestorative Practices are a continuum of informal and formal practices that proactively build relationships and a sense of community to prevent conflict and wrongdoing (from IIRP).
Methods include: Affective Statements and Questions; Circles to Build Community and to address harm; Restorative Conferences; Mind-Body Wellness; Wellness Corner 
SPoken Word Arts IntegrationSpoken Word Arts Integration is a range of critical literacy practices that emphasize the creative and social dynamics of literacy development by providing students with opportunities to engage multiple culturally responsive literacies.
Methods include: Responsive writing from mentor texts; book clubs; informal and formal publication opportunities; narrative exchanges; open mics; family literacy nights |
Collaborative Leadership & LEarningCollaborative Leadership & Learning is a design approach to organizational and learning environments that activates all participants in a dynamic eco-system of cascading mentorship, including expert-led, near-peer, and peer-to-peer learning.
Methods include: Norm setting; collaborative teaching and facilitation structures; peer teaching; reflection and feedback protocols 
Community Resource EngagementCommunity Resource Engagement is a design approach to organizational and learning environments that involves assessing needs and resources from a broad community perspective and developing dynamic pathways for engaging community partners to meet student and family needs.
Methods include: Access & coordinate resources across organizations, multi-tiered support system; integrational community conferences; train and place skilled volunteers |
Core Assets Framework
Humanities Amped programming mobilizes seven core assets to shape approaches to teaching, learning and community culture. This framework is a synthesis of frameworks for culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogies, trauma-informed classrooms, and project-based learning drawn from these sources:
This framework aligns with the EBRPSS walk-through tool to assess teaching using the Compass Teacher Rubric.
- Layer 1 works directly from a framework presented in Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy (Muhammad, 2020) and draws from research-based literature about culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogies (Ladson-Billings, 1995, 2014; Gay 2002, 2010; Paris, 2012)
- Layer 2 draws from SAMHSA’s (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Service Administration) complementary guidance for trauma-informed approaches with consideration of Dr. Shawn Ginwright’s insights on transforming trauma through healing-centered approaches to youth engagement (2016, 2018)
- PBLWorks gold standards for teaching practices and project design are woven throughout both layers
This framework aligns with the EBRPSS walk-through tool to assess teaching using the Compass Teacher Rubric.
The Amped Framework includes guiding questions, definitions, an implementation rubric, and references.
“WHEN MY GRADES STARTED TO LOWER, TEACHERS NOTICED. THEY ASKED ME WHAT WAS HAPPENING. I DID NOT WANT TO TALK TO ANYONE BECAUSE I FELT THEY WOULD JUDGE ME. BUT THEY TALKED TO ME AND LISTENED. I REALIZED TEACHERS DO NOT JUST TEACH, THEY ALSO LISTEN WHEN WE HAVE PROBLEMS.”
- Humanities Amped Student
