Online high school diploma curriculum

In this course your learners will develop the necessary skills to ensure their success in the program. This course also teaches your learners how to stay successful, ensuring they complete their studies and start preparing for a successful career.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Understand how to use the Student Portal
• Access the Penn Foster Community and use it to find answers
• Connect with Penn Foster on various social media sites
• Examine methods to obtain greater financial independence
• Describe how to build stronger personal and professional relationships
• Identify career options and career resources
• Effectively use a computer and critical computer programs

This course provides tips and techniques to make your learners better readers.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Interpret a text by previewing and scanning
• Identify central ideas in writing
• Interpret works of fiction and poetry

This course will enhance your learners interpersonal skills and will lead them to success in their future career or post-secondary schooling.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Describe how to build and maintain positive relationships
• Explain how a positive attitude affects human relations
• Discuss how to work with supervisors
• Explain the productivity equation
• Describe the relationship between frustration and aggression
• Describe how to avoid being late or absent
• Discuss how to identify and repair injured relationships

This course will help your learners improve their English skills so they can effectively communicate in their personal life, in the remainder of their studies, and in their career.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Describe the four steps in the writing process
• Define, describe, and provide examples of the different parts of speech
• Identify the principal parts of verbs and verb tenses for both regular and irregular verbs
• Discuss the difference between an adjective and an adverb
• Identify prepositional phrases and the objects of prepositions
• Explain the difference between coordinating, correlative, and subordinating conjunctions
• Explain the main components of complete sentences
• Identify and correct sentence fragments and run-on sentences
• Provide agreement between subjects and verbs
• Explain the proper use of the different parts of speech

This course will enhance your learners language skills by expanding their vocabulary, mastering their word usage, and strengthening their writing.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Explain why language is important and describe how communication skills can affect their life
• Explain how the eight parts of speech are organized to communicate meaning in phrases, clauses, and sentences
• Apply their language skills in conversation, vocabulary, word choice, spelling, pronunciation, and writing
• Use modifiers, prepositional phrases, and conjunctions correctly
• Correctly use apostrophes, hyphens, and periods
• Recognize and use the various elements of sentence structure
• Correct common writing mistakes
• Write sentences that have effective beginnings, concise wording, parallel structure, and active voice
• Create a unified, coherent composition with an introduction, body, and conclusion
• Write effective, appropriate, business letters, friendly letters, courtesy letters, formal invitations, a letter of application for a job, and a resume with a cover letter

This course will refresh your learners understanding of the basic parts of speech and will focus on the importance of organizing their time effectively to create a document from the first draft stage to the final draft stage.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Recognize and use both formal and informal English for letter writing
• Begin to write an essay
• Organize writing time effectively
• Plan a writing project from beginning to end
• Locate books using the card catalog and on-line catalog at the library
• Use their own experience, that of others, and library research to provide material for writing projects
• Organize ideas effectively in an outline
• Write ideas in detail, following a logical order and sticking to your subject
• Express their thoughts and feelings more easily, more accurately

This course will allow your learners to experience literature actively and become involved both intellectually and emotionally.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Read more effectively—for both knowledge and enjoyment
• Use new vocabulary to discuss, write about, and understand literature
• Explain the characteristics of the different genres, including the short story, novel, poetry, drama, nonfiction, and essay
• Discuss works by writers such as Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, London, Twain, and Thoreau
• Analyze novels, short stories, poems, dramas, and other types of writing
• Understand and explain the objectives and accomplishments of the various writers
• Seek, find, and enjoy many additional examples of fine writing
• Identify various literary figures

• Great American Short Stories
• The Call of the Wild
• Great Short Poems
• Songs for the Open Road: Poems of Travel & Adventure
• Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
• Great Speeches by Native Americans
• Narrative of Sojourner Truth
• A Midsummer Night's Dream

This course will provide a solid foundation so your learners are able to successfully use mathematics in their course, life, and career.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Solve real-world problems involving whole numbers
• Solve real-world problems involving fractions
• Solve real-world problems involving decimals
• Compare the English and metric systems of measurement
• Explain ratios, proportions, and percents

This course will allow your learners to apply their math knowledge to areas of their everyday life.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Estimate results quickly
• Accurately figure the amount of money involved when discounts are stated in percents
• Make smart consumer decisions
• Calculate yearly interest rates
• Understand the importance of a budget and how to prepare one
• List the factors to consider before buying a new or used car
• Discuss the options available regarding their personal insurance
• Determine when they've saved enough money to start investing
• Explain the difference between common stock and preferred stock
• Explain why it’s important for them to plan for their retirement

This course will review the four mathematical operations so your learners are able to use them at an advanced level.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Use the rules of the order of operations to solve multistep problems
• Solve word problems using equations
• Use the four basic operations with positive and negative numbers
• Give examples of monomials and polynomials
• Simplify polynomials by combining like monomials
• Simplify and solve one-step and multistep equations
• Identify and name various components of geometry
• Identify different types of quadrilaterals and triangles
• Calculate the area of squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles using appropriate formulas
• Apply the Pythagorean theorem to find the length of a missing side in a right triangle
• Compute the volume of cubes, cylinders, and rectangular solids using the correct formulas
• Solve equations using the principles of geometry

The course covers topics in geology, oceanography, meteorology, environmental science, and astronomy.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Explain the basic principles and methods of Earth Science
• Discuss the various surface processes on Earth
• Identify features of Earth's atmosphere and oceans
• Explain the causes of geologic activity
• Describe the impact of human activity on natural resources
• Explain the formation and properties of the solar system and universe

In this course your learners will gain insight into the origin of life, the relationships among all living organisms, and discover how their own body works.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Describe the characteristics, chemistry, and ecology of living things
• Analyze cells and their processes for obtaining energy and reproducing
• Explain how traits are passed on from one generation to the next
• Explain how different species of living things have evolved and are classified
• Identify the characteristics and behavior of plants and animals
• Describe the anatomy and physiology of the human body

This course covers a variety of topics in modern science that affect everyday life, from energy and heat to sound and electricity.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Explain how objects move when forces are applied
• Describe the effects of heat energy on matter
• Analyze waves and radiation
• Apply the principles of chemistry
• Determine what scientific principles apply to electricity and electronics

This course focuses on US history from the earliest human settlers in North America thousands of years ago to the modern-day. Your learners will learn the story of the native people who lived in this region long before Europeans came to create colonies. Follow the colonists as they faced the unknown and attempted to make new lives for themselves in North America. Finally, your learners will experience the birth and growth of the United States, a young nation that has managed to pack a wealth of world-changing events into its short history.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Describe settlement of the colonies in America
• Identify events from the American Revolution to the ratification of the United States Constitution
• Recognize expansion and industrialization in the United States during the early 18th century
• Describe the causes and lasting effects of the American Civil War
• Analyze how the events leading up to World War I shaped the United States
• Discuss the effects of the Great Depression and World War II on the United States
• Recognize changes in America from the 1960s through today

This course covers what the basic purposes of government are and how modern governments differ from one another.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Describe the different types of government and give examples of each
• Summarize the process used to ratify the Constitution
• Describe the three main parts of the Constitution and explain what each part includes
• Describe the process for amending the Constitution
• Describe the powers and responsibilities of the three branches of the federal government
• Outline the process by which laws are made
• Summarize some of the landmark cases handled by the Supreme Court
• Briefly describe the ways in which state and local governments operate
• Explain the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democratic nation
• Summarize the process for electing a president of the United States

This course will provide a broad survey of the history of the world, from the earliest humans who emerged from Africa to the modern peoples and nations that exist today. Your learners will study how people adapted to live in different environments, developed tools and technology, created political institutions to govern, and spread ideas as they interacted with one another. By following the stories of different peoples and cultures through time, your learners will observe how key developments and events that took place over thousands of years have shaped the world today.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Recognize features and achievements of ancient civilizations, and Europe during the Renaissance and Age of Exploration
• Compare society and politics of world regions during the period of 1500-1800
• Explain causes of revolution, impacts of industrialization on society, and factors leading to development of global empires during the period of 1750-1914
• Describe how the Great War, Great Depression, and nationalism affected world regions
• Describe how World War II, the Cold War, and economic globalization affected world regions

In this course your learners will learn the key components of nutrition, cardiorespiratory exercise, safety issues, and stress management techniques.

By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:

• Explain the relationship between calories and energy
• Explain how carbohydrates, fats, and proteins fit into a healthy eating plan
• Select healthy ingredients and preparation methods
• Analyze food labels, recipes, and menus for total calories, fat, protein, carbohydrate, sodium, and fiber content
• List the advantages of cardiorespiratory fitness
• Recognize symptoms of common injuries and identify how to prevent them
• Explain the different types of stress and how they impact the body
• Recognize physical and psychological symptoms of stress
• Identify stress reduction techniques and common stressors of daily life
• Explain how fitness benefits their physical and mental well-being