Grade 8

Middle School

Grades 5-8 Language Arts / Grade 8 – Mrs. Carrie Johnson, B.S.

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Grade 8 Curriculum Overview

RELIGION

  • History and structure of the Catholic Church
  • Early Church history found in the New Testament, with emphasis on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles
  • The councils, heresies and schisms, monasticism, Crusades and Protestant Reformation
  • Trace Church in America from its immigrant roots
  • Sexuality study rooted in Scripture and guided by Church documents
  • Dating, life choices and commitment
  • Reflect on personal talents and possible ways these might be used to serve the Church and/or society
  • Perform service projects in line with the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy

LANGUAGE ARTS

Reading

  • Enjoy listening to, reading from and talking about books
  • Recognize and recall main idea, sequence, cause and effect
  • Predict outcome
  • Distinguish fact and opinion
  • Apply what has been learned from reading to other situations
  • Recognize and appreciate various elements of literature, e.g., plot, characterization, setting, theme, etc.
  • Reading a variety of genre

Listening

  • Use appropriate listening/responding behavior
  • Recall and identify important details
  • Recall important details for notetaking
  • Follow oral directions
  • Writing
  • Participate in activities which precede writing
  • Write ideas with fluency and confidence
  • Re-see own writing for unity and coherence
  • Examine use of precise and descriptive words
  • Reconstruct sentences for variety
  • Use a thesaurus to choose words which capture tone and mood
  • Apply basic editing skills to final draft of writing (correct grammar, mechanics and usage and spelling appropriate to grade level)
  • Write short report indicating sources
  • Examine use of sensory language, e.g. metaphors, similes, etc. and transitional devices
  • Paraphrase and summarize material
  • Use transitional devices within and between paragraphs
  • Writing connected to real issues

Creative writing

  • Journal writing–recording thoughts and opinions
  • Weekly media
  • Speaking
  • Tell stories, share experiences and ideas appropriately, clearly, audibly and expressively
  • Ask appropriate questions and make comments relevant to topic
  • Prepare, deliver oral presentations, speeches, reports, etc.
  • Choose appropriate vocabulary (formal vs. informal)
  • Use appropriate body language, eye contact
  • Express ideas concisely

Study Skills

  • Use dictionary for cross referencing, word origin, run-on entries, to interpret alternate pronunciations and spellings
  • Use reference materials, library classification systems
  • Outline information
  • Skim, scan, summarize
  • Develop flexible reading rate
  • Take notes from written materials and lectures

MATHEMATICS

  • Variables in Algebra, exponents and powers, equations and inequalities
  • Properties of real numbers: adding and subtracting matrices, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of real numbers, distributive property, probability and odds
  • Solving and graphing linear equations and functions
  • Writing linear equations: writing linear equations in slope-intercept form given the slope and a point or given two points
  • Solving and graphing linear inequalities
  • Solving linear systems by graphing, substitution, linear combinations, inequalities
  • Exponents and exponential functions
  • Quadratic equations and functions
  • Polynomials and factoring
  • Rational equations and functions
  • Radicals and connections to geometry

SOCIAL STUDIES

  • Use of the eight strands of social studies to organize, evaluate and analyze situations from history and current world events.
  • Continued development of basic geographical and study skills integrated into the material.
  • Focus on the development of the United States from the year 1870 to the present day.
  • Analyze historical and contemporary situations and problems and their impact on the development of the United States and other countries of the world.
  • Evaluate the role of the United States in historic world events and her relationship to other countries from 1870 to the present.
  • Study and understand political, historical, and thematic maps.

SCIENCE

  • Earth’s changes over time: plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes, Earth’s past, geologic time
  • Universe: sun-earth-moon system, solar system, stars and galaxies
  • Chemistry: inside the atom, Periodic Table, atomic structure, chemical bonds, chemical reactions
  • Motion, forces and energy: motion and momentum, force and Newton’s laws
  • Human reproductive system, AIDS, STDs
  • Legal and illegal drug use and effects on the body
  • Please click on the Curriculum Overview Brochure for the eighth grade to download and read or print (print the cover separately).

Curriculum Overview Brochure
Cover

Please go to the Curriculum page for brochures for all of the classes.