8th Grade

What your child will learn in 8th Grade:

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  Language Arts

  Language Arts 800 is a survey of literature that explores the work of various writers of different time periods through a historical lens. Students should enter this course with a foundation in analyzing, through a close study, various genres of literature and making connections with historical perspectives and the arts. In this course, students will build on these skills by studying a range of classic and contemporary literature to convey themes of American History, Natural History, World Civilization, and Air and Space. Students will also develop their writing skills while producing informative, argumentative, and narrative compositions. Supported by a balance of fictional and informational texts, students will learn and practice close reading, modeled reading, writing, speaking, and listening strategies.

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  Math

  • Gain an increased awareness of how math is a life skill.
  • Understand how math is like a language, with a set of conventions.
  • Explore concepts taught in previous math courses at higher levels and in real world applications.
  • Practice algebraic thinking in order to model and solve real world problems.
  • Utilize new skills and concepts that will help them in future math courses.
  • Introduce variable expressions and equations (single and multiple variable).
  • Introduce linear functions, relationship between dependent and independent variables and coordinate graphing.

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  Science

  • Use their main senses for observation of the world around them.
  • Describe the atomic structure of different elements.
  • Calculate and measure volume, mass, and density for various objects.
  • Identify different types of geological changes.
  • Discuss how the layers of the earth’s crust can show history.
  • Describe the different parts of the ocean, both living and non-living.
  • Explain the differences in the stars and constellations.
  • Discuss the balance in nature regarding the various cycles.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the resources of the Earth and what is needed to conserve those resources.

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  History & Geography

  • Identify significant explorers, such as Christopher Columbus, Francisco Coronado, Sir Francis Drake, Ferdinand
  Magellan, Henry Hudson, Jacques Cartier, and Samuel de Champlain, noting their accomplishments.
  • Understand how conflict between the American colonies and Great Britain led to American independence.
  • Understand political, economic, and social changes that occurred in the United States during the 19th century,
  including changes resulting from the Industrial Revolution, and explain how these changes led to:
  • movement into the western frontier, and
  • conflict among sections of the United States.
  • Describe the causes and effects of the Civil War and its aftermath.
  • Describe the causes and effects of both World Wars.
  • Understand some of the key challenges facing American society in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.