Curriculum

Grade 8

1^st Trimester

Religion:

Eighth grade goals are: to help students develop a personal relationship and commitment to Jesus, to develop a strong sense of Social Justice, to understand the development of the Church through

History and to make moral and ethical decisions.  The content is: the History of the Church from its beginning to the Present. 

Text: Silver, Burdett, Ginn: “Blest Are We, The Story of Our Church”

Math:

The Goals for Math are to evaluate and write algebraic expressions, then simplify and solve algebraic expressions, and graph points and equations in the coordinate plane.  They will define, identify, and apply properties of numbers, central tendency, powers and exponents, equations and inequalities, and linear systems.

In Algebra, students will model relationships using variables, expressions, and equations, solve literal equations for one of the variables using formulas, and solve multi-step and compound inequalities.  They will define, identify, and apply the distributive property, properties of real numbers, problem solving, and multi-step equations.

Text: Prentice Hall: Mathematics (Course 3 and Algebra I)

Integrated Language Arts:

The goals for eighth grade Language Arts are: to help students become critical readers by learning strategies which will help them identify the elements of literature: main idea, inference, plot, conflict, characterization, setting and theme; to foster in students a love of reading and an appreciation for a wide range of reading, such as: a variety of genre, prose, poetry, short stories, novels, and plays; to develop writing skills through the continued use of the writing process within the framework of purposeful writing.  The students will use the Reading-Writing Workshop with daily mini-lessons in vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, editing and usage. 

Texts:      Holt Literature: Short stories,

               Writer’s Choice Grammar: Review Parts of Speech (1-4),

               Sadlier Vocabulary Workshop C : Units 1-5

               Writer’s Solution – Writing (Memory Books).  

The students will read the novel, “That Was Then, This Is Now.”

Science:

Goals: The goals of the science curriculum are to understand the planet, Earth; Earth’s structure and its position in the solar system; to appreciate the earth and its natural resources; and to develop an interest in our oceans and a knowledge of meteorology. 

Content:  The content of this trimester will be the study of the structure of the earth, the atmosphere, the formation of mountains and the formation of volcanoes. Students will also continue their study of basic chemistry concepts to better understand the formation of rocks and minerals.  Students will also focus on the Continental Drift Theory and Plate Tectonics. The students will work on these concepts in laboratory situations as well as lecture and text material. Students will be graded on lab performance, homework, projects, presentations and objective testing.

Text: Prentice Hall: “Science Explorer: Earth Science”

Social Studies:

The goals for the eighth grade Social Studies program are: to foster an appreciation of American heritage, our country, and our role as citizens of the United States; to understand the obligation to identify and to work to solve the problems that face our diverse nation and world, within the framework of Catholic Christian values. Students will study United States History from the Reconstruction to

World War I.  Students will also be responsible for completing a project on “America: in the late 19^th Century.”

Text: Glencoe: “The American Journey”