Grade 8 Curriculum

Grade 8 Curriculum Overview

Religion

Students will learn about Jesus’ life. The focus is how we, as Christians, are called to follow Jesus’ teachings. The students will participate in classroom discussions, read the Bible and complete projects individually as well as in a group setting. Along with our classroom text, we will use the Pflaum Gospel Weeklies Faith Formation as well as the Child Lures program.

Language Arts

  • Write an intelligent response to any number of prompts

  • Write arguments from the text to prove a point

  • Write creatively using real or imagined experiences and characters

  • Use specific verbs and nouns to evoke the desired response in connection with the assigned task

  • Use technology while assessing its credibility and accuracy to produce an intelligently researched and documented project

  • Write short as well as more involved research projects on a specific topic with guidelines to follow

  • To consistently use correctly spelled words in all writing

  • Use new vocabulary in written and spoken responses

  • Analyze word structure to discover the meanings of new words

  • Create performable dramas

  • Write response journal entries

  • Read a variety of genres to determine explicit meaning and to draw conclusions from the text

  • Determine central ideas or themes of a text

  • To read coherently and smoothly adding expression and understanding of the text

  • To compare and contrast characters, ideas, styles, and themes

  • To summarize and paraphrase the text

  • To be able to identify point of view, allusion, alliteration, metaphor, irony, and many other literary elements

  • Make connections to other texts, life experiences, and world events

  • Develop a writing that incorporates a variety of sentence lengths

  • Apply all grammatical rules for capitalization, punctuation, and grammar

  • To orally present material in a clear, audible voice.

  • To understand motivation and character traits when analyzing a text or visual work

  • To see the morality and the connection to our Catholic beliefs in characters and situations in writings and everyday life

Pre-Algebra

Purpose

The purpose of pre-algebra is to build on the mathematical background students obtained in earlier grades and set the building blocks to succeed in applying math to real world situations and to set the cornerstones for algebra.

*Factors and Fractions

*Real Numbers

*Ratio, Proportion and Percents

*Algebraic Expressions, Equations and Inequalities

*Monomials

*Graphing

Science

Cells

Genes

Genetics

Protein Synthesis

Mutations

Evolution

Viruses

Bacteria

Plants

Waves

Sound

Light

Spaghetti Bridge Technology Project

Projects and Labs associated with this curriculum include but aren’t limited to:

Edible Cell Project

Family Genetics Project

Natural Selection Project

Plant tropism project

Yeast lab

Sound and light wave reflection and refraction

Metric System

Social Studies

In seventh grade we use the book: America: A History of our Nation

The following topics are covered:

  • Events leading to the American Revolution (from 1745-1776)

  • The American Revolution (from 1776-1783)

  • Creating the Constitution

  • The Constitution and what it means

  • The presidencies of George Washington and John Adams

  • The Era of Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase

  • War of 1812

  • The Age of Jackson and the Indian Removal

  • The Westward Expansion and the Oregon Trail