Curriculum Outline for 8th Grade 2009-2010

LANGUAGE ARTS

Literature:

• We will read many classics including: My Brother Sam is Dead, The Giver, A Christmas Carol, Across Five Aprils,and Iqbal. Students will also have opportunities to read appropriate grade-level books of their choice for book reports.
• We will explore the Canterbury Tales and Aesop’s Fables, Edgar Allan Poe, George Steinbeck and other famous authors. Students also read anthologies offered in our Glencoe Reader’s Choice text.
• Identifying analogies, oxymorons, hyperboles, alliteration, idioms, analogies, metaphors, similes and other literary elements will be part of the curriculum.

Writing:

• Write clear, coherent and focused essays. Essays will contain formal introductions, supporting evidence and conclusions. Students will write narrative, expository, persuasive and descriptive texts. Biographies, autobiographies, short stories or narratives will also be part of the writing strategies.
• Note taking, outlining and summarizing are writing requirements. Oral presentations and technology based projects are expected.
• Research papers using the Modern Language Association (MLA) format will be taught and then expected.
• Six-Traits of Writing will be introduced and rubrics for writing will be based on these traits. Peer editing and in-class writing assignments are expected.

Grammar:

• Identify parts of speech and structure of sentences.
• Mechanics of writing: quotation marks, commas, semicolons, etc.
• Sentence Structure using correct and varied sentence types will be taught and then expected to be used correctly. Use subordination, appositions and other devices to indicate clearly the relationship between sentences.
• Correct spelling and capitalization.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

• The American Journey, US History and Geography. Glencoe text book
• Students will study the ideas, issues and events from the framing of the constitution up to the Industrial Revolution. Students understand major events in founding our nation, the American constitutional democracy, the foundation of the American political system, US foreign policy in the early Republic and the challenges the American people faced in the 1800’s. Students analyze the different paths of people in the North and the South, the steady attempts to abolish slavery and causes and consequences of the Civil War.
• We will be doing projects as well as tests.

Discipline: Our goal in Jr. High is to be certain that St. John’s students are ready for high school. The school Handbook is strictly enforced in all areas including dress code and bullying. A close working relationship with parents is a guarantee that our students will know the expectations and be successful.

MATH

Click here to view math curriculum in a PDF document.