Our Language Arts program focuses on integrating writing with reading instruction. Reading and writing are complementary processes of meaning construction, and their combination in the curriculum will enable students to achieve deeper understandings through reflection and critical thinking.
Our goal in the Language Arts program is to provide a curriculum which will improve the student’s comprehension, writing and critical thinking skills. To achieve this goal, students will be actively involved in independent reading, vocabulary development, novel studies, writing, and research using a variety of resources.
Goals and Objectives:
Students will be able to do the following:
· Read strategically to construct
meaning
· Use the formal conventions
of writing – spelling, punctuation, and grammar usage
· Write using a variety of forms
in narrative, expository, descriptive, and persuasive
· Understand the strategies for
communicating and will prepare speeches appropriate to the audience
· Understand how various forms of
significant literature respect different cultures, eras, and ideas.
Curricular Framework:
Trimester Two: How do people deal with conflict?
Trimester Three: How can we empower ourselves through decision-making?
Students will be studying mathematics from the Connected Mathematics Project materials. The materials are constructed into units that take approximately 4 to 6 weeks each. Each unit is focused around problem situations that help students learn an important set of related mathematical ideas and to become skillful at using these ideas to solve problems. The curriculum is structured to help students learn to communicate their strategies and their reasoning, making their mathematical understandings much deeper. The types of problems that the student will work on in class, as well as for homework, are challenging and interesting. Practice with ideas is provided throughout the units in the Application – Connections – Extensions (ACE) problems assigned for class work and homework. Our main goal is to help more and more of our students to be successful in, and want to, continue to study mathematics as they proceed though the grades.
The Connected Mathematics Project materials were written with a philosophy about key instructional themes to guide the development. These themes are tied to the content and process goals, but point more directly to the nature of kinds of classroom discourse needed to support the growth of student understanding and skill.
Five Instructional Themes
Eighth grade students will explore a broad range of materials while focusing on the five major components of Social Science - history, political science, behavioral systems, economic systems, and geography. The basal text America: History of Our Nation takes a chronological approach to American history and encompasses early America to 1999 with abundant activities to make each student aware of our rich heritage. Coupled with the text, each student experiences living history through field trips and guest speakers, which take the study of American history beyond the textbook.
Goals and Objectives:
Students will be able to do the following:
· Develop knowledge of the major events and people in America’s history
Trimester One:
Science is a comprehensive process by which we continually refine our understanding of the universe. Scientific literacy enables us to make informed, responsible decisions that affect our daily lives.
This year’s field test program will provide an inquiry and standards based comprehensive curriculum in life science, earth and space science, and physical science. An integral part of this curriculum is to provide an understanding of the interconnections within the sciences and the interactions among science, technology, society, and the environment.
Instruction in the science classroom will model and provide opportunities for students to participate in scientific inquiry as they experience the wonders of science. A rich variety of cognitively appropriate strategies and resources will be utilized so that all students have opportunities to experience both success and challenge.
Curricular Framework: