The eighth-grade English program builds on the reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills developed in earlier grades. The course aims to help students become more effective communicators and emphasizes ways in which writing, grammar, and reading skills work together to enhance communication. Students learn how to generate and organize ideas for a specific audience and purpose in a wide variety of personal and academic topics. They improve their revision and editing skills, applying the conventions of standard spelling and grammar. Grammar instruction emphasizes how to combine phrases and clauses as students develop a more sophisticated writing style. Reading includes fiction, drama, non-fiction, and poetry. In addition to works in the literature book, students read novels with the entire class and on their own for outside reading reports. Vocabulary is taught in the context of reading and includes learning root words, prefixes and suffixes, and the denotation and connotation of words.

Students take two art classes and rotate on alternating days for the entire school year. Grades and comments are given for both classes.  Students choose in 7^th grade, and they choose again in 8^th grade. 

Choices for 8th grade can include Band, Chorus, Strings, Visual Art, Theater, Photography, Art Magazine, and Creative Explorations. Visit the Arts section of our website for details.

In eighth-grade, students build on their foundation of United States history as they continue to explore the history, geography, culture, government, economics, and politics. Students strengthen their use of historian skills as they deepen their understanding of more modern United States history, as it becomes a world power. Topics are examined through a combination of primary and secondary sources, as students continue to learn to think like historians through strategies of sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading.

This course is an accelerated program that challenges eighth-grade students to expand on the knowledge gained in Pre-Algebra. Relevant topics include linear equations, inequalities, polynomials, factoring, graphing linear equations, radicals, quadratics, and an introduction to trigonometry. The content continuously applies and connects algebraic principles with other areas of mathematics, other disciplines, and real-world applications, giving students a better understanding of how algebra is relevant to their future lives and careers. Multiple approaches to creative problem-solving are valued and reinforced through communication and collaboration. Chromebooks, graphing calculators, project-based learning, and mathematics competitions are used for enrichment.

Eighth-Grade Geometry

This course is an accelerated program that challenges a select group of eighth- grade students to expand on the knowledge gained in Algebra I. The skills of reasoning and geometric proof are developed. Other relevant topics include parallel and perpendicular lines, congruent triangles, similar polygons, trigonometry, quadrilaterals and circles, and area and volume. The content continuously applies and connects both algebra and geometry principles with other areas of mathematics, other disciplines, and real-world applications, giving students a better understanding of how geometry is relevant to their future lives and careers. Chromebooks, graphing calculators, project-based learning, and mathematics competitions are used for enrichment. There is a strong emphasis on project-based learning, independent thinking, and collaboration among students and teachers.

Health Education

In grades five through eight, age-appropriate texts and resources are used to teach mental, physical, and social skills necessary to maintaining one's health. Units taught include human growth and development, evaluating health-related information, products and services, decision-making, family living, nutrition, safety and basic first aid, and environmental health.

Physical Education

The Middle School physical education program stresses physical fitness and a variety of athletic experiences. The program includes training and testing for the Cannon strength and conditioning program. Also included are units on soccer, flag football, volleyball, tennis, aerobics, cardiovascular fitness and conditioning, basketball, softball, baseball, and lacrosse. Participation is mandatory. However, students develop skills for performance at their individual levels.
 

Our essential question for the year is "What is the impact of the Sun on Earth?" The Sun drives the Earth's weather, provides energy for life, and for electrical power. We focus on these main areas of study through a series of labs, demonstrations, and investigations. As we study the nature of science and science processes, eighth graders become more skilled in working with units of measurement, and students are challenged with projects to integrate various aspects of their learning. They design and construct hot air balloons for flight, and build model homes with working electrical circuits. The students apply science concepts to real world problems, such as analyzing the school's power bill to determine efficiency, or testing the effectiveness of cleansers in fighting microscopic organisms. We are challenged to continuously ask ourselves how we can use our resources in a responsible way.

Over the course of the seventh and eighth grades, students complete Spanish I, French I, or Mandarin I language courses that continue to meet daily and are conducted primarily in the target language. At the seventh- and eighth-grade levels, students deepen and further develop strong reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension skills.