Eighth Grade Curriculum

Religion

The eighth grade religion course of study concentrates on the history of the Catholic Church.  Unit one’s main topics for study and exploration include the following:  images and models of the Church, Mary’s preeminence as Mother of the Church, the four marks of the Church which describe her identity and her mission, growth in knowledge and appreciation of Catholic practices and beliefs, and the importance of sharing the Good News.

Unit two centers on salvation history and the developments in the Church over twenty centuries.  Included in these topics is information about the great saints of each era.  There is also a strong emphasis placed on the ever abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church.  A new component in the curriculum this year is a five hour service requirement per quarter.

Text: Loyola Press, Christ Our Life,  2002.
         Catholic Book Publishing Co., The New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition, 1992

Social Studies

The focus of social studies in eighth grade is on North Carolina, from the Constitution to present day.  Stated goals for this curriculum year are to examine the roles of people, events and issues in North Carolina and their contribution to the course of American history.  The course of study will evolve from several strands:  Our Catholic Ideals, Citizenship and Government, History, Geography, and Economics.

Text: Prentice Hall, America: History of Our Nation, 2009

Language Arts

The curriculum for eighth grade language arts has two primary focuses: reading and writing.  Students will explore these areas as they gain a deeper understanding of the different types of writing (narrative, descriptive, argumentative, and expository), writing for different audiences and purposes, literary genres, literary elements (such as irony, theme, and symbolism), vocabulary usage, and grammar mechanics and usage.  As they study the major literary genres, students will read fiction and non-fiction, short story selections, dramatic works, and poetry.  Students who successfully complete the class will build their reading, writing, and communication skills and will strengthen their critical and creative thinking skills.  Building on the knowledge of prior language arts classes, this course lays the foundation for the English classes students will take in high school.  

Texts:  Sadlier-Oxford, Grammar for Writing, Level Yellow, 2009
            Sadlier-Oxford, Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop, Level C, 2003
            Prentice Hall, Literature: Language and Literacy, 2010

Science

Students begin by looking at motion and forces. They learn about work and machines. Then they investigate the different types of energy and their interactions. Students also learn and experiment with electricity and magnetism. Then they study the properties of sound and light and how their body uses them to gain information. Students then turn to the atom and chemical reactions. If there is time they finish with an introduction to genetics, including Mendel’s work, inheritance, and disorders.

Text: Prentice Hall, Interactive Science Series, 2011

Pre-Algebra

The pre-algebra course of studies concentrates on several algebraic concepts:  simplifying and evaluating algebraic expressions, solving algebraic equations, graphing linear equations, solving and graphing inequalities, and finding and graphing slopes of lines.

A major focus of study centers on computational skills with positive and negative integers.  There is also a special emphasis on exponents and scientific notation.  Solving percent problems and exploring relationships between fractions, decimals, and percents constitutes another portion of the curriculum.  Other topics include ratio, proportion, and scale drawings.  Graphing ordered pairs and transformations on the coordinate plane are fun topics for the students as well as learning how to create stem and leaf plots, scatter plots, box and whisker plots, and histograms.  The geometry unit explores 3-D figures and space figures, finding volumes and surface areas.  Other geometric topics include the Pythagorean Theorem, similar and congruent figures, and circumference and area of circles.  A statistics and probability unit centers on measures of central tendency and permutations and combinations.

Text:  Glencoe Mathematics, Pre-Algebra, 2004.

Algebra I

The Algebra I course offered is an honors course that fulfills the high school credit for graduation.  Unit one includes a review and extension of pre-algebra concepts which include variable expressions, order of operations, algebra properties, graphs and functions, basic operations with rational numbers, and the foundation for adding and subtracting real numbers.  Unit one concludes with students obtaining the necessary skills for solving proportions and other applicable formulas.  Linear functions are the focus of the second unit.  Included in this are graphs of relations and functions explored in the coordinate plane, analyzing linear equations (slope and writing the various equations of a line), solving linear inequalities, and solving systems of linear equations and inequalities. 

The next unit concentrates on polynomials and nonlinear functions.  Adding, subtracting, and multiplying polynomials, factoring polynomials, and graphing and solving quadratic equations are studied first.  Exponential functions are then explored through practical examples of growth and decay.  While the TI-83 plus graphing calculator is used throughout the course, it is especially useful in this unit as the students analyze and compare both linear and non-linear functions. Rational expressions and equations are the remainder of this unit.  The course concludes with data analysis, an introduction to matrices, measures of variation, and interpreting data presented in various forms.  Algebra I students take the End of Course Exam for North Carolina.

Text:  Glencoe Mathematics, Algebra I, 2004