Language Arts- Literature
Eighth grade students will cover the main genres of literature during the year:
- Short stories
- Essays
- Drama
- Mystery
- Poetry
- Novels
Students will interact with literature through various forms of language activities. Students’ will be choosing books to read each quarter from the Accelerated Reader Program. This Program provides the student with feedback on the success of reading comprehension through compute-based quizzes. A variety of reading and writing assignments will be completed throughout the year.
Language Arts- English
Eighth grade students will review capitalization and punctuation skills, the eight parts of speech, and usage in the first semester. A comprehensive study of phrases, clauses, and verbals will be covered during the second semester. Eighth grade students will study speech-making skills and will be required to write and deliver an original speech. Students will examine various writing styles and techniques using the Six Traits of Writing.
Vocabulary proficiency is enhanced through the study of word parts (prefixes, suffixes, roots) using the workbook The Word Within the Word.
Math
The eighth grade math curriculum covers:
- Operations with equivalent
- Rational & irrational numbers
- Square and cube roots
- Scientific notation
- Proportional relationships
- Slope and y-intercept
- Solving linear equations, linear and nonlinear functions
- Two-dimensional figures
- Pythagorean theorem
- Volume
- Scatter plots
- Categorical data
Algebra
The Algebra curriculum covers:
- Dimensional analysis
- Writing and solving equations and inequalities
- Rational and irrational numbers
- Functions
- Exponential growth and decay
- Arithmetic and geometric sequences
- Quadratic functions
- Polynomials
- Box plots
- 2-way frequency tables
- Absolute value
- Functions
Religion
The eighth grade religion curriculum focuses on preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation and the study of the history of the Catholic Church from Jerusalem to Vatican II. Students are taught that they are called by God through the Church to live a moral life with God, themselves, and their neighbors. Eighth graders learn through service to their community that they are called to imitate Jesus by the way they live, love, and serve others.
Weekly Mass, prayers, rosaries, devotionals, and May Crowning, each promote the strong foundation of the student’s faith.
Science
Eighth grade students will study Physical Science. Topics that students will cover include:
- Matter
- Energy
- Particles
- Chemistry
- Lasers
- Motion
- Forces
- Fluids
- Heat
- Light
- Sound
- Electricity
- Magnetism
- Gravity
Students will build models, apply hands-on experiments, and complete many engineering design tasks. The first semester students will explore chemistry and matter. They will learn how to define and describe matter, and the changes it goes through. Students will learn the different states of matter and how to classify different arrangements of matter as elements, compounds, or mixtures. Eighth graders will study atoms and their structures and learn how to classify and organize elements according to their properties and atomic structure. Students will study the interactions of matter through bonding, formulas, and balancing equations.
During the second semester, students will explore the relationship between force and motion. They will study Newton’s Laws of motion and investigate important scientific discoveries and inventions throughout history. Eighth grade students will be responsible for an individual science fair project. All projects will be entered in a school competition with selected projects being entered at the Diocesan and Northeast Florida Regional Science and Engineering Fair competitions.
STEM
Civil Air Patrol lessons are incorporated into the school’s curriculum covering topics on aerospace and math. The school receives support from the local AFA Falcon #399 Chapter. This organization provides the school with The Visions of Exploration Program which is sponsored through the U.S.A. Today Newspaper is used to challenge, engage, and provide additional critical thinking activities for all students.
Social Studies
Eighth grade U.S. History curriculum covers early American History from the formation of the colonies, through the founding of democracy, the impact of westward expansion, to the division that led to the Civil War, and the subsequent Reconstruction. The class will focus on population growth and migration, cultural diffusion throughout the country, the impact of government policies, and the constitutional provisions for establishing citizenship
Students will have an understanding of the events that created the United States, and the importance of being informed and involved members of society.