Eighth Grade

Learning Objectives

• To develop his/her analytical reading practices
• How to analyze author’s craft and how writers use specific craft techniques to convey meaning
• How to use persuasive techniques while writing powerful editorials.
• How to analyze and use craft techniques for writing short stories of various genres.
• How to analyze poetry and write literary analysis of poetic devices.
• Content specific vocabulary

Students will:

• Get to know him/herself as a reader and a writer and set reading and writing goals
• Keep a reader’s and writer’s notebook
• Study mentor text (a published piece of writing) for the writing he/she is expected to do
• Prepare for and engage in student-led discussions such as Socratic Circles and fishbowls
• Analyze various genres and styles of nonfiction and literary texts (prose and poetry).
• Write a wide variety of texts including literary analysis essays, editorials, and short stories.
• Submit writing for online publication
• Reflect on his/her learning

In Grade 8, instructional time should focus on three critical areas:

• formulating and reasoning about expressions and equations, including modeling an association in bivariate data with a linear equation, and solving linear equations and systems of linear equations;
• grasping the concept of a function and using functions to describe quantitative relationships;
• analyzing two- and three-dimensional space and figures using distance, angle, similarity, and congruence, and understanding and applying the Pythagorean Theorem.

Visit the District Math Department website to learn more >>

The Grade 8 curriculum focuses on change: 1) changes in Earth (Climate Change and Chemistry) and changes in life over time (Evolution, Genetics/Heredity). In addition, 8th graders design and carry out a science or engineering project, which they present at the Harvard Science & Engineering Showcase at the end of the year. The theme for the Showcase is: How can we use science and engineering to solve problems? Learn more >>

To ground the development of authentic and informed civic agency, this course begins with an identity unit focusing on chosen and unchosen aspects of identity, systems of oppression, and individual values. Students then explore the political institutions and founding values of the United States, as expressed through grievances in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. A unit on justice in action explores additional case studies, including the Little Rock Nine, mass incarceration today, Constitutional Amendments, and Supreme Court cases, and investigates levers of change, including voting, constitutional amendments, and Supreme Court decisions. The year culminates in individually student-written research editorials and student-led non-partisan civic action projects.

Learning Objectives

• The second half of a level 1 course in preparation for entrance into a level 2 CP or Honors high school class, building on the concepts learned in grades 6 and 7;
• New opportunities to practice the four essential language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
• Reinforcement in the development of cultural awareness;
• Stem-changing verbs and common irregular verbs in context;
• The past tense for regular, irregular, and stem-changing verbs;
• Oral and written communication skills in the target language

Students will:

• Collaborate and communicate with classmates and the teacher in the target language;
• Create projects that integrate the study of grammar and vocabulary into oral presentations;
• Work in groups and in pairs to practice the language structures and vocabulary;
• Prepare dialogues and make oral presentations with the content provided by the teacher;
• Play games and use computer websites to practice the language;
• Access and use proficiently computer technology to research data about oral and written projects.

View Madame Kratzig's Website >>