Reading
Students will read a wide variety of historical fiction and expository texts to better understand America’s Civil War period.  Novels include:  Fires of Jubilee, Where Death and Glory Meet, and Annie, Between the States.  Our text is Civil War Illustrated.  Students will be responsible for responding in a reflective journal, and completing and summarizing their readings.  All students are expected to read 20 minutes each evening.

In 8th Grade math we will be reviewing the key concepts from the past year and then move into the lessons that will focus on the Pennsylvania State Assessment Anchors for 7th and 8th grade. The 8th Grade students will begin the year with geometry including finding the area, volume, and surface area of three-dimensional objects. Then they will discover the wonders of Pythagorean Theorem, probability, ratios, permutations and combinations! The course begins to turn to Algebra during the later part of the marking period. Our Algebra students will begin solving simultaneous equations, the FOIL method and graphing of linear equations.

Writing
To better understand the purposes for writing, students will study both narrative and expository texts.  This understanding will support students as they adopt the persona of an immigrant living in Northeast Pennsylvania and working in the coalmines.  Writing will include personal reflections, first person narratives, and a research paper.

Social Studies
Eighth grade continues a journey begun last year by participating in a simulation of the Civil War.  They will develop strategies, map battles, move troops, and make choices to see how their choices affect the outcome of the war as compared to history.  Students will create journal entries from the perspective of their “role play” character and write a research paper on one of the occupations of the Civil War.  Following the Civil War Unit, we will examine the period of America’s Reconstruction and determine if this era is ongoing, considering America’s Civil Rights Movement.

Human Ecology
8th Grade begins the year by examining land management & restoration practices, especially as they relate to agriculture.  We’ll test and classify the local soils, and determine what is arable land.  We’ll examine the impacts of agriculture, with a focus on the management of agricultural waste, and the impact of that waste on Earth’s water systems.  By wintertime we’ll be shifting to an examination of our energy choices, focusing on Pennsylvania’s major energy resource: coal.  We’ll learn about coal formation, “clean” and “dirty” coal, the impacts of mining, energy generation, and coal-fired power plant system inputs and outputs

[ 8th Grade Photo Gallery ]