Eighth Grade
The eighth-grade curriculum integrates the arts and sciences with each student’s place in the natural world and encourages each student to form a vision for their future. To help students develop realistic educational goals and a detailed plan for their high school education, a variety of instructional practices are used in a multidisciplinary context in an effort to show the interconnections of life. At the culmination of the year, eighth-grade students participate in service activities to finance a week-long field trip to the Outer Banks which highlights curricular studies and serves to create a deeper sense of connection through a truly unforgettable experience.
In science, 8th-grade students explore the NC state standards through arts-integrated lessons involving matter; properties and change, energy conservation and transfer, Earth systems structures and processes, Earth history, structures and functions of living organisms, ecosystems, evolution and genetics, and molecular biology. Students enjoy creating models of energy cities, sewing stuffed microbes, studying Alexander Calder to create a balanced chemical equation mobile, and daily lessons involving all of the arts. Students work both collaboratively and individually to work through difficult concepts in creative ways.
Eighth graders have the benefit of two different math classes – the on-track 8th-grade curriculum and the high school Math I curriculum. Both classes will learn content in functions, geometry, statistics, the number system, and more. However, students learning the Math I curriculum will learn the 8th-grade curriculum alongside the high school course. It’s a fast-paced class full of connection-making and higher-level problem-solving, that often leads to starting high school with one course already successfully completed. Both classes include some interesting art projects, and our goal is to meet the challenge level that each student needs.
Eighth grade English language arts revolves mainly around two main ideas: the five pillars of the First Amendment and censorship. Literature includes The Book Thief, Macbeth, a unit on short stories, Persepolis, and Books of Choice. We also do detailed studies of poems and articles, and we write both analytically and creatively for a variety of audiences and purposes. English language arts includes reading, writing, speaking, and listening. We will intentionally increase the stamina required to engage in all four of those modes.
In their Social Studies class, 8th-grade students explore United States history, with a particular emphasis upon North Carolina’s role in our country’s development. Major units include the American Revolution, the Constitution, the Rip Van Winkle Era, Westward Expansion, the Civil War, the Gilded Age, the Jazz Age, the Great Depression, the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, and North Carolina Geography.
About the Seventh and Eighth Grade Staff