The 8^th grade team would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves and lay out our expectations for the year.  Our team goal is high school readiness, preparing our students for the next step in their academic careers.  Our team follows the Nathan Hale Middle School handbook, as written in the assignment notebook.  Please pay special attention to the areas of homework, absenteeism, and attire.

    Our 8^th grade team is an integral part of the whole Hale Middle School community.  All of our members are active in academic, athletic, and service activities.  We strongly encourage our students to participate in extracurricular activities to prepare them for high school and collegiate environments. 

 

Here are curriculum highlights of the 8^th grade courses your students are taking:

 

Science Ms. Parham)

 

·   Stars

·   Physical Science

·   Biology for High School (dissection)

·   Other topics review related to science

·   Science Night

 

Reading (Ms. Boatner)

 

The goal of Ms. Boatner’s reading class is to establish life long readers who can appreciate literature from various genres.  As such, this year we will focus on short stories, novels, nonfiction, and plays.

 

Social Studies (Mr. Harasen)

 

·   An overview of the reasons for the Civil War

·   The Civil War itself

·   The Reconstruction Period until the present (2009)

·   The Holocaust

·   Black History Month (February)

·   Current Events/ use of the newspaper

·   Women in History

·   History Night

·   Consumer Economics (2^nd semester)

·   Annual Washington D.C. trip

·   Hispanic Heritage Month

 

Language Arts (Mr. Looby)

 

In Language Arts this year we will be working on vocabulary, sentence structure, and five paragraph essays as we prepare again for the ISAT’s.  In addition, we will be writing the 8^th grade research paper, which will better prepare the students for high school.  In between, we will do interviews, creative stories, write recipes and create a whole new holiday.  It’s going to be a busy year.

 

Mathematics/Algebra (Mrs. Hill)

 

Math Class

·   Principals of Algebra

·   Rational Numbers

·   Graphs and Functions

·   Exponents and Roots

·   Proportions and Ratios

·   Percents

·   Geometry

·   Perimeter, area, and volume

·   Statistics

·   Probability

·   Solving Equations/Inequalities

·   Graphing Lines

 

Algebra Class

·   We will cover all of the above, but also:

·   Polynomials

·   Quadratic Functions

·   Exponential Functions

·   Linear Functions

·   Solving Systems of Equations