Admin

Team 8A

welcome to 8a

We are dedicated to the promotion of students as responsible, productive, and invested citizens who contribute to their local and global community by:

  • demonstrating greater independence and more investment in their learning

  • monitoring their own progress

  • self advocating

  • taking responsibility for their education

  • showing initiative for learning

  • respecting themselves and others

  • working collaboratively and cooperatively

  • understanding themselves as learners and as people

We recognize that our students are young adults, and we work toward preparing them for the responsibilities of high school and beyond.


Curriculum

ELA

The curriculum implements Common Core State Standards in order to develop independent and literate learners. The classes are devoted to the instruction of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language skills through a variety of content area texts, themes, and multi-media sources. The primary goal is to foster an environment that cultivates critical evaluators of the world. By exposing students to complex literature and informational texts, they will have opportunities to further develop critical and analytical skills in order to identify an author’s purpose, recognize the central idea or theme, and examine an author’s craft. Reading classes will focus on close readings of complex texts in order to answer text-dependent questions that require inferencing, justifying claims, and elaboration of evidence. Through the development of such skills, students will be able to apply understandings of various texts to the world at large.

Additionally, the curriculum provides writing experiences in narrative, explanatory/informative, and argumentative modes for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences, while honing research skills. All written work taken through the writing process will demonstrate a command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage as outlined in the Common Core.Through all units, students will acquire vocabulary through various means including the study of prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Moreover, students will have opportunities to present their knowledge and ideas for various purposes in an organized and effective manner. Students will understand the process of preparing a presentation, which includes research and synthesis of multiple resources in order to clearly communicate their findings to their peers. Ultimately, the cultivation of these skills will contribute to the students’ ability to effectively articulate their claims and ideas.

By the end of eighth grade, students will have built the necessary skills to be lifelong readers, writers, and communicators and have gained an ongoing appreciation for literacy.

MATH

Foundations for Algebra- Evaluate and simplify expressions, identify & apply properties of the real number system, evaluate using order of operations, calculate percents.

Equations- Apply inverse operations to solve equations containing variables, write equations to represent situations, simplify equations before solving.

Inequalities*- Use properties of inequalities, solve linear inequalities by using inverse operations (including compound inequalities and inequalities with variables on both sides of the equation).
Introduction to Functions- Identify and apply relationships between variables, determine whether a relation is a function, graph functions, write functions to represent graphs/tables.

Linear Functions- Write and graph linear functions, identify and interpret the components of linear graphs including x-intercept, y-intercept, and slope, use a trend line to make predictions.

Systems of Equations and Inequalities*- Find a solution that satisfies two linear equations, find a solution that satisfies two linear inequalities, graph one or more linear inequalities on a coordinate plane.

Exponents and Radicals- Apply properties of exponents, simplify radical expressions, calculate the distance between two points in the coordinate plane, calculate the coordinates of the midpoint of a segment given the coordinates of its endpoints, calculate the coordinates of the endpoint of a segment given the coordinates of its midpoint and other endpoint, find the missing side of a right triangle.

Polynomials*- Operations with polynomials (addition, subtraction, multiplication and factoring).

Quadratic Functions and Equations*- Solve quadratic equations using various methods, determine number of solutions using the discriminant, find the vertex, graph parabolas using properties of quadratic functions.

Geometry- Classify transformations, construct transformations, calculate volume of figures. Probability and Statistics- Calculate measures of central tendency, calculate simple and compound probability, differentiate between simple & compound probability, draw conclusions based on data, analyze tables, charts and graphs.
*Degree of coverage depends upon math level.

SCIENCE

Goal

To develop students who can apply their understanding of scientific literacy to real world events and issues and to prepare students for the rigor and responsibility of high school science classes.

Throughout the year students will refine their scientific literacy through formal investigations and research projects, investigate science's interaction with society through the fields of technology and engineering, and cultivate the cooperation and communication skills needed in all scientific fields

US HISTORY

Goal

To help students explore the history and political systems of the United States from the settlement of North America through Reconstruction.

Through the development of research and presentation skills, authentic learning experiences, collaborative learning opportunities, and the use of digital media, students will have the opportunity to recognize multiple perspectives, including bias, evaluate the impact of influential figures, and analyze the connection between historical events and the United States today. In each unit of study students will:

  • Analyze primary sources

  • Trace common themes

  • Strengthen non-fiction literacy skills

  • Use and cite historical evidence to develop and support an argument

  • Use various media to demonstrate their learning.

WORLD LANGUAGE

The Berlin World Language department motivates and inspires students to recognize the personal value and global benefit of learning languages. We create an environment that fosters students to take risks and communicate with confidence in and out of the classroom. Our goal is to ignite a passion in students to continuously develop language and intercultural proficiency.

 

The performance targets established for each course align with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language’s levels of language proficiency. Students will begin their language program at the Novice level with the goal of acquiring Intermediate or Advanced level proficiency upon graduation.


Course Description:

This is the second of two introductory courses in which students will  continue to develop the interpretive, presentational, and  interpersonal modes of communication in Spanish  through thematic units that explore daily life and the  diverse cultures of Spanish-speaking communities within North America and Spain.  Thematic units will include school-life, family, sports, and shopping/around the town.  Authentic and Spanish-language resources are utilized  to offer a variety of opportunities to interpret and  respond to Spanish speakers. Students are encouraged to  practice using the language as much as possible in and  out of the classroom. 


team 8a 2024

Ed Beaupre
MATH
Gabby Garncarz
ELA (Team Leader)
Abby Rogers
WORLD LANGUAGE (Team Leader)
Andrea Gallo
SCIENCE
Craig Labbadia
U.S. HISTORY