The Catholic School is a unique faith-centered community, which integrates thinking and believing in ways that encourage intellectual growth, nurture faith, and inspire action.
The commitment to academic excellence, which fosters the intellectual development of all students, is an integral part of the mission of our school.
Religion
Your child will:
- Examine Catholic moral teaching through study of the Ten Commandments
- Connect Catholicism to world religions
- Research and present the life of a saint to the school community
- Model the social teaching of the Church through service and involvement in the local community
- Demonstrate faith and service through participation and leadership in school masses and prayer services
Literature
Your child will develop their reading comprehension and analysis by:
- Building their vocabulary
- Learning important literary elements and devices
- Utilizing effective reading strategies
- Reading, applying, analyzing, and evaluating several fiction and nonfiction texts
- Communicating their ideas clearly and effectively in partner conversations and in writing
History
Your child will explore the themes of democracy, liberty, equality, and foreign policy in American history by:
- Reading and analyzing primary sources
- Interpreting maps and charts
- Studying historical events such as the American Revolution, the Constitutional Convention, the Civil War, Reconstruction, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War, September 11th, and the War on Terror
- Learning the principles of American democracy as well as various other governmental and economic systems
- Developing historical thinking skills such as sourcing, chronological thinking, causal thinking, multiple perspectives, and corroboration
- Engaging in group conversations that connect past events to the present
- Practicing good citizenship skills
Language Arts
Your child will:
- Write clearly and effectively
- Use the six-trait writing techniques based on ideas, organization, sentence fluency, word choice, voice, and conventions
- Write in a variety of forms including descriptive, expository creative, persuasive papers, and research papers
- Utilize the writing process: pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing
- Analyze, evaluate, and chart the effectiveness of written work
- Learn and apply correct grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, and capitalization
- Identify and use clauses and phrases
- Complete a spelling program
Spelling
Your child will have:
- Follow a spelling program
- Utilize spell check
- Spell words correctly on final drafts
Social Studies
Your child will:
- Connect with world events and the present
- Note the impact of historical events
- Understand the diverse cultural make-up of America
- Identify how U.S. history is reflected in stories, songs, and poems
- Learn basic map skills
- Explore the impact of geography on people’s lives
- Analyze primary sources
- Practice citizenship skills
- Work with charts and graphs
Math (Pre-Algebra and Algebra)
In Pre-Algebra your child will:
- Explore the language of Algebra
- Add, subtract, multiply, and divide integers and fractions
- Solve and simplify expressions using the Distributive, Commutative, and Associative Properties
- Write and solve multi-step equations and inequalities
- Multiply and divide monomials
- Evaluate expressions with ratios, proportions, and percents
- Graph linear equations and inequalities
- Apply geometry to real-world problems
In Algebra your child will:
- Communicate in the language of Algebra
- Write and solve multi-step linear equations and inequalities
- Graph functions, linear equations, and inequalities
- Develop and solve systems of linear equations
- Add, subtract, multiply, and divide monomials and polynomials
- Factor polynomials
- Graph and solve quadratic equations and exponential functions
- Apply geometry to real-world problems
Science – Earth Science
Your child will:
- Practice laboratory safety
- Use the scientific method for applications in problem solving, and conduct independent projects using controls and variables
- Use and understand the metric system (SI) and be able to convert between SI units
- Know the process by which minerals form rock, and how rock types are inter-converted via the rock cycle
- Recognize the tectonic, seismic and volcanic forces which shape Earth
- Understand properties of ocean water and the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere
- Understand the interaction between atmospheric and weather phenomena as it relates to the water cycle
- Observe the night sky and learn contemporary theories regarding the formation of the solar system and universe
Art
Each student will have 1 quarter of Art in which they will be exposed to many different mediums and will produce items for public display. Eighth grade art focuses on sculpting and painting portraits. Your child will be introduced to:
- Pop and Modern Art
- Digital photography
- Computer graphics and graphic design
- Modeling clay
- Advanced painting techniques
- How to produce and display work
P.E.
Each student will have two quarters of P.E. class with their homeroom class. Students will be required to change into P.E. clothes (health and hygiene purposes). Students will be expected to participate at their current skill level, show growth in their skills, and show appropriate sportsmanship behavior during class.
Music / Drama
Students receive one quarter of Music/Drama instruction. They will focus on performance of vocal music and theatre. They will be expected to improve their vocal technique and broaden their knowledge of the crafts that are needed in theatre. They will present a performance of singing and drama at the end of the quarter.
Computer Technology
Students use classroom computers to complete many classroom projects. Typically students use Power Point, word processing programs, the internet, and various other media resources to complete their projects.
