8th Grade Curriculum
The GATE seventh and eighth grade curriculum is designed as a two-year continuum, although each year can stand on its own.
Eighth graders work with the theme of change, focusing on real world issues. They will recognize propaganda and fallacies in reasoning; and interpret analogies and allusions. They will analyze and annotate poetry and undertake timed writings, in order to develop the concepts and strategies that will prepare them for AP English in high school.
Second semester we will continue looking at realities: civil liberties, social problems, and solutions. Students will continue with the speechmaking they began last year, moving forward to written and verbal argumentation, learning how to write propositions and support their contentions with evidence.
Reading and vocabulary development are important parts of a language arts curriculum. Students will read, analyze, and interpret a variety of classic and contemporary novels, focusing on plot development, theme, characterization, and point of view. They will compare/contrast two books and a play with the movie based on them: To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Book Thief; and the play of Romeo and Juliet with West Side Story. They will also write and perform a scene from Romeo and Juliet, revising it for a new setting, as West Side Story did with the entirety of Romeo and Juliet. And eighth graders will continue their study of classic word stems to improve their vocabulary and their brains, not to mention their college entrance exam scores!
The eighth grade year also gives our students opportunities to apply their newly-learned argumentation skills when it culminates with formal debates - Lincoln-Douglas and policy - on controversial issues, and DWI, a trial simulation. It is widely believed that nothing between the covers of a textbook can duplicate the lessons of live debate. All necessary components - gathering information, organizing it into reasonable arguments of inference and evidence, synthesizing personal viewpoints with those of established sources, having to respond and rebut on their feet, and presenting it all in a persuasive mode - create the best of critical thinking opportunities. Our eighth graders generally consider debating to be a highlight of their middle school careers, and many continue with debate and mock trial in high school.
The GATE seventh and eighth grade curriculum is designed as a two-year continuum, although each year can stand on its own.
Eighth graders work with the theme of change, focusing on real world issues. They will recognize propaganda and fallacies in reasoning; and interpret analogies and allusions. They will analyze and annotate poetry and undertake timed writings, in order to develop the concepts and strategies that will prepare them for AP English in high school.
Second semester we will continue looking at realities: civil liberties, social problems, and solutions. Students will continue with the speechmaking they began last year, moving forward to written and verbal argumentation, learning how to write propositions and support their contentions with evidence.
Reading and vocabulary development are important parts of a language arts curriculum. Students will read, analyze, and interpret a variety of classic and contemporary novels, focusing on plot development, theme, characterization, and point of view. They will compare/contrast two books and a play with the movie based on them: To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Book Thief; and the play of Romeo and Juliet with West Side Story. They will also write and perform a scene from Romeo and Juliet, revising it for a new setting, as West Side Story did with the entirety of Romeo and Juliet. And eighth graders will continue their study of classic word stems to improve their vocabulary and their brains, not to mention their college entrance exam scores!
The eighth grade year also gives our students opportunities to apply their newly-learned argumentation skills when it culminates with formal debates - Lincoln-Douglas and policy - on controversial issues, and DWI, a trial simulation. It is widely believed that nothing between the covers of a textbook can duplicate the lessons of live debate. All necessary components - gathering information, organizing it into reasonable arguments of inference and evidence, synthesizing personal viewpoints with those of established sources, having to respond and rebut on their feet, and presenting it all in a persuasive mode - create the best of critical thinking opportunities. Our eighth graders generally consider debating to be a highlight of their middle school careers, and many continue with debate and mock trial in high school.