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Course Descriptions:
French 1A and 1B:
California Department of Education foreign language framework:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/documents/foreignlangfrmwrk.pdf
Core:
The 8th grade English curriculum integrates language experiences through reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking.
Units of Study:
Writing, Oral Composition, Literature, Language Study, Grammar, and Vocabulary
Core Literature:
Hinton/The Outsiders
Historical Fiction / Colonial America
Fast/April Morning
Anderson/Fever 1793
Grimes/Bronx Masquerade
Avi/Nothing But The Truth
Hunt/Across Five Aprils
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
other titles to be determined
Textbooks:
McDougal Littell/The Language of Literature
Houghton Mifflin/Write Source 2000
Grade Eight
English-language Arts Content Standards:
Reading
1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
Students use their knowledge of word origins and word relationships, as well as historical and literary context clues, to determine the meaning of specialized vocabulary and to understand the precise meaning of grade-level-appropriate words.
Vocabulary and Concept Development
1.1 Analyze idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer the literal and figurative meanings of phrases.
1.2 Understand the most important points in the history of English language and use common word origins to determine the historical influences on English word meanings.
1.3 Use word meanings within the appropriate context and show ability to verify those meanings by definition, restatement, example, comparison, or contrast.
2.0 Reading Comprehension (Focus on Informational Materials)
Students read and understand grade-level-appropriate material. They describe and connect the essential ideas, arguments, and perspectives of the text by using their knowledge of text structure, organization, and purpose. The selections in Recommended Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students. In addition, students read one million words annually on their own, including a good representation of narrative and expository text (e.g., classic and contemporary literature, magazines, newspapers, online information).
Structural Features of Informational Materials
2.1 Compare and contrast the features and elements of consumer materials to gain meaning from documents (e.g., warranties, contracts, product information, instruction manuals).
2.2 Analyze text that uses proposition and support patterns.
Comprehension and Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text
2.3 Find similarities and differences between texts in the treatment, scope, or organization of ideas.
2.4 Compare the original text to a summary to determine whether the summary accurately captures the main ideas, includes critical details, and conveys the underlying meaning.
2.5 Understand and explain the use of a complex mechanical device by following technical directions.
2.6 Use information from a variety of consumer, workplace, and public documents to explain a situation or decision and to solve a problem.
Expository Critique
2.7 Evaluate the unity, coherence, logic, internal consistency, and structural patterns of text.
3.0 Literary Response and Analysis
Students read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature that reflect and enhance their studies of history and social science. They clarify the ideas and connect them to other literary works. The selections in Recommended Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students.
Structural Features of Literature
3.1 Determine and articulate the relationship between the purposes and characteristics of different forms of poetry (e.g., ballad, lyric, couplet, epic, elegy, ode, sonnet).
Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text
3.2 Evaluate the structural elements of the plot (e.g., subplots, parallel episodes, climax), the plot's development, and the way in which conflicts are (or are not) addressed and resolved.
3.3 Compare and contrast motivations and reactions of literary characters from different historical eras confronting similar situations or conflicts.
3.4 Analyze the relevance of the setting (e.g., place, time, customs) to the mood, tone, and meaning of the text.
3.5 Identify and analyze recurring themes (e.g., good versus evil) across traditional and contemporary works.
3.6 Identify significant literary devices (e.g., metaphor, symbolism, dialect, irony) that define a writer's style and use those elements to interpret the work.
Literary Criticism
3.7 Analyze a work of literature, showing how it reflects the heritage, traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its author. (Biographical approach)
Writing
1.0 Writing Strategies
Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits students' awareness of audience and purpose. Essays contain formal introductions, supporting evidence, and conclusions. Students progress through the stages of the writing process as needed.
Organization and Focus
1.1 Create compositions that establish a controlling impression, have a coherent thesis, and end with a clear and well-supported conclusion.
1.2 Establish coherence within and among paragraphs through effective transitions, parallel structures, and similar writing techniques.
1.3 Support theses or conclusions with analogies, paraphrases, quotations, opinions from authorities, comparisons, and similar devices.
Research and Technology
1.4 Plan and conduct multiple-step information searches by using computer networks and modems.
1.5 Achieve an effective balance between researched information and original ideas.
Evaluation and Revision
1.6 Revise writing for word choice; appropriate organization; consistent point of view; and transitions between paragraphs, passages, and ideas.
2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
Students write narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive essays of at least 500 to 700 words in each genre. Student writing demonstrates a command of standard American English and the research, organizational, and drafting strategies outlined in Writing Standard 1.0.
Using the writing strategies of grade eight outlined in Writing Standard 1.0, students:
2.1 Write biographies, autobiographies, short stories, or narratives:
a. Relate a clear, coherent incident, event, or situation by using well-chosen details.
b. Reveal the significance of, or the writer's attitude about, the subject.
c. Employ narrative and descriptive strategies (e.g., relevant dialogue, specific action, physical description, background description, comparison or contrast of characters).
2.2 Write responses to literature:
a. Exhibit careful reading and insight in their interpretations.
b. Connect the student's own responses to the writer's techniques and to specific textual references.
c. Draw supported inferences about the effects of a literary work on its audience.
d. Support judgments through references to the text, other works, other authors, or to personal knowledge.
2.3 Write research reports:
a. Define a thesis.
b. Record important ideas, concepts, and direct quotations from significant information sources and paraphrase and summarize all perspectives on the topic, as appropriate.
c. Use a variety of primary and secondary sources and distinguish the nature and value of each.
d. Organize and display information on charts, maps, and graphs.
2.4 Write persuasive compositions:
a. Include a well-defined thesis (i.e., one that makes a clear and knowledgeable judgment).
b. Present detailed evidence, examples, and reasoning to support arguments, differentiating between facts and opinion.
c. Provide details, reasons, and examples, arranging them effectively by anticipating and answering reader concerns and counterarguments.
2.5 Write documents related to career development, including simple business letters and job applications:
a. Present information purposefully and succinctly and meet the needs of the intended audience.
b. Follow the conventional format for the type of document (e.g., letter of inquiry, memorandum).
2.6 Write technical documents:
a. Identify the sequence of activities needed to design a system, operate a tool, or explain the bylaws of an organization.
b. Include all the factors and variables that need to be considered.
c. Use formatting techniques (e.g., headings, differing fonts) to aid comprehension.
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
The standards for written and oral English language conventions have been placed between those for writing and for listening and speaking because these conventions are essential to both sets of skills.
1.0 Written and Oral English Language Conventions
Students write and speak with a command of standard English conventions appropriate to this grade level.
Sentence Structure
1.1 Use correct and varied sentence types and sentence openings to present a lively and effective personal style.
1.2 Identify and use parallelism, including similar grammatical forms, in all written discourse to present items in a series and items juxtaposed for emphasis.
1.3 Use subordination, coordination, apposition, and other devices to indicate clearly the relationship between ideas.
Grammar
1.4 Edit written manuscripts to ensure that correct grammar is used.
Punctuation and Capitalization
1.5 Use correct punctuation and capitalization.
Spelling
1.6 Use correct spelling conventions.
Listening and Speaking
1.0 Listening and Speaking Strategies
Students deliver focused, coherent presentations that convey ideas clearly and relate to the background and interests of the audience. They evaluate the content of oral communication.
Comprehension
1.1 Analyze oral interpretations of literature, including language choice and delivery, and the effect of the interpretations on the listener.
1.2 Paraphrase a speaker's purpose and point of view and ask relevant questions concerning the speaker's content, delivery, and purpose.
Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication
1.3 Organize information to achieve particular purposes by matching the message, vocabulary, voice modulation, expression, and tone to the audience and purpose.
1.4 Prepare a speech outline based upon a chosen pattern of organization, which generally includes an introduction; transitions, previews, and summaries; a logically developed body; and an effective conclusion.
1.5 Use precise language, action verbs, sensory details, appropriate and colorful modifiers, and the active rather than the passive voice in ways that enliven oral presentations.
1.6 Use appropriate grammar, word choice, enunciation, and pace during formal presentations.
1.7 Use audience feedback (e.g., verbal and nonverbal cues):
a. Reconsider and modify the organizational structure or plan.
b. Rearrange words and sentences to clarify the meaning.
Analysis and Evaluation of Oral and Media Communications
1.8 Evaluate the credibility of a speaker (e.g., hidden agendas, slanted or biased material).
1.9 Interpret and evaluate the various ways in which visual image makers (e.g., graphic artists, illustrators, news photographers) communicate information and affect impressions and opinions.
2.0 Speaking Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
Students deliver well-organized formal presentations employing traditional rhetorical strategies (e.g., narration, exposition, persuasion, description). Student speaking demonstrates a command of standard American English and the organizational and delivery strategies outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0.
Using the speaking strategies of grade eight outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0, students:
2.1 Deliver narrative presentations (e.g., biographical, autobiographical):
a. Relate a clear, coherent incident, event, or situation by using well-chosen details.
b. Reveal the significance of, and the subject's attitude about, the incident, event, or situation.
c. Employ narrative and descriptive strategies (e.g., relevant dialogue, specific action, physical description, background description, comparison or contrast of characters).
2.2 Deliver oral responses to literature:
a. Interpret a reading and provide insight.
b. Connect the students' own responses to the writer's techniques and to specific textual references.
c. Draw supported inferences about the effects of a literary work on its audience.
d. Support judgments through references to the text, other works, other authors, or personal knowledge.
2.3 Deliver research presentations:
a. Define a thesis.
b. Record important ideas, concepts, and direct quotations from significant information sources and paraphrase and summarize all relevant perspectives on the topic, as appropriate.
c. Use a variety of primary and secondary sources and distinguish the nature and value of each.
d. Organize and record information on charts, maps, and graphs.
2.4 Deliver persuasive presentations:
a. Include a well-defined thesis (i.e., one that makes a clear and knowledgeable judgment).
b. Differentiate fact from opinion and support arguments with detailed evidence, examples, and reasoning.
c. Anticipate and answer listener concerns and counterarguments effectively through the inclusion and arrangement of details, reasons, examples, and other elements.
d. Maintain a reasonable tone.
2.5 Recite poems (of four to six stanzas), sections of speeches, or dramatic soliloquies, using voice modulation, tone, and gestures expressively to enhance the meaning.
Grade Eight
History-Social Science Content Standards:
United States History and Geography: Growth and Conflict
Students in grade eight study the ideas, issues, and events from the framing of the Constitution up to World War I, with an emphasis on America's role in the war. After reviewing the development of America's democratic institutions founded on the Judeo-Christian heritage and English parliamentary traditions, particularly the shaping of the Constitution, students trace the development of American politics, society, culture, and economy and relate them to the emergence of major regional differences. They learn about the challenges facing the new nation, with an emphasis on the causes, course, and consequences of the Civil War. They make connections between the rise of industrialization and contemporary social and economic conditions.
8.1 Students understand the major events preceding the founding of the nation and relate their significance to the development of American constitutional democracy.
Describe the relationship between the moral and political ideas of the Great Awakening and the development of revolutionary fervor.
Analyze the philosophy of government expressed in the Declaration of Independence, with an emphasis on government as a means of securing individual rights (e.g., key phrases such as "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights").
Analyze how the American Revolution affected other nations, especially France.
Describe the nation's blend of civic republicanism, classical liberal principles, and English parliamentary traditions.
8.2 Students analyze the political principles underlying the U.S. Constitution and compare the enumerated and implied powers of the federal government.
Discuss the significance of the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the May-flower Compact.
Analyze the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution and the success of each in implementing the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.
Evaluate the major debates that occurred during the development of the Constitution and their ultimate resolutions in such areas as shared power among institutions, divided state-federal power, slavery, the rights of individuals and states (later addressed by the addition of the Bill of Rights), and the status of American Indian nations under the commerce clause.
Describe the political philosophy underpinning the Constitution as specified in the Federalist Papers (authored by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay) and the role of such leaders as Madison, George Washington, Roger Sherman, Gouverneur Morris, and James Wilson in the writing and ratification of the Constitution.
Understand the significance of Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom as a forerunner of the First Amendment and the origins, purpose, and differing views of the founding fathers on the issue of the separation of church and state.
Enumerate the powers of government set forth in the Constitution and the fundamental liberties ensured by the Bill of Rights.
Describe the principles of federalism, dual sovereignty, separation of powers, checks and balances, the nature and purpose of majority rule, and the ways in which the American idea of constitutionalism preserves individual rights.
8.3 Students understand the foundation of the American political system and the ways in which citizens participate in it.
Analyze the principles and concepts codified in state constitutions between 1777 and 1781 that created the context out of which American political institutions and ideas developed.
Explain how the ordinances of 1785 and 1787 privatized national resources and transferred federally owned lands into private holdings, townships, and states.
Enumerate the advantages of a common market among the states as foreseen in and protected by the Constitution's clauses on interstate commerce, common coinage, and full-faith and credit.
Understand how the conflicts between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton resulted in the emergence of two political parties (e.g., view of foreign policy, Alien and Sedition Acts, economic policy, National Bank, funding and assumption of the revolutionary debt).
Know the significance of domestic resistance movements and ways in which the central government responded to such movements (e.g., Shays' Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebel-lion).
Describe the basic law-making process and how the Constitution provides numerous opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process and to monitor and influence government (e.g., function of elections, political parties, interest groups).
Understand the functions and responsibilities of a free press.
8.4 Students analyze the aspirations and ideals of the people of the new nation.
Describe the country's physical landscapes, political divisions, and territorial expansion during the terms of the first four presidents.
Explain the policy significance of famous speeches (e.g., Washington's Farewell Address, Jefferson's 1801 Inaugural Address, John Q. Adams's Fourth of July 1821 Address).
Analyze the rise of capitalism and the economic problems and conflicts that accompanied it (e.g., Jackson's opposition to the National Bank; early decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that reinforced the sanctity of contracts and a capitalist economic system of law).
Discuss daily life, including traditions in art, music, and literature, of early national America (e.g., through writings by Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper).
8.5 Students analyze U.S. foreign policy in the early Republic.
Understand the political and economic causes and consequences of the War of 1812 and know the major battles, leaders, and events that led to a final peace.
Know the changing boundaries of the United States and describe the relationships the country had with its neighbors (current Mexico and Canada) and Europe, including the influence of the Monroe Doctrine, and how those relationships influenced westward expansion and the Mexican-American War.
Outline the major treaties with American Indian nations during the administrations of the first four presidents and the varying outcomes of those treaties.
8.6 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced, with emphasis on the Northeast.
Discuss the influence of industrialization and technological developments on the region, including human modification of the landscape and how physical geography shaped human actions (e.g., growth of cities, deforestation, farming, mineral extraction).
Outline the physical obstacles to and the economic and political factors involved in building a network of roads, canals, and railroads (e.g., Henry Clay's American System).
List the reasons for the wave of immigration from Northern Europe to the United States and describe the growth in the number, size, and spatial arrangements of cities (e.g., Irish immigrants and the Great Irish Famine).
Study the lives of black Americans who gained freedom in the North and founded schools and churches to advance their rights and communities.
Trace the development of the American education system from its earliest roots, including the roles of religious and private schools and Horace Mann's campaign for free public education and its assimilating role in American culture.
Examine the women's suffrage movement (e.g., biographies, writings, and speeches of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony).
Identify common themes in American art as well as transcendentalism and individualism (e.g., writings about and by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).
8.7 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the South from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced.
Describe the development of the agrarian economy in the South, identify the locations of the cotton-producing states, and discuss the significance of cotton and the cotton gin.
Trace the origins and development of slavery; its effects on black Americans and on the region's political, social, religious, economic, and cultural development; and identify the strategies that were tried to both overturn and preserve it (e.g., through the writings and historical documents on Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey).
Examine the characteristics of white Southern society and how the physical environment influenced events and conditions prior to the Civil War.
Compare the lives of and opportunities for free blacks in the North with those of free blacks in the South.
8.8 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced.
Discuss the election of Andrew Jackson as president in 1828, the importance of Jacksonian democracy, and his actions as president (e.g., the spoils system, veto of the National Bank, policy of Indian removal, opposition to the Supreme Court).
Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g., the Lewis and Clark expedition, accounts of the removal of Indians, the Cherokees' "Trail of Tears," settlement of the Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades.
Describe the role of pioneer women and the new status that western women achieved (e.g., Laura Ingalls Wilder, Annie Bidwell; slave women gaining freedom in the West; Wyoming granting suffrage to women in 1869).
Examine the importance of the great rivers and the struggle over water rights.
Discuss Mexican settlements and their locations, cultural traditions, attitudes toward slavery, land-grant system, and economies.
Describe the Texas War for Independence and the Mexican-American War, including territorial settlements, the aftermath of the wars, and the effects the wars had on the lives of Americans, including Mexican Americans today.
8.9 Students analyze the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and to realize the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.
Describe the leaders of the movement (e.g., John Quincy Adams and his proposed constitutional amendment, John Brown and the armed resistance, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Weld, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass).
Discuss the abolition of slavery in early state constitutions.
Describe the significance of the Northwest Ordinance in education and in the banning of slavery in new states north of the Ohio River.
Discuss the importance of the slavery issue as raised by the annexation of Texas and California's admission to the union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850.
Analyze the significance of the States' Rights Doctrine, the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Wilmot Proviso (1846), the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay's role in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858).
Describe the lives of free blacks and the laws that limited their freedom and economic opportunities.
8.10 Students analyze the multiple causes, key events, and complex consequences of the Civil War.
Compare the conflicting interpretations of state and federal authority as emphasized in the speeches and writings of statesmen such as Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun.
Trace the boundaries constituting the North and the South, the geographical differences between the two regions, and the differences between agrarians and industrialists.
Identify the constitutional issues posed by the doctrine of nullification and secession and the earliest origins of that doctrine.
Discuss Abraham Lincoln's presidency and his significant writings and speeches and their relationship to the Declaration of Independence, such as his "House Divided" speech (1858), Gettysburg Address (1863), Emancipation Proclamation (1863), and inaugural addresses (1861 and 1865).
Study the views and lives of leaders (e.g., Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee) and soldiers on both sides of the war, including those of black soldiers and regiments.
Describe critical developments and events in the war, including the major battles, geographical advantages and obstacles, technological advances, and General Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
Explain how the war affected combatants, civilians, the physical environment, and future warfare.
8.11 Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction.
List the original aims of Reconstruction and describe its effects on the political and social structures of different regions.
Identify the push-pull factors in the movement of former slaves to the cities in the North and to the West and their differing experiences in those regions (e.g., the experiences of Buffalo Soldiers).
Understand the effects of the Freedmen's Bureau and the restrictions placed on the rights and opportunities of freedmen, including racial segregation and "Jim Crow" laws.
Trace the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and describe the Klan's effects.
Understand the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and analyze their connection to Reconstruction.
8.12 Students analyze the transformation of the American economy and the changing social and political conditions in the United States in response to the Indus-trial Revolution.
Trace patterns of agricultural and industrial development as they relate to climate, use of natural resources, markets, and trade and locate such development on a map.
Identify the reasons for the development of federal Indian policy and the wars with American Indians and their relationship to agricultural development and industrialization.
Explain how states and the federal government encouraged business expansion through tariffs, banking, land grants, and subsidies.
Discuss entrepreneurs, industrialists, and bankers in politics, commerce, and industry (e.g., Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Leland Stanford).
Examine the location and effects of urbanization, renewed immigration, and industrialization (e.g., the effects on social fabric of cities, wealth and economic opportunity, the conservation movement).
Discuss child labor, working conditions, and laissez-faire policies toward big business and examine the labor movement, including its leaders (e.g., Samuel Gompers), its demand for collective bargaining, and its strikes and protests over labor conditions.
Identify the new sources of large-scale immigration and the contributions of immigrants to the building of cities and the economy; explain the ways in which new social and economic patterns encouraged assimilation of newcomers into the mainstream amidst growing cultural diversity; and discuss the new wave of nativism.
Identify the characteristics and impact of Grangerism and Populism.
Name the significant inventors and their inventions and identify how they improved the quality of life (e.g., Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Orville and Wilbur Wright).
Last Modified: Friday, July 21, 2006
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