Bowman 8th Grade Raiders

Patriots and Rangers

Each team consists of about 125 students with a core subject teacher from English, American history, science, math and an additional teacher from reading or special education. Students engage in many special projects through their studies on special topics such as the Holocaust and U.S. wars.

8th Grade Language Arts Syllabus

Eighth grade language arts is a study of literature genres, various modes of writing, literary analysis, language structure, reading, speaking, listening, viewing, and representing. This course focuses on short stories, novels, poetry, author studies, and community involvement.

Developing Insights
The lessons in this unit teach students a deeper understanding of themes in literature and in life. As students read the novel Holes, emphasis is placed on basic elements of literature such as characterization, analogies, parallelism, irony, themes, and foreshadowing. Students will complete an author study of Poe, which focuses on figurative language, mood, and tone. Also, by reading various short stories and drama, viewing films, and writing story starters, students will assess literary and film techniques. Students will generate several compositions including reading responses and a literary analysis of characters and themes. For the Culminating Assessment students will produce a creative children’s book or a young adult’s book and apply the literary techniques studied. The main language structure emphasis is on prepositions, compound/complex sentences, fragments, run-ons, and combining sentences. Lessons on usage include correct use of capitalization, commas, quotation marks, plurals possessives, irregular verbs, and tense shift.

Finding My Voice
The lessons in this unit focus on developing a student’s voice and style through reading published authors as well as personal writing. Students will also view and analyze an artist’s voice. Activities include interpreting and analyzing various poems and short stories with emphasis on the authors’ voices and styles. Students will write various reading responses, diary/ journal entries, poetry, and personal essays. The Culminating Assessment is a student-produced anthology of personal writing. The language structure emphasis is subject/verb agreement, linking verbs, sentence completers, and adjective/adverb usage.

Making a Difference
The unit study requires students to research and analyze social issues found in various contemporary novels, music, film, art, current events, etc. Students will participate in literature circles and choose a book to read from the following books: Forbidden City, The Giver, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Nothing But the Truth, and Hope Was Here. For the Culminating Assessment students will create a multi-media presentation that incorporates the social issue in their novel, their research, and other media pieces. From this study students will determine how they can make a positive impact in society.

8th Grade U.S. History Syllabus

Eighth grade U.S. history is a study of the United States through 1877. The course focuses on colonization, the American Revolution, the formation and structure of U.S. government, the New Republic, Manifest Destiny and an expanding nation, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.

Colonization
The lessons in this unit are organized to help students understand the effects of geography on the development of colonial America. The main skill focus is making generalizations. Students analyze the reasons for exploration and the importance of political, economic, and social factors upon the formation of the thirteen colonies. In the Culminating Assessment Plan (CAP) students participate in a computer simulation that compares early American colonization to space colonization. They then work in groups to create and perform a three-minute commercial that will give the audience factual information about life in the colonies.

American Revolution
The lessons in this unit are organized to help the students to understand what political, economic, and social factors led to the American Revolution and how the self-determination of the colonists led to victory. The Culminating Assessment Plan (CAP) for this unit is a free-response essay that requires the student to write on the causes, significant people, and main events of the American Revolution. The students follow the district guidelines for writing a box outline, rough draft, ratiocination, and a final draft for grading.

Forging a New Government
The lessons in this unit are organized to help students understand the principles of the U.S. Constitution and the individual rights, freedoms, and responsibilities created by the Founding Fathers. The Culminating Assessment Plan (CAP) for this unit is a PowerPoint that integrates technology skills with the content in a student presentation on the principles and structure of the U. S. Constitution. The PowerPoint is constructed by students working in groups or individually.

New Republic
The lessons in this unit are organized to help students understand the challenges faced by the new republic during the presidencies of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. The Culminating Assessment Plan (CAP) for this unit is a document-based essay on the leadership role of the earliest presidents. This is an opportunity for the students to participate in the process of writing a document-based essay as a practice before the document-based essay is administered for the district semester exam.

An Expanding Nation
In this unit the content focus is threefold: analyzing westward expansion and its effect on the political, economic, and social development of the nation; analyzing how political, economic and social factors led to the growth of sectionalism and the Civil War; and identifying the impact of science and technology on the development of the U.S. The culminating assessment for the unit is a scrapbook project that calls for students to assume characters who go west during the era of Manifest Destiny. The finished project has students record their experiences during westward expansion in written and visual forms.

Civil War and Reconstruction
The lessons in this unit are organized to help students understand the causes of
the Civil War, the major events of the war, and the significance of the Thirteenth,
Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. Students develop an understanding of the
political dilemmas and the compromises of the times. By probing deeply into the sectional
differences, students are challenged with analytical thought through primary source document analysis. Later, the documents are used as a part of the document-based essay on the final exam. In the Culminating Assessment Plan (CAP) students combine the skills of communication, information literacy and inter/intrapersonal by working in small groups to make a presentation about a selected Civil War topic

Eighth Grade Science Syllabus

Eighth grade science is an integrated course of earth and physical concepts. The course is taught through the context of examining characteristics of Earth and space from “the outside in.” Laboratory experiences, research and investigations will be major components of the learning environment. Students will experience science as a way of learning about the natural world and realize that information gained through science is always changing. Interactions and relationships are demonstrated in each unit resulting in student learning beyond the facts of science.

Interactions Among Systems
Activities in this unit focus on the structure and function of Earth and the Universe. In the culminating assessment, the students will research the effects of ultraviolet light and create a graphic organizer summarizing their results. They will also design an experiment to determine the strength of various sunscreens.

Dynamic Earth
Students will complete a variety of learning experiences to explore the connections between Earth’s geology and the use and conservation of natural resources. At the conclusion of the unit, students analyze a fossil dig site in Big Bend National Park, develop a profile map and a brief overview of the area, and design a lab procedure.

8th Grade Mathematics Course Syllabus

Eighth Grade Mathematics includes a study of the concepts and skills associated with basic algebra; the Pythagorean Theorem, slope, area and irrational numbers. Additional topics include exponential growth, quadratic growth, equivalent expressions, and linear relationships expressed in words, graphs, symbols, tables and solutions of linear equations. Emphasis is placed on acquiring these skills embedded in a problem solving experience.

Linear Relationships
In this unit from Moving Straight Ahead students study algebra and investigate
linear relationships through the investigation of real-world contexts. A
relationship is linear if there is a constant rate of change between the two
variables. Each time there is a change in x, there is a constant change in y. The
unit builds on the idea of rate of change that was introduced in Algebraic
Relationships (Variables and Patterns).

Symmetry and Transformations
The purpose of this unit is to stimulate and sharpen students’ awareness of
symmetry and to begin to develop their understanding of the underlying
mathematics. In this book, Kaleidoscopes, Hubcaps, and Mirrors, students will
explore congruence, symmetry, and transformation.

} Representing Relationships
The focus of this unit is mathematical models: what they are, how they
are constructed, and what they enable us to do. Just as a designer
might construct a model of building and then tinker with the components
to see what relationships are affected by changing certain variables and what
outcomes are pleasing and functional, a mathematician can construct an
algebraic model to represent a situation. By choosing appropriate variables,
collecting and graphing data, and manipulating the variables to see how
relationships are affected, mathematicians can predict outcomes. Say It With
Symbols is the text for this unit.

Data and Statistics
This unit, Samples and Populations, helps students to make connections
between probability, a tool for understanding sampling issues in statistics, and
statistics, a tool for representing and analyzing data. The unit reviews statistics
concepts introduced in the sixth grade. Students begin with an introduction to
box-and-whiskers plots as a tool for comparing data sets. In the remaining
investigations, students explore what samples are and how they are related to
populations, ways to select samples, and the use of random samples. Issues of
representatives and bias in data analysis are also addressed.

The Pythagorean Theorem
In Looking for Pythagoras, students explore two important new ideas: the
Pythagorean Theorem and irrational numbers. In the process of solving the
problems in this unit, students also review and make connections among the
concepts of area, distance, slope, and rational numbers.

Algebraic Relationships
Say It with Symbols focuses on writing and interpreting symbolic expressions. As students work to make sense of symbolic expressions and to evaluate expressions for specific values of the variables, they encounter order of operations. They learn that different ways of reasoning about a situation can lead to different, yet equivalent, expressions. Students can verify the equivalence of expressions by checking that the related graphs and tables are similar. Students also learn to use the distributive and commutative properties to transform
expressions into equivalent forms. Finally, students apply their knowledge of equivalent expressions to solve linear equations and simple quadratic equations.

Eighth Grade Power Reading Syllabus

Power Reading 8 is a developmental reading course designed to bring students to grade level in reading mastery. The students learn to recognize text types and apply a variety of reading comprehension strategies. Learning to read expository text is the primary focus as students are prepared for real-life literacy challenges. Students also have the opportunity to self-select books for independent reading.

Developing Insights
Students will research information and read a variety of selections, including a Newbery-winning novel, set in the Era of the Great Depression. As the learners read literature representing various genres, they will analyze the various elements, such as point of view, theme, tone and conflict. Students will complete a reading assessment that gives an evaluation of their reading fluency skills. They will learn how to take notes from both the spoken word and the printed page. Vocabulary study will include practice in identifying idioms, multi-meaning words, and the application of context clues and structural analysis.

Understanding Structure
Students will learn how to identify text structures in order to apply appropriate reading strategies, particularly when reading for information. Learners will learn to both recognize different text organizational schemes as well as write samples of the various patterns. Students will build further comprehension skills by reading a variety of selections connected by the common theme of sports. They will also focus on the use of prefixes and suffixes in changing word meaning.

Reflection and Understanding
Students will practice a myriad of skills in real-life settings as they endeavor to move to mastery level with the basic skills of literacy. They will read fiction, nonfiction and poetry as they analyze how the elements of literature help unlock the meaning of unfamiliar texts. They will learn how to use appropriate graphic organizers to enhance their comprehension of challenging texts. Students will practice and perfect their note-taking and learn how to read and interpret various types of charts and graphics that frequently appear in everyday reading situations.