Eighth Grade Curriculum
ALL CURRICULUM DOCUMENTS ARE ACTIVE DRAFTS
Literacy
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Prioritized Standards:
8.RL.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text
8.RI.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text
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Prioritized Standards:
8.RL.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts
8.RI.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts
8.L.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies
8.L.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings
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Prioritized Standards:
8.W.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others
8.W.7 Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration
8.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation
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Prioritized Standard:
8.W.1.A Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically
8.W.1.C Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence
8.W.1.E Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented
8.W.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content
8.W.2.A Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension
8.W.2.B Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples
8.W.2.C Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts
8.W.2.F Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented
8.W.3.A Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically
8.W.3.C Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence, signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another, and show the relationships among experiences and events
8.W.3.E Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events
8.W.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others
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Prioritized Standards:
8.W.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence
8.W.1.A Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically
8.W.1.B Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text
8.W.2.D Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic
8.W.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
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Prioritized Standards:
8.W.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences
8.W.3.A Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfold naturally and logically
8.W.3.B Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters
8.W.3.D Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events
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Prioritized Standards:
8.W.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in W1-3)
8.W.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences
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Prioritized Standards:
8.W.1.D Establish and maintain a formal style
8.W.2.E Establish and maintain a formal style
MSU.8.DR.1 Proofreading for tense, voice, and point of view with an emphasis on purposeful tense shifts, consistent voice, and appropriate point of view (e.g., finding voice errors and correcting them by asking if a consistent emotion is being communicated)
MSU.8.DR.2 Using revision tools when revising (e.g., using spell check and grammar check as a way of checking if any errors were overlooked)
MSU.8.DR.3 Checking for clarity (e.g., asking others to read a composition to determine if they found any part of it confusing)
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Prioritized Standards:
8.L.1.C Form and use verbs in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive mood
8.L.1.D Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood
8.L.3.A Use verbs in the active and passive voice and achieve particular effects (e.g., emphasizing the actor or the action; expressing uncertainty or describing a state contrary to fact)
MSU.8.LC.1 Exemplifying effective use of voice (e.g., explaining and exemplifying when it is appropriate to shift from active to passive voice)
MSU.8.LC.2 Demonstrating fluid use of all tense forms (e.g., explaining and exemplifying when it is appropriate to change tense)
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Prioritized Standards:
8.L.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing
8.L.2.A Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break
8.L.2.B Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission
MSU.8.S.1 Analyze unfamiliar words using spelling conventions (e.g., using the awareness that a suffix often begins with a vowel to analyze unfamiliar words)
MSU.8.LM.1 Correctly using italics and underlining (e.g., putting the titles of books in italics)
Social Studies
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Identity as a Citizen: What do I need to know about myself and the country to be a positively contributing citizen?
Migration & Adaptation
Vermont History Day
EQ dependent on NHD theme
Nonfiction Book Clubs
Geography of Civil Rights
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SS.7/8.SF - Know and understand the rights, responsibilities, and informed action associated with leadership and participation in healthy and sustainable systems and communities.
SS.7/8.CG - Explain the origins, functions, and structure of American Democracy with reference to the U.S. Constitution and other selected systems of government, including the powers and limits of those structures.
SS.7/8.S - Evaluate sustainable approaches or solutions to current economic issues in terms of benefits and costs to the well-being of different groups and society.
SS.7/8.G - Explain how the physical and human characteristics of places and regions are connected to human identities and cultures.
SS.7/8.H - Use the inquiry process to analyze individuals, groups, events, and eras in order to evaluate why they are seen as historically significant.
SS.7/8.H - Use the inquiry process to analyze individuals, groups, events, and eras in order to evaluate why they are seen as historically significant.
SS.7/8.G - Explain how the physical and human characteristics of places and regions are connected to human identities and cultures.
SS.7/8.G - Explain how the physical and human characteristics of places and regions are connected to human identities and cultures.
SS.7/8.SJ - Critically examine perspectives, issues, institutions, and events to find patterns of inequity, bigotry or discrimination, and explore possible solutions
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Identity: What do I need to know about myself to lead a full, happy life?
Government: What is the purpose of government?
Vermont History Day
EQ dependent on NHD theme
Revolutions
Propaganda
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SS.7/8.SJ - Critically examine perspectives, issues, institutions, and events to find patterns of inequity, bigotry or discrimination, and explore possible solutions.
SS.7/8.G - Explain how the physical and human characteristics of places and regions are connected to human identities and cultures.
SS.7/8.CG - Explain the origins, functions, and structure of American Democracy with reference to the U.S. Constitution and other selected systems of government, including the powers and limits of those structures.
SS.7/8.S - Evaluate sustainable approaches or solutions to current economic issues in terms of benefits and costs to the well-being of different groups and society.
SS.7/8.H - Use the inquiry process to analyze individuals, groups, events, and eras in order to evaluate why they are seen as historically significant.
SS.7/8.H - Use the inquiry process to analyze individuals, groups, events, and eras in order to evaluate why they are seen as historically significant.
SS.7/8.S - Evaluate sustainable approaches or solutions to current economic issues in terms of benefits and costs to the well-being of different groups and society.
SS.7/8.SJ - Critically examine perspectives, issues, institutions, and events to find patterns of inequity, bigotry or discrimination, and explore possible solutions.
Science
Math
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Prioritized Standards:
8.NS.A.1 Know that numbers that are not rational are called irrational. Understand informally that every number has a decimal expansion; for rational numbers show that the decimal expansion repeats eventually, and convert a decimal expansion which repeats eventually into a rational number.
8.NS.A.2 Use rational approximations of irrational numbers to compare the size of irrational numbers, locate them approximately on a number line diagram, and estimate the value of expressions (e.g., π^2)
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Proficiency Scale
Prioritized Standards:
8.EE.A.1 Know and apply the properties of integer exponents to generate equivalent numerical expressions.
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Prioritized Standards:
8.EE.A.2 Use square root and cube root symbols to represent solutions to equations of the form x^2 = p and x^3 = p, where p is a positive rational number. Evaluate square roots of small perfect squares and cube roots of small perfect cubes. Know that √2 is irrational.
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Prioritized Standards:
*8.EE.A.3 Use numbers expressed in the form of a single digit times an integer power of 10 to estimate very large or very small quantities, and to express how many times as much one is than the other.
*8.EE.A.4 Perform operations with numbers expressed in scientific notation, including problems where both decimal and scientific notation are used. Use scientific notation and choose units of appropriate size for measurements of very large or very small quantities (e.g., use millimeters per year for seafloor spreading). Interpret scientific notation that has been generated by technology.
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Prioritized Standards:
*8.EE.B.5 Graph proportional relationships, interpreting the unit rate as the slope of the graph. Compare two different proportional relationships represented in different ways.
8.EE.B.6 Use similar triangles to explain why the slope m is the same between any two distinct points on a non-vertical line in the coordinate plane; derive the equation y = mx for a line through the origin and the equation y = mx + b for a line intercepting the vertical axis at b.
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Prioritized Standards:
8.EE.C.7 Solve linear equations in one variable. (PLUS the 2 sub-standards)
8.EE.C.8 Analyze and solve pairs of simultaneous linear equations. (PLUS the 3 sub-standards)
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Prioritized Standards:
*8.F.A.1 Understand that a function is a rule that assigns to each input exactly one output. The graph of a function is the set of ordered pairs consisting of an input and the corresponding output.
8.F.A.3 Interpret the equation y = mx + b as defining a linear function, whose graph is a straight line; give examples of functions that are not linear.
*8.F.B.5 Describe qualitatively the functional relationship between two quantities by analyzing a graph (e.g., where the function is increasing or decreasing, linear or nonlinear). Sketch a graph that exhibits the qualitative features of a function that has been described verbally.
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Prioritized Standards:
*8.F.A.2 Compare properties of two functions each represented in a different way (algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions).
8.F.B.4 Construct a function to model a linear relationship between two quantities. Determine the rate of change and initial value of the function from a description of a relationship or from two (x, y) values, including reading these from a table or from a graph. Interpret the rate of change and initial value of a linear function in terms of the situation it models, and in terms of its graph or a table of values
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Prioritized Standards:
*8.G.A.1 Verify experimentally the properties of rotations, reflections, and translations (PLUS 3 sub-standards)
8.G.A.2 Understand that a two-dimensional figure is congruent to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections, and translations; given two congruent figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the congruence between them.
*8.G.A.3 Describe the effect of dilations, translations, rotations, and reflections on two-dimensional figures using coordinates.
*8.G.A.4 Understand that a two-dimensional figure is similar to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections, translations, and dilations; given two similar two dimensional figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the similarity between them.
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Prioritized Standards:
8.G.A.5 Use informal arguments to establish facts about the angle sum and exterior angle of triangles, about the angles created when parallel lines are cut by a transversal, and the angle-angle criterion for similarity of triangles
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Prioritized Standards:
*8.G.B.6 Explain a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem and its converse.
8.G.B.7 Apply the Pythagorean Theorem to determine unknown side lengths in right triangles in real-world and mathematical problems in two and three dimensions.
*8.G.B.8 Apply the Pythagorean Theorem to find the distance between two points in a coordinate system.
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Prioritized Standards:
8.SP.A.4 Understand that patterns of association can also be seen in bivariate categorical data by displaying frequencies and relative frequencies in a two-way table. Construct and interpret a two-way table summarizing data on two categorical variables collected from the same subjects. Use relative frequencies calculated for rows or columns to describe possible association between the two variables.
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Prioritized Standards:
*8.SP.A.1 Construct and interpret scatter plots for bivariate measurement data to investigate patterns of association between two quantities. Describe patterns such as clustering, outliers, positive or negative association, linear association, and nonlinear association.
*8.SP.A.2 Know that straight lines are widely used to model relationships between two quantitative variables. For scatter plots that suggest a linear association, informally fit a straight line, and informally assess the model fit by judging the closeness of the data points to the line
*8.SP.A.3 Use the equation of a linear model to solve problems in the context of bivariate measurement data, interpreting the slope and intercept.