Course Description

Eighth Grade History students continue to build their skills through inquiry and exploration of ancient and medieval civilizations. An understanding of key social, political, economic, artistic, religious, and intellectual aspects of these societies through multiple lenses will allow students to deepen their thinking about and understanding of history and how it connects to our lives today. Primary source evidence will be analyzed for point‑of‑view and particular attention will be paid to finding the voices from the past that are seldom heard.

In Eighth Grade, the focus of writing continues to be on gleaning information from sources, analyzing the information and crafting an argument (research-based opinion). Students become more independent in their research and note taking as they learn to develop their own style of organizing information (with support) Most writing is research or text-based and in the form of short or long essays. Explicit instruction is given on the process to create and the structure of a critical essay and students are taught more formal citations (Chicago style bibliography and footnotes).