The eighth grade language arts program aims to provide students with the necessary tools to transition smoothly to ninth grade. Reading comprehension, in both French and English, includes reading informational materials: such as newspapers, magazines, online information, selected texts, and genres from classical and contemporary literature. Students progress further in acquisition of analytical and writing skills in responding, at greater length, to literature studied. Written work is expected to be clearly presented, using appropriate language and grammar, and the content to be well researched and documented. Examples of literature studied are; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee; Antigone, by Jean Anouilh, and extracts from Maupassant, Gautier, and Villiers de L’Isle Adam. Expectations are that students will have a command of standard conventions in both the written and spoken language, in French and English, and have been exposed to a broad range of literature. In Spanish, 8th grade students will achieve a proficiency level that prepares them for admission into Spanish Level 1 or 2, in an American high school or its equivalent.
Students continue to develop good research and report writing skills in both English and French. American Social Studies is devoted to the history and geography of the United States, from the founding of the nation until the outbreak of World War I. The curriculum addresses the principles underlying the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the development of the political system; periods of time also studied include the abolition of slavery, the American Civil War, and the influences of the Industrial Revolution. The French curriculum focuses on related themes in France and Europe from the 18th century on, from the French perspective. The curriculum encompasses the Enlightenment in Europe, the French Revolution, the rise and fall of the French empire under Napoleon, the Industrial Age, Nationalism, and Europe in 1914.
In eighth grade the students are well prepared for ninth grade mathematics for whichever school to which they transition. A mock exam of the Brevet des colleges, a French exam taken at the end of 9th grade is done at the end of 8th grade. Algebra and Geometry comprise a greater part of the curriculum. Areas of study are:
The eighth grade science curriculum synthesizes the physics content of the French and American programs. Areas covered include: composition of air; molecular model – gas, solid, liquid etc.; combustion; atoms, molecules; periodic table. Chemistry, earth, and life science are a part of the French curriculum and students study acids, bases, and solutions; electricity: resistance, voltage and intensity laws; light: optics – colors and images, light passing through a lens; the speed of light.
