Students in 6th through 8th grades at St. Alphonsus learn in a dynamic and engaging environment designed to prepare them to be the leaders of tomorrow.  We use strong curriculum standards with technologies-based enhancements to engage their minds, cultivate critical thinking skills, and prepare them for real life. 

General Course Content

Language Arts

6th Grade Language Arts:

• Vocabulary & linguistics
• Tenets of academic writing, including demonstrative & personal essays
• Parts of speech & sentence type and structure
• Grammar & mechanics, including noun ID & usage, verb ID & usage, using active voice, adjective & adverb ID & usage, comparative & superlative forms, prepositional phrase ID & usage, sentence combining, capitalization, and various other concepts

 

7th Grade Language Arts:

• Vocabulary & linguistics
• Tenets of academic writing, including multi-page essays based on fairly complex pieces of literature
• Persuasive writing, including techniques such as ethos, pathos & logos
• In-text citations & contextual analysis writing
• Parts of speech review with an emphasis on usage
• Diagramming of sentences using form/function format
• Focus on consistent punctuation, capitalization, word choice, precision & diction

 

8th Grade Language Arts:

• Vocabulary & linguistics, including pre-SAT words
• Review of tenets of academic writing, including multi-page essays based on advanced literature
• Critical analysis essays, with emphasis on sustaining a thesis and in-text citations & MLA format
• Satire writing, with emphasis on different forms of verbal irony & how to encode messages in creative writing
• Parts of speech review with an emphasis on usage
• Diagramming of sentences using form/function format
• Focus on consistent punctuation, capitalization, word choice, precision & diction
• Focus on verbs:  mood, voice & tense
• Focus on verbals:  gerunds, participles & infinitives
• Focus on adjectivals & adverbials
• Focus on conjunctions, especially subordinating conjunctions & conjunctive advers
• Focus on editing for clarity

Literature

• Students are taught how to read according to the cognitive response model
• Reading Strategies, including inferencing, visualizing, and making connections
• Genre & novel studies
• Identification, analysis and evaluation of literary devices, including contextual analysis of genre, symbolism, & tone
• Claim/Evidence/Rational style of essay writing
• Comparative analysis
• All reading done in class is specifically tied to writing & speaking. In this way, our language arts & literature classes are two parts of a broader English class, with assessments designed to cover both language arts & literature standards

Mathematics

6th Grade Math:

• Operations with fractions & decimals
• Writing & solving simple equations & inequalities
• Area of polygons, surface area, & volume of prisms
• Integers and the Coordinate Plane
• Statistics & data displays

 

7th Grade Math:

• Operations with integers & rational numbers
• Writing and solving complex equations & inequalities
• Ratios, proportions, & percents
• Angles, triangles, quadrilaterals, & circles
• Surface area and volume of prisms & pyramids
• Probability & statistics

 

8th Grade Math:

• Geometry - transformations, parallel lines & transversals, similarity, volume of cylinders, cones & spheres
• Graphing & writing linear equations & functions
• Solving systems of linear equations
• The Pythagorean Theorem
• Properties of exponents & roots
• Operations with scientific notation
• Data analysis & displays

Science

6th Grade Science:

Earth Science, including:

• Study of plate tectonics, minerals, and rocks
• History of the Earth
• Weather in the atmosphere

 

7th Grade Science:

Physical Science, including:

• Electricity & magnetism
• Atoms
  
• Periodic Table of Elements
• Chemical Reactions
• Forces & Motion

 

8th Grade Science:

Life Science, including:

• Human Body Systems
• Reproduction & growth
• Ecosystems
• Genes & heredity

Social Studies

6th Grade Social Studies:

World Civilizations with an emphasis on ancient civilizations, including:

• Kingdoms of the Nile
• Ancient India
• Ancient China
• Ancient Greece
• Ancient Rome
• early African civilizations
• the early Americas

The rise of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, early Christianity, and Islam

The Middle Ages & the Renaissance

 

7th Grade Social Studies:

World History, including:

• World War I
• World War II
• The Cold War
• End of the 20th Century

 

8th Grade Social Studies:

Government & Civics, including:

• The Constitution
• Federalism
• Congress
• The Presidency & the Executive Branch
• Civil Rights
• State & Local Governments

Religion

• Comprehension & analysis of the Creed
• Old Testament & the Covenants, New Testament & Jesus' life, and the History of the Church
• Encourages participation in the diverse ministries and social teachings of the Church
• Discussion of the role of Scripture and symbols of the Sacraments in Catholic life
• Encourages the ability to choose right from wrong and demonstrate moral understandings