• Read, understand, and analyze a wide variety of fiction and non fiction texts

• Use reading comprehension strategies to deepen their understanding of texts

• Identify and analyze literary elements in the genres of poetry, fiction, and drama

• Participate actively and thoughtfully in class discussions by posing questions, making contributions, and listening to the ideas of others

• Give oral presentations that are organized, coherent, and demonstrate an awareness of audience

• Understand and acquire new vocabulary by using context clues as well as knowledge of Greek and Latin roots

• Use the writing process, including drafting, revising, editing, and publishing, to produce writing that demonstrates a sense of audience, purpose, and craft

• Produce a variety of written compositions that demonstrate the development of voice, clear focus, coherent organization, and sufficient detail (including stories, scripts, poems, research reports, as well as narrative and analytical essays)

• Use the conventions of Standard English in writing, revising, and editing

Social Studies

• Articulate the importance of our founding documents and their impact on America in both the past and present

• Explain, analyze, and evaluate how social, political, cultural, geographic and economic differences led to sectional conflicts resulting in the Civil War and Reconstruction

• Explain and analyze the contributions of key groups of people, including Africans, Irish, Chinese, in the building of America

• Critically evaluate different perspectives of the same historical events

• Distinguish historical fact from opinion

• Identify long-term and short-term cause and effect relationships

• Locate and interpret primary source materials

• Research a topic in depth using a variety of resources, including print and internet

Visual Arts

• Use a variety of media, materials, and techniques to create art
• Observe the world in inventive ways
• Understand art within historical and cultural context
• Describe the elements and principles of design
• Draft, revise, polish, and exhibit work
• Respond critically to artwork
• Know that art may serve many purposes
• Recognize the roles of artists in communities
• See the effects of style
• Use technology in art
• Make connections with between visual art and other areas of learning

Mathematics

Number Sense

• Apply the rules of powers and roots to the solution of problems, and extend the Order of Operations to include positive integer exponents and square roots

Algebra

• Translate real life situations into linear equations and inequalities ; use various methods to solve these equations, including graphing, combining equations, and substitution
• Construct tables, graphs, and symbolic equations that represent linear relationships
• Represent exponential growth and decay with tables, graphs, words and symbols (i.e. exponents and scientific notation)
• Solve quadratic functions with tables, graphs, factoring, and the quadratic formula
• Analyze various kinds of equations to identify the patterns of change and represent this information in tables and graphs

Measurement and Geometry

• Determine when lines are parallel or perpendicular by looking at patterns in their graphs and equations and at the coordinate points that satisfy their equations

• Use and apply geometric properties of plane figures, including congruence and the Pythagorean Theorem to solve a variety of problems

Data, Statistics, and Probability

• Use the process of statistical investigation to represent, find measures, and solve problems involving statistical data
• Determine the experimental and theoretical probability of simple events

Science

Physical Science

Forces and Motion

• the motion of an object can be described by its position, direction, and speed;
• when forces are balanced, motion does not change; when they are unbalanced, forces transfer energy to or from an object causing change in motion; and
• Energy exists in different interchangeable forms including mechanical (kinetic and potential), heat, chemical, electromagnetic, and nuclear.

Earth Science

Astronomy

• Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable motion, and these motions explain such phenomena as the day, year, phases of the moon, eclipses and seasons;
• Gravity is a theory that helps to explain the motion and formation of objects in the universe;
• Our sun, which is a medium-sized star, is one star of billions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, which is one of billions of galaxies in the universe

Life Science

Genetics and Evolution

• Heredity is the passage of genetic instructions in genes from parents to offspring;
• all living things reproduce, asexually or sexually, which enables the continuation of species; and
• Evolution is a process of change in a population of living things over time, driven by the process of natural selection.