Welcome to Eighth Grade!

Career and Technical Education (CTE):
Students explore academic and career pathways, develop goal-setting and decision-making skills, and learn strategies for personal responsibility, time management, and effective communication. Students may also choose elective courses in digital literacy, journalism, coding, peer tutoring, technology, and family and consumer sciences.

Computer Science:
Students collect and exchange data, evaluate data transmission protocols, and analyze the effects of changing variables in simulations. They also create reusable code, incorporate existing resources, and use control structures to develop and refine programs.

English Language Arts:
Seventh grade students explore academic and career pathways, develop goal-setting and decision-making skills, and learn strategies for personal responsibility, time management, and effective communication. Students may also choose elective courses in digital literacy, journalism, coding, peer tutoring, technology, and family and consumer sciences.

Fine Arts:
Students create original artwork with personal meaning, refine their work through reflection and persistence, present their art by evaluating preparation methods, and connect their artistic process to individual experiences and broader contexts.

Health Education:
Students learn to set health goals, make decisions, and communicate personal boundaries. They also explore mental health, stress management, and disease prevention. Finally, they study substance abuse, nutrition, human development, reproductive health, and healthy relationships.

Library:
Students develop lifelong media literacy skills. They practice personal and academic research by defining research tasks, using effective information-seeking strategies, and synthesizing and evaluating their findings.

Mathematics:
Students apply and use operations with rational numbers, understand ratio concepts and apply proportional reasoning, simplify expressions and solve equations, and represent and analyze mathematical relationships.

Music and Performing Arts:
Students create and perform original works in music, theatre, and dance. They develop technical skills and connect their experiences to history, culture, personal development, and societal issues.

Physical Education:
Students develop motor skills through games, sports, and dance while learning to assess and improve their fitness in areas like strength, endurance, and flexibility. They also practice teamwork, demonstrate respect for others, and understand the connection between physical activity and nutrition. Students engage in activities that promote enjoyment, social interaction, and personal growth.

Science:
Students use models, investigations, and data analysis to explore physical and life systems. Specifically, they examine atoms and molecules, interactions between systems, energy transfer, and natural resources.

Social Studies:
Students analyze primary sources to learn about American Indian life before European exploration, the origins of slavery, and urban-rural differences. They also study the American Revolution, the Constitution, democratic expansion, conflicts during American expansion, and the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on modern America.

 

USBE PARENT GUIDE - Eighth grade     UTAH CORE STANDARDS

 

 

Career and Technical Education: 

• Help your child create a high school course plan that aligns with their future career goals.
• Host a dinner and invite friends who work in various fields to share the best and most challenging parts of their jobs.

English Language Arts:

• Ensure your child can access many different kinds of reading material at home. Read some of the same articles or books together and discuss what you read.
• Encourage your child to write for practical and useful purposes, like helping create a weekly grocery shopping list or writing a get-well-soon card to a friend.

Fine Arts:

• Create a mural together using oversized butcher paper, markers, and paint.
• Encourage your child to experiment with various drawing, painting, and coloring styles. 

Health Education:

• Discuss the importance of setting and accepting others’ boundaries. Discuss factors that contribute to one’s boundaries, such as family values and religion.
• Talk with your child about the importance of abstaining from sexual activity and how to report harassment or sexual assault.

Mathematics: 

• Encourage mathematical success through developing flexibility with numbers (for example, number talks, asking in-the-moment mental mathematical questions— how much would this 20% discount be?).
• Encourage a growth mindset by understanding that all students have unlimited mathematical potential and that mathematical achievement involves working hard and taking risks.

Physical Education:

• Practice and play various sports or physical activities, including team sports, together.
• Maintain an exercise and nutrition plan at home that encourages a healthy and active lifestyle.

Music and Performing Arts

• Use a smartphone to make a film piece from a storybook.
• Organize neighborhood field trips to local cultural performances.

Science: 

• Investigate how soaking an object in vinegar affects hard water buildup. Ask questions. What causes hard water to build up? Why does vinegar affect it?
• Have a cannonball splash competition and look for patterns to see what affects the splash size most. You can also test what aspects of rocks falling into the water cause the biggest splash.

Social Studies:

• Discuss what your child is learning in class. Help them practice critical thinking by asking questions about their thoughts on historical and civic issues and give them opportunities to listen thoughtfully to differing perspectives.
• Discuss the values that sustain America’s democratic republic, such as open-mindedness, engagement, honesty, problem-solving, responsibility, diligence, resilience, empathy, self-control, and cooperation. What does practicing these values look like for your family?