Eighth Grade

Eighth Grade English continues to build on the skills of analyzing and interpreting texts and writing across several genres that students focused on in Seventh Grade. Emphasis is placed on using discussion and writing to develop the higher order skills of critical, logical, reflective, metacognitive, and creative thinking. Over the course of the year, students practice their narrative, argument, and information writing skills through the following units: a literary essay, reading and writing poetry, a student podcast storytelling challenge, and a review of common grammar pitfalls.

Throughout the year, the students also read and discuss novels, plays, essays, short stories, and poetry with partners, in small groups, and as a whole class.  Literature also helps illuminate their thinking about justice and leadership. The study of sentence structure and grammatical conventions focuses on the errors that come up most frequently in students’ writing; students learn strategies and resources to help them become more independent in their ability to recognize and correct their own mistakes. The Eighth Grade class play is integrated into the curriculum. The year ends with a production of The Tempest or A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As students near the end of the year they prepare a graduation speech to share with their families and the entire school community before the last performance of their Shakespeare play.

The Eighth Grade science curriculum, “Humans and the Ocean: Science for Climate Justice,” is an exploration of physical science. As the course name suggests, students will learn about how they influence the ocean and how the ocean influences them. They will explore physics and chemistry concepts that will help them understand the world around them, specifically why the ocean is essential to life on Earth and how we can help protect this resource. Over the course of the year, students will study topics such as: volume and mass, atoms and molecules, molecular motion, bonding, ionic and covalent compounds, solubility and mixtures, polarity, chemical reactions, heat and temperature, bathymetry, ecosystem dynamics, weather, climate, and climate change. Students will learn about problems facing our ocean today, such as coral reef bleaching, ocean acidification, overfishing, by-catch, large dead zones, pollution, and rising sea surface temperatures. This course includes an in-depth look at the impacts of climate change, including how some communities are more likely than others to be severely impacted by climate change. At the end of the unit on climate change and its impacts, students will complete a climate justice action project.

Throughout the year, students gain a solid foundation of scientific knowledge, laboratory and field experience, and a deeper understanding of scientific investigations. Students regularly practice their science skills, including generating testable hypotheses, designing and carrying out experiments, displaying data in an organized manner, analyzing and drawing conclusions, and creating scientific arguments. In one project, students will use scientific tracking data available online to study a specific marine animal and apply what they learned about the ocean in class to explain the animal’s movements. In this manner, students apply their knowledge of chemical and physical processes to help them understand biological phenomena.

Children reach cognitive landmarks at different times throughout their adolescent years. Allowing for their individual differences, ongoing consideration is given to ensure that each student is in the correct math course. 

Skills developed throughout the earlier grades are combined with more advanced creative analysis and sequential thinking in the Junior High math courses. Math classes include investigations and presentations to the class for discussion. This continuum of rich experiences and carefully selected resources provides students with the deep understanding, the knowledge, and the skills of math to meet the challenges of high school math programs.  The two sections of Eighth Grade math prepare students for either Geometry or Algebra II during their Ninth Grade year.

Algebra 1B: This course covers the second half of a standard Algebra 1 course. The course begins with a review of all content in Algebra 1A such as solving equations, factoring, exponent laws, rational expressions, linear functions, and word problems. The new content includes solving rational equations, negative exponents, solving systems of equations, and solving inequalities. If time permits, the curriculum can also include absolute value inequalities, graphing linear inequalities and systems of linear inequalities, simplifying radicals and radical operations, solving radical equations, and solving quadratic equations using completing the square and the quadratic formula. 

Text: Algebra: Structure and Method (Book 1) – McDougal Littell.

Advanced Algebra: This course builds on the topics in the Algebra 1 curriculum, and also includes the application of Algebra to real world problems such as modeling with scatter plots and linear equations, linear programming, direct and inverse variation, and growth and decay with exponential functions. Students complete an in-depth study of the topics with more complex problems and applications that also include Algebra 2 material. The Algebra 2 concepts include factoring with substitution, factoring sum and differences of cubes, complex fractions, fractional exponents, synthetic division, solving systems with 3-variables, piecewise function with domain and range, transformations of functions, and exponential functions.

Texts: Algebra Structure and Method (Book 1) – McDougal Littell; Intermediate Algebra – Zuckerman; Discovering Algebra (An Investigative Approach) – Key Curriculum Press. 

Geometry: This class covers topics found in a standard introductory Geometry course, including parallel lines, quadrilaterals, congruent triangles, circles, areas of polygons, similar figures, right triangle trigonometry, areas and volumes of prisms and pyramids, and coordinate geometry proofs. Students learn through a variety of methods, including class discussion, group work, hands-on investigations, and GeoGebra explorations. Students complete real-life applications throughout the year, including an end-of-year culminating project. 

Text: Geometry – McDougal Littell

French: In the Eighth Grade French class, students continue to build listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills through a year-long study of Haiti. They begin the year with a review of vocabulary and structures from previous years, including grammar points such as the present tense. Students hone their language skills through personalized conversations and reading novels like Pirates Français des Caraïbes. While reading this novel, students learn about the history of French influence in North America, particularly the Caribbean. Although the students have been exposed to the past tenses via storytelling for a number of years, Eighth Grade students study the formation and usage of the passé composé and l’imparfait tenses. They will also read traditional French, Canadian and Haitian folktales in the past tense.

Art: In Eighth Grade Art, students create an introspective ‘vessel’ inspired by the work of artist Joseph Cornell. In this project students are encouraged to bring together meaningful works of original art and found objects in a mixed media assemblage. This ‘vessel’ is meant to artistically and symbolically encapsulate their experience as a Far Brook student. As inspiration, students explore historical movements in art such as Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Modernism and artists like Salvador Dali and Marcel Duchamp. As a compliment to their introspective art installation, students also include a written reflection describing their motivation and inspiration behind their masterpiece, and what the overall experience has been like for them.

Calligraphy: Eighth Graders study the techniques of calligraphy using authentic calligraphy tools. During their calligraphy mini, they select a Far Brook song or a quote from their graduation Shakespeare play, and over a series of weeks, they create their Far Brook graduation diplomas. 

Woodshop and Design Thinking: In Eighth Grade woodshop, students are taught simple framing and make custom frames which they design, cut, assemble, and stain to complement their handmade diplomas. They learn how to use a framing jig and how to cut mitered angles. The students design details to be etched into their wooden frames.

Handbells and Music Theory: In Eighth Grade Handbells each student plays two or three bells with one bell sounding one note. Students learn to set up the equipment and to care for the bells. Students use their cumulative knowledge to decode the music to create melodies together. This is the culmination of many years of music note-reading study where all aspects of rhythm, melody, harmony, expression, and form come into play. Students share performances in Morning Meeting. 

Group: In Group, students rehearse for the music that they sing during many musical events at Far Brook, including Thanksgiving Processional, Stabat Mater and Other Voices, and the Spring Concert.  Group is the school’s most advanced Upper School choral ensemble, and it includes students in Grades 6 to 8. The class provides the opportunity for students to apply the theoretical and literacy concepts they have learned thus far, through the instrument they all possess, the voice. Students learn a diverse selection of repertoire, from classical to folk to contemporary, which allows them to build community, understanding and empathy with each other and the world. The students also study vocal pedagogy and learn healthy singing habits that will sustain them in their singing life beyond Far Brook.

Cambiata and Trebles

Cambiata (formerly known as Boys Choir) is a changing voice choir for students in Grades 6-8. While most students in this ensemble are male identifying, AFAB (Assigned Female at Birth) students who identify as male or non-binary are also welcome to participate. Students learn about the vocal anatomy, and the skills and techniques they will need to navigate their vocal changes, while delving into appropriate and stimulating choral literature. 

The Trebles is a new group that will be rehearsing at the same time as Cambiata. The Trebles will delve deeper into treble works, exploring songs with more complex voicings, richer harmonies, and diverse textures. Students will strengthen their singing and advance their aural and sight-reading skills. While most students in this ensemble are female identifying, AMAB (Assigned Male at Birth) students who identify as female or non-binary, and desire to continue exploring their treble range are also welcome.

Orchestra: Students in Grades Fifth through Eighth join the Far Brook Orchestra once they reach a certain level of proficiency in their musical skills. The Orchestra plays in Morning Meeting and at the Spring Concert. Many students who participate in Orchestra also perform in the annual Recital Night in the spring.

Drama: Eighth Grade students perform in two distinct productions in their final year. The Eighth Grade play, which reflects the students’ study of American history and literature, draws from the work of classic American writers such as Mark Twain, Langston Hughes, Thornton Wilder, Eudora Welty, F. Scott Fitzgerald, O. Henry, Damon Runyon, James Thurber, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Eighth Graders return to the stage in June with their traditional graduation gift to the School: alternating productions of either A Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Tempest. Each is a full-length Shakespeare play that is supported by an incidental score by composer, arranger, and musical scholar, Far Brook’s Music Director Emeritus Edwin A. Finckel, and performed live by an ensemble of professional musicians. This final major production of each year, which is shared with the entire Far Brook community, is a performance whose integration, complexity, and grace is the pinnacle of our students’ growth through five years in Far Brook’s drama program, and from more than a decade of watching and participating in a full season of theater each year.

The Eighth Grade Technology mini begins with discussions and activities on the effect that digital media has on the human brain and on human social interactions. Following these digital citizenship considerations, students design their yearbook pages, using the online graphic design platform Canva. Eighth Graders carefully consider how they want to represent their time at Far Brook, how they want to be remembered, by selecting, editing, and adding meaningful photographs, quotes, and artwork to their pages. Through a series of tutorials, students learn a variety of digital design skills on the Canva website, such as page elements and balance, evocative font selection, asset management, and effective visual communication.

Sports: The Eighth Grade Sports program includes a combination of cooperative team-building activities, fitness, and strength development, and participation in a fall and spring interscholastic sport. Fall teams include boys’ soccer and girls’ field hockey. Spring teams include boys’ baseball and girls’ lacrosse. Co-ed fall cross country and spring track and field teams are options as well. Students continue to learn the rules of these games and practice more advanced skills and strategies of these sports. Peer leadership and learning to be a supportive teammate are reinforced during every practice and game. The cornerstone of the sports curriculum is character development through demonstrating good sportsmanship. During the sports seasons, students share Sports Reports in Morning Meeting reporting the team’s accomplishments. When not in season, the students participate in activities such as Pickleball, Ultimate Frisbee, Team Handball, Basketball and various fitness activities. 

Health & Wellness: The goal of the winter sports season is to foster an appreciation of fitness, sports, and living a healthy lifestyle. Activities may include flag football, basketball, pickleball, volleyball, and cardio kick-boxing. For approximately 10 weeks, students have one health and wellness lesson in place of a physical education class each week. This comprehensive curriculum has been developed to closely follow national health and sexuality curriculum standards. Each topic has been carefully selected to serve the developmental level of the students.

Advisory facilitates students’ development of caring, creative, and competent approaches toward academics and relationships. Mixed-grade groupings provide an opportunity for mentorship, leadership, and collaboration across the two Junior High grades. Advisors facilitate group conversations dealing with specific topics such as team building, character and integrity, healthy habits, diversity, organization, and transitions. Advisors also meet with students one-on-one and conference about academic and social areas.

Opportunity Period allows students to self-select into an activity of choice during the school day.  Recent options include Far Brook’s Upper School Orchestra, book club, School newspaper, art, chess, and knitting.

Progress Reports: Eighth graders work with their advisors to set academic and social goals for themselves. At the end of the first and second trimesters students lead their own academic conference for their parents, sharing a portfolio of their academic work that they have prepared with their advisor.

Adirondacks Trip: The Adirondacks Trip occurs early in the school year and plays an important role in the community-building aspect of the Junior High. The natural setting at Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center in the Adirondacks is ideal for 4 days of living and learning together. The Pok-O-MacCready staff provide an extensive outdoor program including hiking, canoeing, a ropes course, a sensory-awareness challenge course, forest and pond ecology, and wildlife studies. Additionally, students enjoy an evening of square dancing. 

Social Justice Trip: In alternating years, the Far Brook Junior High students travel to Atlanta, GA and Montgomery and Selma, AL to visit important landmarks and museums which illuminate a critical movement in our nation’s history.  Our newest trip offers our students an opportunity to deepen their learning of American history with a focus on the Civil Rights Movement. Itinerary highlights: Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, CNN Studio Tour, The Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice, The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, Rosa Parks Museum, Freedom Rides Museum, an HBCU college campus visit, and the Civil Rights Memorial Center. 

Cultural Immersion Trip: In alternating years, the entire Junior High and faculty go on a cultural immersion trip during late winter. During the 2022-23 school year the Junior High will travel to the province of Québec in Canada, visiting Montréal and Québec City. In preparation for this event, students study the history and culture of the area and have an opportunity to put their French knowledge to use. 

The cost of all trips is included in the Junior High activities fee.

Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade families have opportunities to enroll their students in After-School Programs. 

• Mentoring— Mentoring in the After-School Program is an opportunity for Junior High students to volunteer as helpers in the Lower School After-School Program classes (culinary arts, music, art,  sports, etc.). This gives our older students a chance to interact with and guide the younger students. The Junior High students can choose their own after school activity, such as Homework Club, and also spend time as a mentor for the younger students.
• Debate Club- An opportunity for Junior High and Middle School students to collaborate in building public speaking skills, building confidence in argumentation, and showing off their subject speciality knowledge in a team building environment.
• On Friday evenings in January and February, Ski Club offers all levels of skiers an opportunity to ski and snowboard on Shawnee Mountain.