Middle School English & Social Studies
English Grades 7-8
Reading Students will read a variety of grade-level complex text with accuracy, automaticity, appropriate rate, and meaningful expression in successive readings to support comprehension. They will monitor while reading to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding when necessary. They will respond to text through discussion and/or writing, draw on several pieces of evidence from grade-level complex texts to support claims, conclusions, and inferences, including quoting or paraphrasing from texts accurately and tracing where relevant evidence is located. Vocabulary Students will regularly engage in reading a series of conceptually related texts organized around topics of study to build knowledge and vocabulary. Students will apply knowledge of Greek and Latin roots and affixes to predict the meaning of unfamiliar words. They will use the relationship between particular words, including synonyms, antonyms, and analogies to better understand each word. Students will analyze the construction and meaning of figurative language, including simile, hyperbole, metaphor, and personification. Students will use newly learned words and phrases in multiple contexts, including in students’ discussions and speaking and writing activities. Writing Students will write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or to alter an existing text, using a variety of precise words and phrases and transitional words to develop the characters, convey sequence, and signal shifts from one timeframe or setting to another. They will write expository texts to examine a topic or concept that develops the focus with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, or other information from multiple credible sources, using structures and patterns (e.g., description, enumeration, classification, comparison, problem-solution, or cause-effect) to clarify relationships among ideas. They will write persuasively supporting a well-defined point of view with appropriate claims, relevant evidence, and clear reasoning that are logically grouped. They will write reflectively in response to reading to demonstrate thinking with details, examples, and other evidence from the text(s). Research Students will formulate questions about a research topic, broadening or narrowing the inquiry as necessary. They will collect, organize, and synthesize information from multiple sources using various notetaking formats. They will evaluate and analyze the relevance, validity, and credibility of each source (primary, secondary, digital, and print), determining what information to include and exclude. Students will quote, summarize, and paraphrase research findings from primary and secondary sources, avoiding plagiarism by using own words and following ethical and legal guidelines. They will give credit for information quoted or paraphrased, using standard citations (e.g., author, article title and webpage, and publication date). Social Studies Geography & Global Issues Students will study the world’s peoples, places, and environments, with an emphasis on world regions. The knowledge, skills, and perspectives of the course are centered on the world’s peoples and their cultural characteristics, landforms and climates, economic development, and migration and settlement patterns. Spatial concepts of geography will be used as a framework for studying interactions between humans and their environments. Using geographic resources, students will employ inquiry, research, and technology skills to ask and answer geographic questions. Geographic skills provide the necessary tools and technologies for thinking geographically. Maps, as well as graphs, sketches, diagrams, photographs, and satellite-produced images, are essential tools of geography. Civics and Economics Students will examine the roles citizens play in the political, governmental, and economic systems in the United States. They will examine the foundational documents and principles with which the constitutions of Virginia and the United States were established, identify the rights, duties, and responsibilities of citizens, and describe the structure and operation of government at the local, state, and national levels. Through the economics standards, students will compare the United States economy to other types of economies and consider the government’s role in the United States economy. Students will investigate the process by which decisions are made in the American market economy and explain the government’s role in the United States economy. The standards identify personal character traits, such as patriotism, respect for the law, willingness to perform public service, and a sense of civic duty, that facilitate thoughtful and effective active participation in the civic life of an increasingly diverse democratic society. Math Grade 7 continues to emphasize the foundations of Algebra. It addresses the representation and comparison of rational numbers using exponents, scientific notation, and square roots. Students continue to develop proficiency in operations with rational numbers and solving problems in context. Students will build on the concept of ratios to solve problems involving proportional reasoning. Students will solve problems involving volume and surface area and focus on the relationships among the properties of quadrilaterals. In addition, students will continue to apply the data cycle and extend the application to histograms. Probability is investigated through comparing experimental results to theoretical expectations. Students continue to develop their understanding of solving linear equations and inequalities in one variable by applying the properties of real numbers. Students investigate proportional relationships and begin to develop a concept of slope as rate of change. Grade 8 continues to build on the concepts needed for success in high school level Algebra, Geometry, and Statistics. Students will explore real numbers and the subsets of the real number system. Proportional reasoning is expounded upon as students solve a variety of problems. Students find the volume and surface area of more complex three-dimensional figures and apply transformations to geometric shapes in the coordinate plane. Students will verify and apply the Pythagorean Theorem to create a foundation for further study of triangular relationships in Geometry. Students will represent data, both univariate and bivariate, and continue to apply the data cycle and extend the application to boxplots and scatterplots. Students build upon algebraic concepts which include simplifying algebraic expressions, solving multistep linear equations and inequalities in one variable, and graphing linear functions. Science Grades 7-8 Students examine abstract concepts, providing a foundation in the disciplines of science. They explore the characteristics of their world, from the Earth’s placement in the solar system to the interactions of water, energy, air, and ecosystems on the Earth. As students more closely examine the use of resources, they also consider how their actions and choices affect the future habitability of Earth. Students continue to develop scientific skills and processes as they pose questions and predict outcomes, plan and conduct investigations, collect and analyze data, construct explanations, and communicate information about the natural world. Mathematics and computational thinking gain importance as students advance in their scientific thinking. Students continue to use the engineering design process to apply their scientific knowledge to solve problems. Students will complete units involving the following areas: Force, Motion, Energy, and Matter Living Systems and Ecosystems Earth and Space Systems Scientific and Engineering Practices 
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