Welcome to the 8th grade Washington Team

Welcome to another dynamic school year at George Washington Middle School. This year should be one of both excitement and reward for your child. As 8th graders, your children have many things to look forward to including: the Washington D.C. trip, 8th grade dance, and 8th grade graduation.

As team teachers, we will meet to develop and integrate our curriculum and check on each student’s progress. We support each other’s efforts and encourage your participation as well. Please know that we are available to discuss any concerns you might have regarding your child. Together we can effectively create a positive approach towards learning.

Our goal this year is to help each student discover their true potential as we help them prepare for their transition to high school. We know that your child will respond positively to the academic challenges in the coming year and find our classes to be fun and motivating.

We look forward to working with you as partners in the educational process.

• ALL ABOUT THE 8TH GRADE WASHINGTON TEAM
  
  SUBJECT BY SUBJECT:
  
  BIOLOGY
  · Matter
  · Energy
  · Organization of Living Things
  · Chemistry of Life
  · Disease
  · Diversity
  · Biological Evolution
  · Cell Biology
  · Reproduction & Heredity
  · Environmental Studies
  
  EARTH SCIENCE
  · Scientific Method
  · The Metric System
  · Minerals & Rocks
  · From Earth to the Universe
  · Geological Aspects of Earth
  · History of the Earth
  · Meteorology
  
  WORLD HISTORY
  · Birth of Civilization to 1500 AD
  · World Religions
  · Sumerians
  · Egyptians
  · Greeks & Romans
  · Chinese/Japanese
  · Middle Ages
  · Mayans, Aztecs, & Incans

• LANGUAGE ARTS (80 minute block)
  
  · Thematic Units:
  Growth & Change
  Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
  Man’s Inhumanity to Man
  Breaking Away
  
  · Novels:
  The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
  The Giver by Lois Lowry
  Night by Elie Wiesel
  Ties That Bind, Ties That Break
  by Lensey Namioka
  
  · Novels for the G&T Program:
  The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
  That Was Then, This Is Now
  by S.E. Hinton
  Night by Elie Wiesel
  Ties That Bind, Ties That Break
  by Lensey Namioka
  A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  by W. Shakespeare
  
  · Short Stories, Poetry, & Drama
  
  · Six Trait Writing:
  Ideas
  Organization
  Voice
  Word Choice
  Sentence Fluency
  Conventions

• MATHEMATICS
  
  In Unified Mathematics, the study of algebra and geometry are integrated along with the topics of logic,statistics, and probability.
  
  In Algebra and Mathematics, the NCTM standards are covered on a daily basis, which include number operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Data Analysis and Probability. This will help prepare our students for the NJ ASK in May.
  
  In all Mathematics classes, we continuously work with the TI-84 Silver Edition Plus graphing calculator in order to better prepare them for the high school classroom as well as the NJ ASK.

The 8th Grade Washington Teachers:

                     Mrs. Benavides – Language Arts                     

Ms. Giacomarro - Math

                       Mrs. Gifford – Science                      

Ms. Parian - Language Arts

Mrs. Potter – Social Studies