Grades 6-8

In District 68, we offer students a comprehensive educational experience that provides students with a range of programs and services to meet their educational needs. This information is designed to provide you with an overview of the curriculum we offer our students.

Reading/Language Arts

Students will utilize a reading resource called Prentice Hall Literature, Common Core Edition within their literacy block. This reading resource is fully aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Instruction within each lesson has been adapted to meet the demands of content standard and follow the progressions found within the Common Core. Furthermore, lessons within each unit have been designed to meet several standards across the key literacy domains. Students participate in Literary Analysis Workshops that break down the Common Core English Language Arts (ELA) standards, teach and model the standards through the use of increasingly more complex exemplars texts, and provide immediate opportunities for students to apply standards with independent practice. Children demonstrate mastery through completion of performance tasks at the end of each unit. Children will also participate in whole group, small group, and independent reading practice. In addition to Prentice Hall Literature, students will read, write, and discuss various novels during their reading block.

Mathematics

The Carnegie middle school math program is grounded in research that seeks to understand how students learn and how to effectively facilitate this.  The curricular framework integrates brain science and practical instructional approaches by guiding students through engaging in real-world examples that encourages them to work together to solve problems, developing mathematical skills from student-specific independent practice, and demonstrating success with formative assessment opportunities that allow teachers to identify and accommodate student needs. It embraces flexible learning by combining Mathia, an adaptive independent practice software, and group instruction emphasizing collaborative student activities throughout the text. The curriculum provides opportunities for students to develop skills in the standards of mathematical practice and state content standards through multiple representations, mathematical habits of mind, and the idea of transfer.

Science

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Social Studies

Grade 6

Across civilizations of Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Middle Ages, the following are examined: 

• Government/Politics (type of leaders, type of  government) 
• Economics (currency, trade, jobs) 
• Religion (symbols, documents, practices, places of worship) 
• Communication (writing systems, language)
• Geography (landforms, bodies of water, location) 
• Social Structure (role of individuals, boys, girls, women, men, citizenship, rights and responsibilities)
• Culture (technology, ideas and philosophy, art, architecture, literature, music) 

Grade 7

Overarching Themes: 

• Manifest Destiny and expansionism including methods of ac­quiring land (treaty, war, settlement, purchase), and reasons people went west (push/pull factors: gold, religious persecu­tion, job opportunities
• The shift from an agrarian society to a manufacturing  society including the growth of corporations and urbanization, effi­ciency of production, and the emergence of the US as indus­trial power with a diverse society
• Industrialization which led to prosperity and then to economic downfall (riches to rags) and the changing role of governmen­tal intervention in society
• Civic responsibility including how the rights, roles, and re­sponsibilities of citizens changed as a result of World War II; how government intervenes to ensure civic responsibility
• Economic gain at the expense of others and how individuals are shaped by time, place, and perspective
• Human interaction with the environment and the resulting societal change.
• Rebuilding a nation after the Civil War and struggles with the challenges of integration; how individuals affirm their place in American society

Units of Study

• Westward Expansion
• Industrialization and Immigration
• The Roaring 20's and The Great Depression
• World War II on the Home Front
• Slavery
• The Civil War
• Civil Rights

Grade 8

Common Core State Standards

Illinois, along with 45 other states, adopted the Common Core State Standards to be used to guide teachers in what students at each grade-level need to learn in English/Language Arts. Each set of grade-level standards consists of literature, informational text as well as listening and speaking standards. The primary grades have standards for foundational skills. Grade-level standards build on knowledge and skills learned the previous year and create a stair-step progression across the K-8 instructional years.

Common Core State Standards Website

COMING SOON...Learning Targets for Grades 6-8

Additional Student Services and Programs

• English Language Learners
• Advancing Inquiry and Meaning (AIM)
• Social Work Services
• Special Education Services
• Before and After School Computer Lab and Library Media Center
• Library Media Instruction and Internet Safety
• Instrumental Music
• Advisor Program
• Before and After School Activity Program
• Intramural and Interscholastic Sports