This reference guide is designed to help eighth grade teachers plan for instruction, providing all of the goals and objectives in one document. The guide can be used to link instructional objectives across disciplines, plan integrated units, and assist in assessing student progress over time. Only the very basic components of each discipline…

A proposal is made for creating a one-month study unit for the study of Haiti by eighth grade, social studies students. Background information on Haiti's geography, population, economy, culture, and history is provided. Ideas for three lesson plans on Haiti include the iron market in Haiti, Haitian history, and the role of voodoo in Haitian…

In this art activity, eighth grade students use charcoal to draw space art. This versatile medium helps the students see and use dark and light in their forms to show real space and depth. (RM)

A semester-long study of Mozart helped eighth-graders understand the composer's personality and appreciate his music. Students read a biography of his life, studied the forms of his music, danced the minuet, and performed one of his operas in a schoolwide Mozart Day celebration. (AM)

Offers reasons why algebra should not be taught in the eighth grade, suggesting that this subject be replaced by a challenging, engaging alternative. Also suggests enriching the mathematics program to bring more students into mathematics classes. (JN)

Eighth graders made prints of their own faces, using photographic papers and chemicals. Describes the supplies needed and the printing process involved. Because junior high school students are so concerned with self, this was a very meaningful activity for them. (CS)

Suggests ways of designing poetry writing assignments so that students are motivated to practice a particular writing skill. (RL)

An intensive five-day all-day humanities course on 18th century thought and culture for eighth graders that involved 11 different departments is described. The course helped students recognize that what they were taught in one class could reinforce and illuminate what they were learning in another course. (RM)

Describes a five-day instructional unit designed for seventh and eighth graders about the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Points out that the individual rights in the First Amendment often conflict with the rights of the majority. Provides student questions and suggestions for resources and activities. (CFR)

Presents a problem included on the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress in mathematics at grade eight in the content area of algebra and functions. Collects and examines a set of responses to this problem and discusses some examples of strategies that students used to determine the answer to the problem. (ASK)

Intended to increase reading motivation in students, this book features tales of ghosts and poltergeists. The tales range from the legendary to the contemporary. These accounts of ghost stories in the book provide subject matter for thoughtful interpretation and discussion, while challenging students in four critical reading categories: main idea,…

Suggestions for teaching writing to students in grades seven and eight range from student journals to spelling bingo and other writing games. (DD)

Investigated whether attitudes toward school mathematics on mathematical achievement differed between low and high intelligence eighth-grade students in three Japanese schools (N=808). Results indicate that the attitude of low intelligence students is more important and it affects more in magnitude than that of high intelligence students. (JN)

Presents examples of students' work to illustrate the typical approaches used at sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade levels and four common threads that are consistent with student development as observed in a Connected Mathematics Project class. (ASK)

Presents an activity for eighth-grade students and beyond to explore relationships between and among the areas of various polygons. Emphasizes that students should be given the opportunity to design their own examples. (ASK)