E n g l i s h

The eighth grade English course emphasizes literature, vocabulary, grammar, and poetry. The major themes of adventure and leadership emerge throughout theliterary works studied during this course, which include but are not limited to: The Illiad by Homer, Rolf and the Viking Bow by Allen French, and Julius Caesar by  William Shakespeare. The student’s vocabulary is expanded by examining new vocabulary found in the literary texts or by utilizing Vocabulary from Classical Roots, a workbook by Educator's Publishing Services. A student’s understanding of grammatical standards is reinforced through regular  writing assignments and a supplementary writing course. English Workshop is a grammar workbook that is further used to reinforce a student’s understanding and regular adherence to grammatical standards. Throughout the course of the year, students are also challenged to memorize poetry and recite selected poems, emphasizing the importance of presentation. Regular and frequent writing assignments on the literature component of the course allow students to become efficient writers as they learn from the great works of literature they read. An appreciation for literature and authorship is fostered as well as the ability to analyze a text in depth.


L a t i n  B

The eighth grade Latin course furthers the objectives established in the seventh grade Latin course. The second part of the Heights’ own Vade Mecum textbook is utilized. After a rapid but comprehensive review, new aspects of Latin grammar are covered including the fourth and fifth declensions, the passive voice, demonstratives, relative clauses, indirect statements, participles, and the subjunctive mood. Longer prose stories are translated into English for the first time in a boy’s academic work. Upon completion of this course, the students can expect to enter a standard Latin II class at the high school level. Due to an increase in the amount of forms students will be required to learn, the students will be able to especially hone their ability to memorize. They also will further enlarge a growing vocabulary and continue to perfect the important skills of proper note-taking and test-taking. The fixed and clear structure of Latin grammar will give the boys a greater understanding of English grammar and of the nature of language in general. In studying the advanced aspects of grammar and in advancing through the translations, the boys will assume superior habits of thought and patterns of learning. This discipline is intended to form students as comprehensive readers, expressive writers, and clear thinkers. By the end of this course, students will have the ability to read the works of great writers such as Cicero, Ovid, and Vergil in their original language and they will have the option of continuing their classical education by taking ancient Greek as early as ninth grade.

A l g e b r a  1

This course will begin with a thorough review of the major topics from the seventh
grade pre-algebra course. Following this review of material, this course covers the
following mathematical topics: angles, polygons, perimeter, rectangular area, unit
multipliers, areas of triangles, graphs, variables, word problems, equivalent
equations, reciprocals, exponents, roots, volume, surface area, circumference and
pi, graphing inequalities, theorems for exponents, advanced word problems,
graphing linear equations, intercept-slope method, multiplication and division of
polynomials, subscripted variables, simplification of radicals, monomial and
binomial factoring, difference of squares, quadratic equations and formula,
completing the square, distance problems, uniform motion problems, and
additional topics if time permits.


R e l i g i o n

The eighth grade religion course seeks to encompass the truths taught by the Catholic
Church, beginning with the abiding presence of Christ, prayer, the sacraments,
worship, the Blessed Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, the communion of saints, prominent
saints of the first two thousand years, the universal call to holiness, virtue, the spiritual
and corporal works of mercy, vocations, the lay apostolate, marriage and the family, the
Christian in the world, law and conscience, the social order, the absolute and infinite
dignity of each human life from conception until natural death, and the last things of
death, just judgment, and the afterlife. The main textbook used is Our Life in the
Church of the Faith and Life series published by Ignatius Press. The first quarter of the course is devoted to Confirmation preparation because most of  the eighth grade students are to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in their local parishes. This preparation takes in a great many of the truths of the Catholic faith, but concentrates on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the individual and the Church. Study materials include A Brief eview for Confirmation published by The Daughters of Saint Paul, The Catechism of the Catholic Church, and two chapters from The Life of Grace by Ignatius Press. Even if all of the truths of the Catholic faith are studied, understood, and able to be defended, little is accomplished unless these truths are lived well in our everyday and ordinary lives. Carrying out our ordinary work, whatever our station in life, and sanctifying it by offering it to God, is to live the truths of our Catholic faith heroically and to fulfill the call to holiness that each of us has been given. In order to help transform the teaching of our Catholic faith into a faith that is lived on a daily basis, the course is augmented with materials, such as: Our Lady of Fatima by William Thomas Walsh, chronicling the faith of three small poor children who grow to live extraordinarily holy lives; The Cure of Ars, about the patron saint of parish priests, written by Mary Fabyan Windeatt; writings by Pope John Paul II; videos; and other materials that demonstrate the faith being lived by ordinary people in their everyday lives. Each student writes an essay on a favorite saint and then makes a presentation to the class on the life of that saint. In order to cultivate a life of piety and develop a prayer life, the student  will have regular opportunities each month for confession, spiritual talks, and recitation of the rosary during a chapel service held once every two weeks by the Heights’ chaplains. The habits and skills that this course seeks to establish for students includes: order in problem solving, neatness, completeness, attention to detail, perseverance, proper arithmetic, showing problem-solving steps, verifying solutions, and identifying and correcting common sources of mistakes.


P h y s i c a l   S c i e n c e

This course acts as an introduction to physical science and in doing so covers the major
areas of physics and chemistry. The course intends to be a wide survey of the laws of
motion and matter and seeks to fascinate students by their first in-depth exposure to
these physical sciences. The text used is Physical Science published by Scott Foresman.
The following major topics are covered throughout the course: mechanics, Newtonian
physics, laws of motion, heat and temperature, thermodynamic models of chemistry,
waves and sound, the behavior of lightwaves, electricity and magnetism, the structure of
matter, chemistry and the periodic table, and the universe and solar system.
The objective of the class is to stimulate a further interest in science for the student, to
provide an understanding and fuller relationship between major physical laws and the
physical world that surrounds us, to develop some level of quantitative thinking and
problem-solving capability, and to provide an appreciation of the usefulness of mathe-
matics, real life examples and experiments.



 A n c i e n t   H i s t o r y


The eighth grade Ancient History course is a survey of the early civilizations that have
played a pivotal role in the development of Western culture. The primary text for this
survey is Ancient and Medieval Worlds by Helen and Robert Howe and is supple-
mented by handouts from other texts and sources. Chronologically, the class begins in
the cradle of ancient culture, the Tigris-Euphrates valley, with an examination of the
great Mesopotamian societies, including the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the
Assyrians, and the Chaldeans. It moves on to another great river valley, the Nile, to
examine the Egyptians, and then surveys the early Indo-European civilizations of the
Hittites and the Persians. Included also is a look at the smaller Eastern Mediterranean
cultures of the Phoenicians, Arameans, and Hebrews. Throughout this survey course,
students will be asked to grasp both the distinctive features and the accomplishments
of each society, ranging from its political and religious institutions to its artistic and
intellectual achievements, as well as its place in the larger story of the ancient world.
Having set the stage with a survey of the major Middle Eastern civilizations, the class
will then shift its focus to the two great Mediterranean civilizations: Ancient Greece
and Ancient Rome. As befitting their monumental impact on the West, these two
civilizations will receive a more thorough and systematic treatment, beginning with
the early Bronze Age Greek societies of the Minoans and Mycenaeans and continuing
to the Fall of Rome. Along the way, students will meet such imposing figures as
Pericles, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and review the epic military struggles
on which history turned, including the Persian, Peloponnesian and Punic Wars.
Students will also encounter the remarkable genius of these two civilizations, from
the unparalleled philosophic and artistic brilliance of fifth century Athens—the age of
Socrates and Sophocles—to the pragmatic genius of the Romans, exemplified in their
innovations in engineering, architecture and law.
Pursuing such an ambitious survey of Ancient History proficiently requires students
to develop a number of critical skills, including the skill of discerning chronological
and geographical context. This requires the essential skill of memorization, of
mastering various dates and being able to identify key places on a map. Discerning
chronological and geographical context involves the skill of being able to move back
and forth across different eras and regions of the ancient world, recognizing both the
distinctiveness of such eras and regions as well as the impact that they have on each
other. It is to know why, for example, historians distinguish between Classical Greece
and Hellenistic Greece, or what role climatic and topographical factors played in giving early Mediterranean cultures a huge cultural leap over those of Northern Europe. A major goal of this course is making students more adept at using and explaining such context in history.
The second category of skill developed is the careful reading and outlining of text. In
the study of history, more so than in most fields, it becomes crucial not to become lost
in an array of facts but rather to discern major topics from minor details, and to be
able to summarize and organize such information accordingly. Toward this end,
students will learn and practice extensively the outlining of text. Such skills will be
further sharpened by taking notes on class lectures. Finally, the third major skill developed is the critical evaluaton of sources. This skill is the ability to evaluate a source of information in terms of its particular point of view and biases and thus better determine not only its perspective but its reliability and usefulness as well. A simple example makes clear how recognizing that a Spartan
account of the Peloponnesian War will likely differ significantly from an account by
their opponents, the Athenians. A culminating project of the course is a research paper in the second semester. Here, choosing a specific topic concerning Ancient Greece or Rome, students are given 
the opportunity to integrate and display the various skills they have developed, along with
general writing and research skills, to attempt their own historical scholarship.

 
W r i t i n g


This single semester, elective course is designed to reinforce, supplement, and
build upon current and previous English classes and writing experience. Students
will be instructed in English composition with a most specific attention to
grammar. The purpose of the grammar component is to reinforce the student’s
mastery of all grammatical concepts and their application to composition, an
aspect of education that will continue to be built upon in successive years of study.
The grammar text is English Workshop, Third Course, Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 1995. It is a workbook with 22 chapters of distinct grammatical concepts.
Each chapter is divided into numerous sections breaking the chapter into easily
digestible segments. Every section is followed by numerous practice exercises. At
the end of each chapter, there is a set of chapter review exercises which reinforce
the retention of the concepts learned in the chapter. The principles are reinforced
by diagramming sentences in essays written by the students.
 The primary objective of the writing component is to develop the skills of the
student so that he can write a well organized, thoughtful, five paragraph essay
which is essential to success in high school and college. The students learn from a
highly structured initial approach that writing is a multi-step process rather than a
stream-of-consciousness series of words. The process includes: a written brain-
storm, an outline, an initial draft, an editing phase, a redrafting phase and then a
final paper. Essays are assigned periodically. An on-line interactive writing program –
Criterion – is utilized to enhance the learning experience. With this program, the
student enters his first draft via the Internet, and Criterion reviews the piece for
major errors in structure, grammar and spelling. The program also prompts the
student to check whether the essay contains aspects such as a thesis and conclu-
sion as well as main idea sentences for each paragraph and detail sentences that
follow the main idea. The teacher then reviews the draft, on-line, and enters
appropriate suggestions for improvement. The student then redrafts and turns in
his final draft. The final draft is then graded and the student often redrafts again
based upon the comments of the teacher. Students learn that writing requires an
attention to detail and an editing process with the necessary commitment to find
the best way to express thoughts via the written word.