8th Grade

Eighth Grade

Stepping Up

A capstone year — students lead the division, complete high-school-level math, and finish ready for the Upper School.

Signature Experience

Nashville, Tennessee.

A journey into American music and history — students explore the city’s museums and stages, from the National Museum of African American Music to RCA Studio B and the Country Music Hall of Fame. The capstone trip is also where eighth graders learn to lead the Middle School division.

Special Studies

Special Studies Week.

Each year, seventh and eighth grade students explore new interests through unique, teacher-designed mini-courses — from rocket building, yoga, and line dancing to statistics through sports, baking, orienteering, and roller-coaster design — developing creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving.

Portrait of a Graduate

Every eighth-grade course is built to carry students toward the same three ends.

List of 3 items.

Confident

in leading the division and holding the attention of a room.
Discerning

in weighing ethics, intervention, and the world beyond the classroom.
Purposeful

in directing their own inquiry and taking evidence-based moral stands.

Middle School Curriculum

The Academic Program: Courses This Year

List of 7 items.

English

Eighth grade English asks students to read literature as a way of understanding identity, history, and environment. Students explore the moral dynamics of responsibility and the ethics of how communities sustain — or fail — one another. A more sophisticated, nuanced vocabulary becomes a tool for self-advocacy and precise expression. Writing thesis-driven arguments and structured memoirs, students take evidence-based moral stands and manage their own reading and growth as self-directed scholars.
Mathematics (Algebra I or Geometry)

Eighth graders complete a full year of Algebra I or Geometry for high-school credit. They classify the real number system, work with rational exponents, and solve quadratic and rational equations while evaluating the reasonableness of their answers. Students model real-world rates of change drawn from business and science. Rotating as math leaders and peer tutors, they learn to choose how best to present and defend a solution.
Science

Eighth grade science zooms out to the largest systems. Students study plate tectonics, seismic waves, and the rock cycle; trace energy and deep geological time; and explore the origin of the universe and the scale of space. A self-directed Science Fair investigation requires students to isolate variables and report with formal Claim-Evidence-Reasoning. Defending their findings before judges, students grow into confident, rigorous investigators.
Social Studies

Eighth grade social studies places the nation on the world stage. Students debate American imperialism and the necessity of intervention, examine how communities hold together when authority is absent, and trace global interdependence through the origins of everyday goods. They learn to watch history through a critical lens, judging how accurately art and media reflect reality. Formal debate develops students who assert their views with poise and evidence.
Public Speaking & Debate (NEW)

Every eighth grader takes Public Speaking & Debate, a new required course in argument and delivery. Students learn to structure a claim, support it with evidence, and anticipate counterarguments. Attention to voice, pacing, and presence builds genuine command of an audience. By learning to listen to an opponent fully before responding, students become confident speakers and discerning thinkers who use their voice to advocate for ideas they believe in.
World Language (Choice)

The paths to learning open up as eighth graders choose a world language for the entire year — Spanish, French, Latin, or German — and earn high-school credit. This first-level high-school course challenges students to read, write, speak, and listen in the target language as they begin their journey to fluency. Alongside the practical language, students study the culture, traditions, history, and government of nations around the globe.
Fine Arts

Eighth graders hone their artistic talents at an advanced level, choosing between visual art, band, theatre, or chorus. The visual arts class turns technique toward intention, and self-reflection is practiced in a way that challenges and inspires the student leaders of the Middle School. The theatre troupe and band members join the Upper School students to learn, collaborate, and perform.