7th & 8th Grade
Mrs. Pauling serves as the Homeroom Teacher for Grades 7&8. She teaches the afternoon shift. During the morning hours, Mrs. Tapling teaches a few classes while Mr. Fritsch (Principal) teaches math.
Subject Descriptions
Religion - Mrs. Tapling
Over the course of two years, the students will explore God's promises in the Old Testament, a history of the Christian church, the life of Jesus based on the Gospel of Mark, and the founding of the early Christian church based on the book of Acts. Our courses are part of the Voyages program, published by Concordia Publishing House. Memory work is integrated into the Religion program. Passages selected for memorization help reinforce the lessons taught in the daily religion lessons.
U.S. History - Mrs. Tapling
U.S. History is taught from a two-volume program published by Holt. Rinehart, and Winston. The first half of the study entitled Beginnings to 1877 allow student to learn about the early discoveries of America through the civil War and Reconstruction. The second program entitled 1865 to the Present begins with the westward expansion through modern times.
Reading & Study Skills - Mrs. Tapling
Three days a week, the focus of this class will be to improve the students' overall study and reading skills. Areas that will be addressed include vocabulary building, reading comprehension, spelling, outlining, summarizing, word attack skills, test taking, and other areas that will assist students in achieving academic success.
Math - Mr. Fritsch
Math is divided into two courses of study as published by A Beka Publishing. Seventh graders use Basic Mathematics, which is a general math program, designed to reinforce and solidify the fundamentals of math. The eighth graders begin to build their algebra skill with the Pre-algebra program.
English/Language Arts - Mrs. Pauling
English in the 7th & 8th grades addresses literature, grammar, and composition. The focus of composition alternates yearly between expository writing and creative writing. The expository writing curriculum builds from paragraphs to essays to a research paper formatted in Modern Language Association (MLA) style. Creative writing includes fictional compositions (narratives, short stories, poetry); included in this curriculum is a speech unit to assist students in learning to present themselves in public speaking situations. Journal writing is practiced periodically throughout the year to encourage student expression. This year's composition focus (2010-11) is expository writing; the literature focus is nonfiction works.
Science - Mrs. Pauling
Science covers various areas of scientific inquiry, alternation focus between physical science and life science. Physical science studies matter, motion and force, energy, waves/sound/light, and electricity and magnetism. Life science focuses on classification, cell processes and reproduction, bacteria and fungi, and plant processes and reproduction. Human biology is covered as time permits. Students are also introduced to the nature of science/measurement and the scientific method of investigation. Besides reading and lectures, hands-on activities area included along with group work in order to make science more alive and graspable. This year's focus is life science.
Health - Mrs. Pauling
Knowledge of proper health and nutrition is especially important during puberty and early adolescence. Grades 7 & 8 have Health once weekly. Objectives include the importance of making fitness and healthy lifestyles lifelong choices. This year PE is held once weekly and is taught by Warren Consolidated staff.
Computer Instruction - Mrs. Pauling
The 7th and 8th grade classroom houses a computer mini-lab, which allows for a lot of computer project time. During the first semester, students improve their keyboarding skills by using an individually paced instructional program entitled Type to Learn. Additional classroom instruction focuses on building intermediate word processing skills using Microsoft Word, generating multimedia projects with PowerPoint, and introducing basic concepts of Excel. Occasionally programs are introduced that help reinforce math and grammar skills.
Mrs. Pauling’s Grading & Homework Policies
All assignments are to be completed neatly and are due on the assigned date. This is to encourage timeliness. If an assignment is incomplete or poorly done, it may be returned to be re-done. This is called “quality control.”
All assignments are important. Forgotten or incomplete assignments may be turned in the late for a 10% grade per day deduction; after one week, work will receive only half credit. All work is to be completed.
Work will be returned to students on a daily basis. Parents should check with students about their progress regularly. Any tests or major assignments receiving lower than a grade of C require a parent’s signature; they are to be returned to the teacher, signed by a parent, the next class day. I will post current grades on the website each weekend.
If a student is absent, he/she will be given an equal amount of time to make up the work as the length of the absence. For example, if a student is absent for 2 days, he/she will have 2 days upon receiving the assignment to make up the work before it is considered to be late.
Rules for Computer Use
- Computer use must be teacher-approved and schoolwork-related. Computers are not for personal use.
- First priority for computer use is completing homework assigned in computer class. During first semester, this includes working on Type to Learn. In addition, for any shared computers, each “station partner” must have equal opportunity to the computer.
- No color printing without permission.
- Only final copies should be printed--not rough drafts or incomplete work!
- Computer homework is to be completed at school. If you receive permission to take work home, it will be emailed to you, and you will need to email the completed file back to Mrs. Pauling. Key drives will not be allowed in general.
- No food, drink, or rough-housing by the computers.
- Any student who messes with another student’s files will be banned from all computer use and fail the course.