Middle School Curriculum & Pathways
Middle School in the ISD
Middle school marks two major transitions in the life of our students. First the transition from Elementary to Middle School, where students get to make choices of what classes they take, navigate learning from multiple teachers, figure out how to open their locker and get many more choices at lunch - these are some of the highlights middle school students share about the change to Middle School.
Middle school also provides a safe place to practice secondary life and academics in a place where taking academic risks and making mistakes can be safe - the Middle School academic credits don't impact the high school transcript (unless in 8th grade you choose to take some high school courses.) Middle school is a good place to build those skills and set yourself on a pathway to achieve your goals and aspirations.
This site maps out our Middle School curriculum and pathways to help you make choices that fit best for you.
Below you will find information on the standards for each grade level. To find information on the course options please see these links:
For English Language Arts course options, click here.
Middle School Standards By Grade Level
Sixth Grade
Sixth Grade
Six grade is an exciting year. Students entering sixth grade get to make choices of classes, often for the first time.
The first thing to keep in mind, all our core classes in Issaquah are guided by grade level Washington State Learning Standards. That means all the courses described in this site prepare students for college and career readiness expectations. Success in these classes opens opportunities for future studies and future work choices. Teachers in Issaquah seek to engage their students by making each course interesting and relevant while teaching to high expectations for all.
The second thing to know, is that you will get to choose between on-standard or on-grade-level courses, and advanced or accelerated courses of study. Advanced or accelerated courses will introduce more rigorous, faster-paced learning that requires a commitment to strong work habits (willing to work hard), staying engaged, and approaching content with curiosity and interest (makes learning more interesting).
When choosing an advanced or accelerated course we sometimes suggest certain levels of performance on past grades and test scores. These are guidelines, not hard and fast rules, meant to help you self-assess whether you have the skills and background knowledge to be successful. Just remember - hard work and having interest in the content adds to your readiness for advanced work as well. For example, if you love reading and writing you might do really well in an advance ELA class even if you don't quite meet the testing recommendations. At the same time, you might decide that taking a challenge in ELA could be balanced by taking the on-grade level track in science, so as not to stress yourself too much. Or it could be the opposite, maybe Math and Science are what you get most interested in, so you take a challenge in those courses and stick with on-standard ELA. Every student is different and can choose their pathway as they progress through the years!
- Reading
- Writing
- Mathematics
- Life Science
- Engineering Design Storylines
- Social Studies
- Physical Education
- Health
Reading
Middle School ELA classes focus on literacy workshops - engaging with novels to learn and apply reading strategies that promote the comprehension and analysis of narrative, informational and persuasive texts.
The following describes areas from the state standards that are the focus of 6th grade. Students will read range of texts and respond to reading through written and oral assignments and assessments. The novels and informational texts become increasingly complex through the grades. As students advance through the grades, they develop new skills and understandings and add to the mastery of skills learned in previous grades.
Reads Grade Level Text
- Reads and comprehends literature and nonfiction text proficiently
Comprehension: Key Ideas and Details
- Cites textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text
- Determines a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provides a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments
- Describes how a plot unfolds and how the characters respond or change; analyzes how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text
Comprehension: Craft and Structure
- Determines the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyzes the impact of word choice on meaning and tone
- Analyzes how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas or story
- Determines an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explains how it is conveyed or developed in the text
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
- Compares and contrasts the experience of reading a text to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text; integrates information presented in different media or formats as well as in words to develop an understanding of a topic or issue
- Traces and evaluates the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not
- Compares and contrasts texts in different forms or genres, or different authors’ presentations, in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics
Writing
In writing, students build and hone skills with increasing sophistication in all aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas. Their writing will center on increasingly complex content and draw from a wider range of sources.
The focus of 6th grade writing standards are described below.
Range of Writing
Writes routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences
Text Types and Purposes
Writes arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence
- Introduces claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly
- Supports claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text
- Uses words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons.
- Establishes and maintains a formal style
- Provides a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented
Writes informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
- Introduces a topic; organizes ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension
- Develops the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples
- Uses appropriate transitions to clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts
- Uses precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
- Establishes and maintains a formal style
- Provides a concluding statement or section that follows from the information or explanation presented
Writes narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences
- Engages and orients the reader by establishing a context and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organizes an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically
- Uses narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters
- Uses a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another
- Uses precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events
- Provides a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events
Production and Distribution of Writing
- Produces clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
- With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develops and strengthens writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach
- Uses technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrates sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
- Conducts short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate
- Gathers relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assesses the credibility of each source; and quotes or paraphrases the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources
- Draws evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
Mathematics
In Grade 6, instructional time focuses on four areas:
- connecting ratio and rate to whole number multiplication and division and using concepts of ratio and rate to solve problems;
- completing understanding of division of fractions and extending the notion of number to the system of rational numbers, which includes negative numbers;
- writing, interpreting, and using expressions and equations;
- developing understanding of statistical thinking.
Ratios and Proportional Relationships
- Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.
The Number System
- Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to divide fractions by fractions.
- Compute fluently with multi-digit numbers and find common factors and multiples.
- Apply and extend previous understandings of numbers to the system of rational numbers.
Expressions and Equations
- Apply and extend previous understandings of arithmetic to algebraic expressions.
- Reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities.
- Represent and analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables.
Geometry
- Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume. Statistics and Probability
- Develop understanding of statistical variability.
- Summarize and describe distributions.
Statistics and Probability
- Develop understanding of statistical variability.
- Summarize and describe distributions.
Mathematical Practices
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
- Model with mathematics
- Use appropriate tools strategically
- Attend to precision
- Look for and make use of structure
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Life Science
Students in middle school develop understanding of key concepts to help them make sense of life science. The ideas build upon students’ science understanding from earlier grades and from the disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts of other experiences with physical and earth sciences. There are four life science disciplinary core ideas in middle school:
- From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
- Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity.
The performance expectations in middle school blend the core ideas with scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to support students in developing useable knowledge across the science disciplines.
From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells; either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.
- Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.
- Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.
- Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.
- Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
- Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.
- Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism.
- Gather and synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories.
Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
- Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
- Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
- Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
- Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
- Develop and use a model to describe why structural changes to genes (mutations) located on chromosomes may affect proteins and may result in harmful, beneficial, or neutral effects to the structure and function of the organism.
- Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.
Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
- Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.
- Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships.
- Analyze displays of pictorial data to compare patterns of similarities in the embryological development across multiple species to identify relationships not evident in the fully formed anatomy.
- Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
- Gather and synthesize information about the technologies that have changed the way humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms.
- Use mathematical representations to support explanations of how natural selection may lead to increases and decreases of specific traits in populations over time.
Engineering Design Storylines
In middle school students will build on engineering experiences by defining problems more precisely, conducting a thorough process of choosing the best solution, and optimizing the final design.
Engineering Design
- Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
- Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
- Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
Social Studies
In sixth grade, students are ready to deepen their understanding of the Earth and its peoples through the study of geography, history, civics, politics, culture, and economic systems. The context for social studies learning in sixth grade is world history and geography. Students begin their examination of the world by exploring the location, place, and spatial organization of the world’s major regions. This exploration is then followed by looking at world history from its beginnings. Students are given an opportunity to study a few ancient civilizations deeply. In this way, students develop higher levels of critical thinking by considering why civilizations developed where and when they did and why they declined. Students analyze the interactions among the various cultures, emphasizing their enduring contributions and the link between the contemporary and ancient worlds. Sixth grade students will also learn specific Social Studies skills.
Geography:
The Sixth Grade student in the Issaquah School District
- Identifies the location of places and regions in the world and understands their physical and cultural characteristics.
- Constructs and analyzes maps using scale, direction, symbols, legends and projections to gather information
- Understands and analyzes how the environment has affected people and how people have affected the environment in the past or present.
- Understands the characteristics of cultures in the world from the past or in the present.
- Understands the geographic factors that influence the movement of groups of people in the past or present.
- Understands that learning about the geography of the world helps us understand issues related to global issues of sustainability.
History
The Sixth Grade student in the Issaquah School District
- Understands how the rise of civilizations defines eras in ancient history by:
- Explaining and comparing the rise of civilizations from 8000 BCE to 200 CE on two or more continents.
- Explaining and comparing the rise of civilizations from 200 CE to 600 CE on two or more continents.
- Analyzes different cultural measurements of time.
- Understands and analyzes how individuals and movements from ancient civilizations have shaped world history.
- Understands and analyzes how technology and ideas from ancient civilizations have impacted world history.
- Analyzes and interprets historical materials from a variety of perspectives in ancient history.
- Analyzes multiple causal factors that shape major events in ancient history.
- Understands and analyzes how cultures and cultural groups in ancient civilizations contributed to world history.
Civics
- Analyzes how societies have interacted with one another in the past or present.
- Understands a variety of forms of government from the past or present
- Understands the historical origins of civic involvement.
Economics
- Understands the production, distribution, and consumption of goods, services, and resources in societies from the past or in the present.
- Understands how the forces of supply and demand have affected international trade in the past or present.
- Understands the role of government in the world’s economies through the creation of money, taxation, and spending in the past or present.
- Understands the distribution of wealth and sustainability of resources in the world in the past or present.
- Analyzes the costs and benefits of economic choices made by groups and individuals in the past or present.
Social Studies Skills
- Analyzes multiple factors, compares two groups, generalizes, and connects past to present to formulate a thesis in a paper or presentation.
- Understands and demonstrates the ethical responsibility one has in using and citing sources and the rules related to plagiarism and copyrighting.
- Analyzes the validity, reliability, and credibility of information from a variety of primary and secondary sources while researching an issue or event.
- Understands positions on an issue or event
- Creates and uses research questions to guide inquiry on an historical event.
- Evaluates the significance of information used to support positions on an issue or event.
- Engages in discussions that clarify and address multiple viewpoints on public issues.
Physical Education
The student is expected to meet and demonstrate all previous grade level skills.
The Sixth Grade student in the Issaquah School District will explore, develop, and refine basic movement and manipulative skills through a variety of activities at developmentally appropriate levels.
Movement Skills
- Applies more complex skills to a variety of movement activities; team sports, individual sports, and recreational activities
The Sixth Grade student in the Issaquah School District will increase understand- ing and appreciation of their fitness level while engaging in a variety of physical activities.
Physical Fitness
- Measures physical fitness, sets fitness and activity goals, and explores a variety of activities to maintain healthy levels of cardio-respiratory fitness, muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, and body composition
The Sixth Grade student in the Issaquah School District will demonstrate responsible behaviors and positive sportsmanship skills in individual and group activities.
Communication
- Follows rules and safety procedures with civility, practice sportsmanship, cooperation, and teamwork in a variety of games and fitness activities
- Uses communication skills without judging others when discussing sports-related issues
Cognitive Skills
- Demonstrates knowledge of both past and current history of activities
- Demonstrates proper use and care for equipment of activities
- Applies basic rules and strategies in sports activities
Health
The student is expected to meet and demonstrate all previous grade level skills.
The Sixth Grade student in the Issaquah School District acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain an active life: movement, physical fitness, and nutrition. Understand Nutrition and Food Nutrients and How they Affect Physical Performance and the Body Pyramid Food Guide
- Knows and applies the concepts of food groups, servings, and serving sizes
- Explains why a variety of foods provide a variety of nutrients
The Sixth Grade student in the Issaquah School District acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain a healthy life: recognize patterns of growth and development, reduce health risks, and live safely.
Recognize Patterns of Growth and Development
F.L.A.S.H./K.N.O.W.
- Predicts the changes that accompany maturity and the transition from adolescence to adulthood
- Differentiates between good touch and bad touch
- Identifies the parts of the reproductive system and how it works and how a pregnancy occurs
FLASH Lessons for Grade 6
- Lesson 1 - Introduction
- Lesson 3 - Self Esteem
- Lesson 8 - Sexual Exploitation Day 2
- Lesson 10 - Puberty Day 2
- Lesson 12 - Reproductive System Day 2
- Lesson 14 - Pregnancy Day 2
- Lesson 17 - HIV/AIDS Year 2, Day 1
- ISD F.L.A.S.H Lesson Alignment
Understand the Transmission and Control of Non-Communicable and Communicable Diseases
- Understands what A.I.D.S. is and how it is contracted
- Understands the transmission and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases
Acquire Skills to Live Safely Drug Awareness:
Tobacco and Alcohol
- Understands the negative health effects and harmful chemicals in tobacco and alcohol
Body Systems:
Respiratory and Circulatory
- Recognizes how these systems are affected
The Sixth Grade student in the Issaquah School District uses analyzes and evaluates the impact of real-life influences on health.
Understand How Emotions Influence Decision-Making
- Names the steps for refusal skills
The Sixth Grade student in the Issaquah School District uses analyzes health and safety information to develop health and fitness plans based on life goals.
Assess Needs and Resources
- Explains the relationship between good hygiene and positive physical, mental, and social health
Seventh Grade
Seventh Grade
The Issaquah Content Standards guide teaching and learning in all our classrooms in the areas of Literacy (reading, writing, and communication), Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Health and Fitness, and the Arts. These statements describe what students should know and be able to do during and as a result of their educational experiences. The Issaquah Content Standards are based on the Washington State K-12 Learning Standards.
- Reading
- Writing
- Mathematics
- Earth and Space Sciences
- Engineering Design Storylines
- Social Studies
- Physical Education
- Health
Reading
The following standards offer a focus for instruction each year and help ensure that students gain adequate exposure to a range of texts and tasks. Rigor is also infused through the requirement that students read increasingly complex texts through the grades. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Reads Grade Level Text
- Reads and comprehends literature and nonfiction text proficiently
Comprehension: Key Ideas and Details
- Cites several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text
- Determines themes/central ideas of a text; analyzes the development of themes/central ideas over the course of the text; provides an objective summary of the text
- Analyzes the interactions of story elements or between individuals, events, and ideas in a text
Comprehension: Craft and Structure
- Determines the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyzes the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone; analyzes the impact of sound repetition in a poem, story or drama
- Analyzes the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas; analyzes how a drama's or poem's form or structure contributes to its meaning
- Determines an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyzes how the author distinguishes their position from that of others; analyzes how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
- Compares and contrasts a written text to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium or each medium's portrayal of the subject
- Traces and evaluates the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to support the claims
- Compares and contrasts a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical account of the same period as a means of understanding how authors of fiction use or alter history; analyzes how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts
Writing
The following standards offer a focus for instruction each year to help ensure that students gain adequate mastery of a range of skills and applications. Each year in their writing, students should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas, and they should address increasingly demanding content and sources. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Range of Writing
Writes routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences
Text Types and Purposes
Writes arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence
- Introduces claim(s), acknowledges alternate or opposing claims, and organizes the reasons and evidence logically
- Supports claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text
- Uses words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), reasons, and evidence
- Establishes and maintains a formal style
- Provides a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented
Writes informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
- Introduces a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organizes ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/ effect; includes formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension
- Develops the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples
- Uses appropriate transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts
- Uses precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
- Establishes and maintains a formal style
- Provides a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented
Writes narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences
- Engages and orients the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organizes an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically
- Uses narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters
- Uses a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another
- Uses precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events
- Provides a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events
Production and Distribution of Writing
- Produces clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
- With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develops and strengthens writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed
- Uses technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others;
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
- Conducts short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation
- Gathers relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assesses the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quotes or paraphrases the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation
- Draws evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
Mathematics
In Grade 7, instructional time focuses on four areas: (1) developing understanding of and applying proportional relationships; (2) developing understanding of operations with rational numbers and working with expressions and linear equations; (3) solving problems involving scale drawings and informal geometric constructions, and working with two- and three-dimensional shapes to solve problems involving area, surface area, and volume; and (4) drawing inferences about populations based on samples.
Ratios and Proportional Relationships
- Analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems.
The Number System
- Apply and extend previous understandings of operations with fractions to add, subtract, multiply, and divide rational numbers.
Expressions and Equations
- Use properties of operations to generate equivalent expressions.
- Solve real-life and mathematical problems using numerical and algebraic expressions and equations.
Geometry
- Draw, construct and describe geometrical figures and describe the relationships between them.
- Solve real-life and mathematical problems involving angle measure, area, surface area, and volume.
Statistics and Probability
- Use random sampling to draw inferences about a population.
- Draw informal comparative inferences about two populations.
- Investigate chance processes and develop, use, and evaluate probability models.
Mathematical Practices
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
- Model with mathematics
- Use appropriate tools strategically
- Attend to precision
- Look for and make use of structure
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Earth and Space Sciences
Students in middle school continue to develop their understanding of the three disciplinary core ideas in the Earth and Space Sciences. The middle school performance expectations in Earth Space Science build on the elementary school ideas and skills and allow middle school students to explain more in-depth phenomena central not only to the earth and space sciences, but to life and physical sciences as well. These performance expectations blend the core ideas with scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to support students in developing usable knowledge to explain ideas across the science disciplines.
Earth’s Place in the Universe
- Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons.
- Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.
- Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system.
- Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.
Earth’s Systems
- Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
- Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.
- Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.
- Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
- Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions.
- Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
Earth and Human Activity
- Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth’s mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.
- Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
- Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
- Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
- Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
Engineering Design Storylines
In middle school students will build on engineering experiences by defining problems more precisely, conducting a thorough process of choosing the best solution, and optimizing the final design.
Engineering Design
- Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
- Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
- Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
Social Studies
In seventh grade, students become more proficient with the core concepts in social studies. There are two contexts in which students can demonstrate this proficiency in the seventh grade.
- The first two trimesters of the year is focuses on a continuation of world history from sixth grade as students look at the geography, civics, history/religions and economics of major societies up through 1450.
- The second part of the year asks students to bring their understanding to their world today as they examine Washington State from 1854 to the present. The study of Washington State includes an examination of the state constitution and key treaties.
While these two contexts may be very different, the purpose of studying these different regions and eras is the same: to develop enduring understandings of the core concepts and ideas in civics, economics, geography, and history. The following pages provide unit outlines to help you organize a seventh grade social studies course
Geography:
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District
- Understands the role of immigration in shaping societies in the past or present.
- Understands how human spatial patterns have emerged from natural processes and human activities in the past or present..
- Understands examples of cultural diffusion in the world from the past or in the present. Understands and analyzes how the environment has affected people and how people have affected the environment in the past or present.
- Understands the role of immigration in shaping societies in the past or present.
- Understands and analyzes how the environment has affected people and how people have affected the environment in Washington State in the past or present. Understands that learning about the geography of the world helps us understand issues related to global issues of sustainability.
History
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District
- Understands how themes and developments have defined eras in Washington State and world history by:
- Explaining and comparing the development of major societies from 600 to 1450 in two or more regions of the world. Analyzes different cultural measurements of time.
- Explaining how the following themes and developments help to define eras in Washington State history from 1854 to the present and territory and treaty-making (1854—1889).
- Analyzes a major historical event and how it is represented on timelines from different cultural perspectives. Understands and analyzes how technology and ideas from ancient civilizations have influenced world history.
- Explains and compares the development of Islam and Hinduism.
- Examines how the Crusades are represented differently on Christian and Muslim timelines. Examines how the Islamic Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula is represented differently on Christian and Muslim timelines.
- Explains the impact of Muhammad and the spread of Islam on world civilization.
- Examines how the Islamic Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula is represented differently on Christian and Muslim timelines.
- Examines how the Crusades are represented differently on Christian and Muslim timelines.
- Examines how the Islamic Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula is represented differently on Christian and Muslim timelines.
- Explains the spread of Christianity and Islam across Europe and Africa.
- Understands and analyzes how individuals and movements have shaped Washington State or world history Analyzes multiple causal factors that shape major events in ancient history.
- Understands and analyzes how cultures and cultural groups contributed to Washington State or world history.
- Understands and analyzes how technology and ideas have influenced Washington State or world history.
- Analyzes multiple causal factors that shape major events in Washington State or world history.
Civics
- Understands various forms of government and their effects on the lives of people in the past or present. Understands a variety of forms of government from the past or present
- Understands how key ideals set forth in fundamental documents, including the Washington State Constitution and tribal treaties, define the goals of our state.
- Analyzes the relationship between the actions of people in Washington State and the ideals outlined in the State Constitution.
- Understands and analyzes the structure, organization, and powers of government at the local, state, and tribal levels including the concept of tribal sovereignty.
- Understands the effectiveness of different forms of civic involvement.
- Analyzes how international agreements have affected Washington State in the past or present.
Economics
- Analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods, services, and resources in societies from the past or in the present. Understands how the forces of supply and demand have affected international trade in the past or present.
- Understands and analyzes the distribution of wealth and sustainability of resources in Washington State. Understands the distribution of wealth and sustainability of resources in the world in the past or present.
- Understands and analyzes the role of government in the economy of Washington State through taxation, spending, and policy setting in the past or present.
- Understands and analyzes how the forces of supply and demand have affected international trade in Washington State in the past or present.
Social Studies Skills
- Analyzes multiple factors, makes generalizations, and interprets primary sources to formulate a thesis in a paper or presentation.
- Understands and demonstrates the ethical responsibility one has in using and citing sources and the rules related to plagiarism and copyrighting.
- Understands evidence supporting a position on an issue or event.
- Analyzes and responds to multiple viewpoints on public issues brought forth in the context of a discussion. Understands positions on an issue or event
- Creates and uses research questions to guide inquiry on an issue or historical event.
- Evaluates the breadth of evidence supporting positions on an issue or event.
Physical Education
The student is expected to meet and demonstrate all previous grade level skills.
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District will explore, develop, and refine basic movement and manipulative skills through a variety of activities at developmentally appropriate levels.
Movement Skills
- Applies more complex skills to a variety of movement activities; team sports, individual sports, and recreational activities
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District will increase understanding and appreciation of their fitness level while engaging in a variety of physical activities.
Physical Fitness
- Measures physical fitness, sets fitness and activity goals, and explores a variety of activities to maintain healthy levels of cardio- respiratory fitness, muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, and body composition
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District will demonstrate responsible behaviors and positive sportsmanship skills in individual and group activities.
Communication
- Follows rules and safety procedures with civility, practice sportsmanship, cooperation, and teamwork in a variety of games and fitness activities
Health
The student is expected to meet and demonstrate all previous grade level skills.
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain an active life: movement, physical fitness, and nutrition.
Understand Nutrition and Food Nutrients and How they Affect Physical Performance and the Body
Eating Disorders
- Compares the possible causes, risks, and treatments of eating disorders
- Describes the 7 Dietary Food Guidelines
Fitness: Caloric Intake
- Interprets how the balance between calories taken in and expended maintain body weight (review pyramid food guide)
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain a healthy life: recognize patterns of growth and development, reduce health risks, and live safely. Recognize Patterns of Growth and Development
F.L.A.S.H./K.N.O.W.
- Understands what A.I.D.S. is and effects on the body and how it is prevented
defines the term S.T.D. and tells how they are contracted - Understands how drugs can influence a person’s decision making skills
- Understands the objectives of S.H.A.R.E., they promote the development of healthy responsible sexual attitudes with a message of abstinence
- Defines the advantages of abstinence
- Names the risks and results of being sexually active (Review reproductive system) Acquire Skills to Live Safely
Illicit Drugs:
- Understands factors which contribute to the misused of substances
- Analyzes the addicting potential and harmful effects of illicit drug abuse issues Emergency Care
- Demonstrates the skills for accident prevention and emergency care
Outlines specific procedures to follow in common emergencies (CPR, Rescue Breathing and Choking) - Identifies community resources for treating emergencies
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District uses analyzes and evaluates the impact of real-life influences on health. Understand How Environmental Factors Affect One’s Health
Consumer Health
- Names some of the benefits of being a wise consumer
- Recognizes how a food label can help you eat more nutritiously
Gather and Analyze Health Information Wellness:
- Explains the purpose of, care, and treatment of the body
- Understands the importance of having a balanced health triangle
Use Social Skills to Protect Health and Safely in a Variety of Situations
- Recognizes how a positive self-concept can enhance one’s health
Understand How Emotions Influence Decision-making
- Anticipates situations which involve pressure to abuse drugs and plans how to reduce substance abuse risk
- Cites positive indicators for promoting one’s own health
- Describes ways to say no with your words and your actions
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District uses analyzes health and safety information to develop health and fitness plans based on life goals.
Assess Needs and Resources
- Be aware of community resources available for health needs
- Names the 10 essentials for outdoor hiking
Writing
The following standards offer a focus for instruction each year to help ensure that students gain adequate mastery of a range of skills and applications. Each year in their writing, students should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas, and they should address increasingly demanding content and sources. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Range of Writing
Writes routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences
Text Types and Purposes
Writes arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence
- Introduces claim(s), acknowledges alternate or opposing claims, and organizes the reasons and evidence logically
- Supports claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text
- Uses words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), reasons, and evidence
- Establishes and maintains a formal style
- Provides a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented
Writes informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
- Introduces a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organizes ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/ effect; includes formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension
- Develops the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples
- Uses appropriate transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts
- Uses precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
- Establishes and maintains a formal style
- Provides a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented
Writes narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences
- Engages and orients the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organizes an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically
- Uses narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters
- Uses a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another
- Uses precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events
- Provides a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events
Production and Distribution of Writing
- Produces clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
- With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develops and strengthens writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed
- Uses technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others;
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
- Conducts short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions for further research and investigation
- Gathers relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assesses the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quotes or paraphrases the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation
- Draws evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
Mathematics
In Grade 7, instructional time focuses on four areas:
- developing understanding of and applying proportional relationships;
- developing understanding of operations with rational numbers and working with expressions and linear equations;
- solving problems involving scale drawings and informal geometric constructions, and working with two- and three-dimensional shapes to solve problems involving area, surface area, and volume;
- drawing inferences about populations based on samples.
Ratios and Proportional Relationships
- Analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems.
The Number System
- Apply and extend previous understandings of operations with fractions to add, subtract, multiply, and divide rational numbers.
Expressions and Equations
- Use properties of operations to generate equivalent expressions.
- Solve real-life and mathematical problems using numerical and algebraic expressions and equations.
Geometry
- Draw, construct and describe geometrical figures and describe the relationships between them.
- Solve real-life and mathematical problems involving angle measure, area, surface area, and volume.
Statistics and Probability
- Use random sampling to draw inferences about a population.
- Draw informal comparative inferences about two populations.
- Investigate chance processes and develop, use, and evaluate probability models.
Mathematical Practices
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
- Model with mathematics
- Use appropriate tools strategically
- Attend to precision
- Look for and make use of structure
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Earth and Space Sciences
Students in middle school continue to develop their understanding of the three disciplinary core ideas in the Earth and Space Sciences. The middle school performance expectations in Earth Space Science build on the elementary school ideas and skills and allow middle school students to explain more in-depth phenomena central not only to the earth and space sciences, but to life and physical sciences as well. These performance expectations blend the core ideas with scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to support students in developing usable knowledge to explain ideas across the science disciplines.
Earth’s Place in the Universe
- Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons.
- Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.
- Analyze and interpret data to determine scale properties of objects in the solar system.
- Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.
Earth’s Systems
- Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
- Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.
- Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.
- Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
- Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions.
- Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
Earth and Human Activity
- Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth’s mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.
- Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
- Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
- Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
- Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
Engineering Design Storylines
In middle school students will build on engineering experiences by defining problems more precisely, conducting a thorough process of choosing the best solution, and optimizing the final design.
Engineering Design
- Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
- Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
- Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
Social Studies
In seventh grade, students become more proficient with the core concepts in social studies. There are two contexts in which students can demonstrate this proficiency in the seventh grade.
- The first two trimesters of the year is focuses on a continuation of world history from sixth grade as students look at the geography, civics, history/religions and economics of major societies up through 1450.
- The second part of the year asks students to bring their understanding to their world today as they examine Washington State from 1854 to the present. The study of Washington State includes an examination of the state constitution and key treaties.
While these two contexts may be very different, the purpose of studying these different regions and eras is the same: to develop enduring understandings of the core concepts and ideas in civics, economics, geography, and history. The following pages provide unit outlines to help you organize a seventh grade social studies course
Geography:
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District
- Understands the role of immigration in shaping societies in the past or present.
- Understands how human spatial patterns have emerged from natural processes and human activities in the past or present..
- Understands examples of cultural diffusion in the world from the past or in the present. Understands and analyzes how the environment has affected people and how people have affected the environment in the past or present.
- Understands the role of immigration in shaping societies in the past or present.
- Understands and analyzes how the environment has affected people and how people have affected the environment in Washington State in the past or present. Understands that learning about the geography of the world helps us understand issues related to global issues of sustainability.
History
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District
- Understands how themes and developments have defined eras in Washington State and world history by:
- Explaining and comparing the development of major societies from 600 to 1450 in two or more regions of the world. Analyzes different cultural measurements of time.
- Explaining how the following themes and developments help to define eras in Washington State history from 1854 to the present and territory and treaty-making (1854—1889).
- Analyzes a major historical event and how it is represented on timelines from different cultural perspectives. Understands and analyzes how technology and ideas from ancient civilizations have influenced world history.
- Explains and compares the development of Islam and Hinduism.
- Examines how the Crusades are represented differently on Christian and Muslim timelines. Examines how the Islamic Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula is represented differently on Christian and Muslim timelines.
- Explains the impact of Muhammad and the spread of Islam on world civilization.
- Examines how the Islamic Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula is represented differently on Christian and Muslim timelines.
- Examines how the Crusades are represented differently on Christian and Muslim timelines.
- Examines how the Islamic Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula is represented differently on Christian and Muslim timelines.
- Explains the spread of Christianity and Islam across Europe and Africa.
- Understands and analyzes how individuals and movements have shaped Washington State or world history Analyzes multiple causal factors that shape major events in ancient history.
- Understands and analyzes how cultures and cultural groups contributed to Washington State or world history.
- Understands and analyzes how technology and ideas have influenced Washington State or world history.
- Analyzes multiple causal factors that shape major events in Washington State or world history.
Civics
- Understands various forms of government and their effects on the lives of people in the past or present. Understands a variety of forms of government from the past or present
- Understands how key ideals set forth in fundamental documents, including the Washington State Constitution and tribal treaties, define the goals of our state.
- Analyzes the relationship between the actions of people in Washington State and the ideals outlined in the State Constitution.
- Understands and analyzes the structure, organization, and powers of government at the local, state, and tribal levels including the concept of tribal sovereignty.
- Understands the effectiveness of different forms of civic involvement.
- Analyzes how international agreements have affected Washington State in the past or present.
Economics
- Analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods, services, and resources in societies from the past or in the present. Understands how the forces of supply and demand have affected international trade in the past or present.
- Understands and analyzes the distribution of wealth and sustainability of resources in Washington State. Understands the distribution of wealth and sustainability of resources in the world in the past or present.
- Understands and analyzes the role of government in the economy of Washington State through taxation, spending, and policy setting in the past or present.
- Understands and analyzes how the forces of supply and demand have affected international trade in Washington State in the past or present.
Social Studies Skills
- Analyzes multiple factors, makes generalizations, and interprets primary sources to formulate a thesis in a paper or presentation.
- Understands and demonstrates the ethical responsibility one has in using and citing sources and the rules related to plagiarism and copyrighting.
- Understands evidence supporting a position on an issue or event.
- Analyzes and responds to multiple viewpoints on public issues brought forth in the context of a discussion. Understands positions on an issue or event
- Creates and uses research questions to guide inquiry on an issue or historical event.
- Evaluates the breadth of evidence supporting positions on an issue or event.
Physical Education
The student is expected to meet and demonstrate all previous grade level skills.
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District will explore, develop, and refine basic movement and manipulative skills through a variety of activities at developmentally appropriate levels.
Movement Skills
- Applies more complex skills to a variety of movement activities; team sports, individual sports, and recreational activities
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District will increase understanding and appreciation of their fitness level while engaging in a variety of physical activities.
Physical Fitness
- Measures physical fitness, sets fitness and activity goals, and explores a variety of activities to maintain healthy levels of cardio- respiratory fitness, muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, and body composition
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District will demonstrate responsible behaviors and positive sportsmanship skills in individual and group activities.
Communication
- Follows rules and safety procedures with civility, practice sportsmanship, cooperation, and teamwork in a variety of games and fitness activities
Health
The student is expected to meet and demonstrate all previous grade level skills.
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain an active life: movement, physical fitness, and nutrition.
Understand Nutrition and Food Nutrients and How they Affect Physical Performance and the Body
Eating Disorders
- Compares the possible causes, risks, and treatments of eating disorders
- Describes the 7 Dietary Food Guidelines
Fitness: Caloric Intake
- Interprets how the balance between calories taken in and expended maintain body weight (review pyramid food guide)
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain a healthy life: recognize patterns of growth and development, reduce health risks, and live safely. Recognize Patterns of Growth and Development
F.L.A.S.H./K.N.O.W.
- Understands what A.I.D.S. is and effects on the body and how it is prevented
defines the term S.T.D. and tells how they are contracted - Understands how drugs can influence a person’s decision making skills
- Understands the objectives of S.H.A.R.E., they promote the development of healthy responsible sexual attitudes with a message of abstinence
- Defines the advantages of abstinence
- Names the risks and results of being sexually active (Review reproductive system) Acquire Skills to Live Safely
FLASH Lessons for Grade 7
- Lesson 1 - Reproductive System and Pregnancy
- Lesson 2 - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
- Lesson 3 - Rules for Dating
- Lesson 4 - Saying No
- Lesson 5 - Preventing STDs
- Lesson 6 - Prevent HIV and Other STDs
- Lesson 7 - Birth Control Methods
- ISD F.L.A.S.H Lesson Alignment
Illicit Drugs:
- Understands factors which contribute to the misused of substances
- Analyzes the addicting potential and harmful effects of illicit drug abuse issues Emergency Care
- Demonstrates the skills for accident prevention and emergency care
Outlines specific procedures to follow in common emergencies (CPR, Rescue Breathing and Choking) - Identifies community resources for treating emergencies
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District uses analyzes and evaluates the impact of real-life influences on health. Understand How Environmental Factors Affect One’s Health
Consumer Health
- Names some of the benefits of being a wise consumer
- Recognizes how a food label can help you eat more nutritiously
Gather and Analyze Health Information Wellness:
- Explains the purpose of, care, and treatment of the body
- Understands the importance of having a balanced health triangle
Use Social Skills to Protect Health and Safely in a Variety of Situations
- Recognizes how a positive self-concept can enhance one’s health
Understand How Emotions Influence Decision-making
- Anticipates situations which involve pressure to abuse drugs and plans how to reduce substance abuse risk
- Cites positive indicators for promoting one’s own health
- Describes ways to say no with your words and your actions
The Seventh Grade student in the Issaquah School District uses analyzes health and safety information to develop health and fitness plans based on life goals.
Assess Needs and Resources
- Be aware of community resources available for health needs
- Names the 10 essentials for outdoor hiking
Eighth Grade
Eighth Grade
The Issaquah Content Standards guide teaching and learning in all our classrooms in the areas of Literacy (reading, writing, and communication), Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Health and Fitness, and the Arts. These statements describe what students should know and be able to do during and as a result of their educational experiences. The Issaquah Content Standards are based on the Washington State K-12 Learning Standards.
- Reading
- Writing
- Mathematics
- Physical Science
- Engineering Design Storylines
- Social Studies
- Physical Education
- Health
Reading
The following standards offer a focus for instruction each year and help ensure that students gain adequate exposure to a range of texts and tasks. Rigor is also infused through the requirement that students read increasingly complex texts through the grades. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Reads Grade Level Text
- Reads and comprehends literature and nonfiction text proficiently
Comprehension: Key Ideas and Details
- Cites the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text
- Determines a theme or central idea of a text and analyzes its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to story elements or supporting ideas; provides an objective summary of the text
- Analyzes how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision; analyzes how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events
Comprehension: Craft and Structure
- Determines the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyzes the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts
- Analyzes in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept; compares and contrasts the structure of two or more texts and analyzes how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style
- Determines an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyzes how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints; analyzes how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader create such effects as suspense or humor
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
- Analyzes the extent to which a filmed or live production of a text stays faithful to or departs from the text, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors; evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums to present a particular topic or idea
- Delineates and evaluates the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognizes when irrelevant evidence is introduced
- Analyzes how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works, including describing how the material is rendered new; analyzes a case in which multiple texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identifies where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation
Writing
The following standards offer a focus for instruction each year to help ensure that students gain adequate mastery of a range of skills and applications. Each year in their writing, students should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas, and they should address increasingly demanding content and sources. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Range of Writing
Writes routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences
Text Types and Purposes
Writes arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence
- Introduces claim(s), acknowledges and distinguishes the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organizes the reasons and evidence logically
- Supports claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text
- Uses words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence
- Establishes and maintains a formal style
- Provides a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented
Writes informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
- Introduces a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organizes ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; includes formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension
- Develops the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples
- Uses appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts
- Uses precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
- Establishes and maintains a formal style
- Provides a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented
Writes narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences
- Engages and orients the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organizes an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically
- Uses narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters
- Uses a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence, signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another, and show the relationships among experiences and events
- Uses precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events
- Provides a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events
Production and Distribution of Writing
- Produces clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
- With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develops and strengthens writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed
- Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
- Conducts short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration
- Gathers relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assesses the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quotes or paraphrases the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation
- Draws evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
Mathematics
In Grade 8, instructional time focuses on three areas: (1) formulating and reasoning about expressions and equations, including modeling an association in bivariate data with a linear equation, and solving linear equations and systems of linear equations; (2) grasping the concept of a function and using functions to describe quantitative relationships; (3) analyzing two- and three-dimensional space and figures using distance, angle, similarity, and congruence, and understanding and applying the Pythagorean Theorem.
The Number System
- Know that there are numbers that are not rational, and approximate them by rational numbers.
Expressions and Equations
- Work with radicals and integer exponents.
- Understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines, and linear equations.
- Analyze and solve linear equations and pairs of simultaneous linear equations.
Functions
- Define, evaluate, and compare functions.
- Use functions to model relationships between quantities.
Geometry
- Understand congruence and similarity using physical models, transparencies, or geometry software.
- Understand and apply the Pythagorean Theorem.
- Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving volume of cylinders, cones and spheres.
Statistics and Probability
- Investigate patterns of association in bivariate data.
Mathematical Practices
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
- Model with mathematics
- Use appropriate tools strategically
- Attend to precision
- Look for and make use of structure
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Physical Science
Students in middle school continue to develop understanding of four core ideas in the physical sciences. The middle school performance expectations in the Physical Sciences build on the K – 5 ideas and capabilities to allow learners to explain phenomena central to the physical sciences but also to the life sciences and earth and space science. The performance expectations in physical science blend the core ideas with scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to support students in developing useable knowledge to explain real world phenomena in the physical, biological, and earth and space sciences. In the physical sciences, performance expectations at the middle school level focus on students developing understanding of several scientific practices. These include developing and using models, planning and conducting investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematical and computational thinking, and constructing explanations; and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. Students are also expected to demonstrate understanding of several of engineering practices including design and evaluation.
Matter and Its Interactions
- Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.
- Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
- Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.
- Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.
- Develop and use a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved.
- Undertake a design project to construct, test, and modify a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy by chemical processes.
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
- Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
- Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
- Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
- Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.
- Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.
Energy
- Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.
- Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.
- Apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer.
- Plan an investigation to determine the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of the particles as measured by the temperature of the sample.
- Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.
Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
- Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.
- Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.
- Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals.
Engineering Design Storylines
In middle school students will build on engineering experiences by defining problems more precisely, conducting a thorough process of choosing the best solution, and optimizing the final design.
Engineering Design
- Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
- Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
- Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
Social Studies
In eighth grade, students develop a new, more abstract level of understanding of social studies concepts. The context for developing this understanding is U.S. history and government, 1776 to 1900. Students explore the ideas, issues, and events from the framing of the Constitution up through Reconstruction and industrialization. After reviewing the founding of the United States, particularly the Constitution, students explore the development of politics, society, culture, civics and economy in the United States to deepen conceptual understandings in civics, geography, and economics. In particular, studying the causes and consequences of the Civil War helps them to comprehend more profoundly the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a culturally diverse democracy.
Issaquah School District eighth graders participate in a two-week financial literacy classroom unit and attend a simulation at the Junior Achievement Finance Park. This unit is funded by the Issaquah Schools Foundation and developed by Junior Achievement.
Geography:
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District
- Analyzes how the environment has affected people and how people have affected the environment in the United States in the past or present
- Understands and analyzes migration as a catalyst on the growth of the United States in the past or present
- Understands cultural diffusion in the United States from the past or in the present.
- Understands and analyzes physical and cultural characteristics of places and regions in the United States from the past or in the present.
- Understands that learning about the geography of the United States helps us understand the global issue of diversity.
History
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District
- Understands how the following themes and developments help to define eras in U.S. history from 1776 to 1900
- Fighting for independence and framing the Constitution (1776—1815).
- Slavery, expansion, removal, and reform (1801—1850).
- Civil War and Reconstruction (1850—1877).
- Development and struggles in the West, industrialization, immigration, and urbanization (1870—1900).
- Understands and analyzes how individuals and movements have shaped U.S. history (1776 —1900).
- Understands and analyzes how technology and ideas have impacted U.S. history (1776— 1900).
- Analyzes and interprets historical materials from a variety of perspectives in U.S. history (1776—1900).
- Analyzes multiple causal factors to create positions on major events in U.S. history (1776 – 1900).
- Analyzes how a historical event in United States history helps us to understand a current issue.
Civics
- Understands key ideals and principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the U.S. Constitution, including the rule of law, separation of powers, representative government, and popular sovereignty, and the Bill of Rights, including due process and freedom of expression.
- Understands that the U.S. government includes concepts of both a democracy and a republic.
- Understands and analyzes the structure and powers of government at the national level.
- Evaluates the effectiveness of the system of checks and balances in the United States based on an event.
- Analyzes how the United States has interacted with other countries in the past or present.
- Evaluates efforts to reduce discrepancies between key ideals and reality in the United States including:
- How amendments to the Constitution have sought to extend rights to new groups;
- How key ideals and constitutional principles set forth in fundamental documents relate to public issues.
- Analyzes an issue that attempts to balance individual rights and the common good.
Economics
- Understands and analyzes how the forces of supply and demand have affected international trade in the United States in the past or present.
- Understands and analyzes the distribution of wealth and sustainability of resources in the United States in the past or present.
- Analyzes examples of how groups and individuals have considered profit and personal values in making economic choices in the past or present.
- Analyzes how the forces of supply and demand have affected the production, distribution, and consumption of goods, services, and resources in the United States in the past or present.
- Analyzes the importance of financial literacy in making economic choices through the Junior Achievement Financial Literacy Unit
Social Studies Skills
- Understands reasons based on evidence for a position on an issue or event.
- Evaluates the logic of reasons for a position on an issue or event.
- Uses appropriate format to cite sources within an essay or presentation.
- Creates and uses research questions that are tied to an essential question to focus inquiry on an issue.
- Evaluates the logic of positions in primary and secondary sources to interpret an issue or event.
- Applies key ideals outlined in fundamental documents to clarify and address public issues in the context of a discussion.
Physical Education
The student is expected to meet and demonstrate all previous grade level skills.
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District will explore, develop, and refine basic movement and manipulative skills through a variety of activities at developmentally appropriate levels.
Movement Skills
- Applies more complex skills to a variety of movement activities; team sports, individual sports, and recreational activities
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District will increase understanding and appreciation of their fitness level while engaging in a variety of physical activities.
Physical Fitness
- Measures physical fitness, sets fitness and activity goals, and explores a variety of activities to maintain healthy levels of cardio- respiratory fitness, muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, and body composition
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District will demonstrate responsible behaviors and positive sportsmanship skills in individual and group activities.
Communication
- Follows rules and safety procedures with civility, practice sportsmanship, cooperation, and teamwork in a variety of games and fitness activities
- Uses communication skills without judging others when discussing sports-related issues
- Listens to and applies feedback from teacher or peers
Cognitive Skills
- Demonstrates knowledge of both past and current history of activities
- Demonstrates proper use and care for equipment of activities
- Applies basic rules and strategies in sports activities
Health
The student is expected to meet and demonstrate all previous grade level skills.
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain an active life: movement, physical fitness, and nutrition.
Understand Nutrition and Food Nutrients and How they Affect Physical Performance and the Body
Diet Analysis:
- Designs nutritional goals based on national dietary guidelines and individual activity needs
- Understands the values of different foods and predicts how they effect energy levels (review pyramid food guide)
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain a healthy life: recognize patterns of growth and development, reduce health risks, and live safely.
Recognize Patterns of Growth and Development
F.L.A.S.H./K.N.O.W.
- Defines the most common S.T.D.’s and knows their prevention, symptoms, and care
- Knows the most current information about A.I.D.S.
- Identifies the options for preventing an unplanned pregnancy (Review 7th grade)
- Defines the advantages of abstinence
- Names the risks and results of being sexually active
Acquire Skills to Live Safely Misuse of Substances:
- Gives examples of the effects of misuse of substances
- Identifies problems that accompany substance abuse
Legal vs. Illegal
- Explains the penalties and consequences of using illegal drugs
Drug Treatment:
- Compares and contrasts treatment options available for substance abusers
- Recognizes what community resources are available to help with substance abuse issues Body
Systems: Nervous
- Analyzes how the nervous system is affected by the misuse of drugs
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District analyzes and evaluates the impact of real-life influences on health.
Understand How Environmental Factors Affect One’s Health
Advertising
- Recognizes the influence the media can have on our health decisions
Gather and Analyze Health Information Wellness:
- Defines the term ‘wellness’
- Identifies healthy habits that make a difference in your level of health
- Evaluates strategies and develops a plan to manage stress constructively
Use Social Skills to Protect Health and Safely in a Variety of Situations
- Names three skills that build health relationships (cooperation, compromise, and communication)
Understand How Emotions Influence Decision-making
- Anticipates situations which involve pressure to abuse legal and illegal drugs
- Explains the difference between negative peer pressure and positive, and gives examples of each
- Names the five steps for good decision- making
- Reviews refusal skills
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District uses analyzes health and safety information to develop health and fitness plans based on life goals.
Assess Needs and Resources
- Evaluates how fitness can effect overall health
- Analyzes one’s own needs for a personal fitness program (review community resources)
Writing
The following standards offer a focus for instruction each year to help ensure that students gain adequate mastery of a range of skills and applications. Each year in their writing, students should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas, and they should address increasingly demanding content and sources. Students advancing through the grades are expected to meet each year’s grade-specific standards and retain or further develop skills and understandings mastered in preceding grades.
Range of Writing
Writes routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences
Text Types and Purposes
Writes arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence
- Introduces claim(s), acknowledges and distinguishes the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organizes the reasons and evidence logically
- Supports claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text
- Uses words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence
- Establishes and maintains a formal style
- Provides a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented
Writes informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
- Introduces a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organizes ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; includes formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension
- Develops the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples
- Uses appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts
- Uses precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
- Establishes and maintains a formal style
- Provides a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented
Writes narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences
- Engages and orients the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organizes an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically
- Uses narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters
- Uses a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence, signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another, and show the relationships among experiences and events
- Uses precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events
- Provides a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events
Production and Distribution of Writing
- Produces clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
- With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develops and strengthens writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed
- Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
- Conducts short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration
- Gathers relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assesses the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quotes or paraphrases the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation
- Draws evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
Mathematics
In Grade 8, instructional time focuses on three areas:
- formulating and reasoning about expressions and equations, including modeling an association in bivariate data with a linear equation, and solving linear equations and systems of linear equations;
- grasping the concept of a function and using functions to describe quantitative relationships;
- analyzing two- and three-dimensional space and figures using distance, angle, similarity, and congruence, and understanding and applying the Pythagorean Theorem.
The Number System
- Know that there are numbers that are not rational, and approximate them by rational numbers.
Expressions and Equations
- Work with radicals and integer exponents.
- Understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines, and linear equations.
- Analyze and solve linear equations and pairs of simultaneous linear equations.
Functions
- Define, evaluate, and compare functions.
- Use functions to model relationships between quantities.
Geometry
- Understand congruence and similarity using physical models, transparencies, or geometry software.
- Understand and apply the Pythagorean Theorem.
- Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving volume of cylinders, cones and spheres.
Statistics and Probability
- Investigate patterns of association in bivariate data.
Mathematical Practices
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
- Model with mathematics
- Use appropriate tools strategically
- Attend to precision
- Look for and make use of structure
- Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Physical Science
Students in middle school continue to develop understanding of four core ideas in the physical sciences. The middle school performance expectations in the Physical Sciences build on the K – 5 ideas and capabilities to allow learners to explain phenomena central to the physical sciences but also to the life sciences and earth and space science. The performance expectations in physical science blend the core ideas with scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to support students in developing useable knowledge to explain real world phenomena in the physical, biological, and earth and space sciences. In the physical sciences, performance expectations at the middle school level focus on students developing understanding of several scientific practices. These include developing and using models, planning and conducting investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematical and computational thinking, and constructing explanations; and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. Students are also expected to demonstrate understanding of several of engineering practices including design and evaluation.
Matter and Its Interactions
- Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.
- Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.
- Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.
- Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.
- Develop and use a model to describe how the total number of atoms does not change in a chemical reaction and thus mass is conserved.
- Undertake a design project to construct, test, and modify a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy by chemical processes.
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
- Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
- Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.
- Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
- Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects.
- Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.
Energy
- Construct and interpret graphical displays of data to describe the relationships of kinetic energy to the mass of an object and to the speed of an object.
- Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.
- Apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer.
- Plan an investigation to determine the relationships among the energy transferred, the type of matter, the mass, and the change in the average kinetic energy of the particles as measured by the temperature of the sample.
- Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.
Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
- Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.
- Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.
- Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals.
Engineering Design Storylines
In middle school students will build on engineering experiences by defining problems more precisely, conducting a thorough process of choosing the best solution, and optimizing the final design.
Engineering Design
- Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
- Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
- Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
Social Studies
In eighth grade, students develop a new, more abstract level of understanding of social studies concepts. The context for developing this understanding is U.S. history and government, 1776 to 1900. Students explore the ideas, issues, and events from the framing of the Constitution up through Reconstruction and industrialization. After reviewing the founding of the United States, particularly the Constitution, students explore the development of politics, society, culture, civics and economy in the United States to deepen conceptual understandings in civics, geography, and economics. In particular, studying the causes and consequences of the Civil War helps them to comprehend more profoundly the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a culturally diverse democracy.
Issaquah School District eighth graders participate in a two-week financial literacy classroom unit and attend a simulation at the Junior Achievement Finance Park. This unit is funded by the Issaquah Schools Foundation and developed by Junior Achievement.
Geography:
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District
- Analyzes how the environment has affected people and how people have affected the environment in the United States in the past or present
- Understands and analyzes migration as a catalyst on the growth of the United States in the past or present
- Understands cultural diffusion in the United States from the past or in the present.
- Understands and analyzes physical and cultural characteristics of places and regions in the United States from the past or in the present.
- Understands that learning about the geography of the United States helps us understand the global issue of diversity.
History
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District
- Understands how the following themes and developments help to define eras in U.S. history from 1776 to 1900
- Fighting for independence and framing the Constitution (1776—1815).
- Slavery, expansion, removal, and reform (1801—1850).
- Civil War and Reconstruction (1850—1877).
- Development and struggles in the West, industrialization, immigration, and urbanization (1870—1900).
- Understands and analyzes how individuals and movements have shaped U.S. history (1776 —1900).
- Understands and analyzes how technology and ideas have impacted U.S. history (1776— 1900).
- Analyzes and interprets historical materials from a variety of perspectives in U.S. history (1776—1900).
- Analyzes multiple causal factors to create positions on major events in U.S. history (1776 – 1900).
- Analyzes how a historical event in United States history helps us to understand a current issue.
Civics
- Understands key ideals and principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the U.S. Constitution, including the rule of law, separation of powers, representative government, and popular sovereignty, and the Bill of Rights, including due process and freedom of expression.
- Understands that the U.S. government includes concepts of both a democracy and a republic.
- Understands and analyzes the structure and powers of government at the national level.
- Evaluates the effectiveness of the system of checks and balances in the United States based on an event.
- Analyzes how the United States has interacted with other countries in the past or present.
- Evaluates efforts to reduce discrepancies between key ideals and reality in the United States including:
- How amendments to the Constitution have sought to extend rights to new groups;
- How key ideals and constitutional principles set forth in fundamental documents relate to public issues.
- Analyzes an issue that attempts to balance individual rights and the common good.
Economics
- Understands and analyzes how the forces of supply and demand have affected international trade in the United States in the past or present.
- Understands and analyzes the distribution of wealth and sustainability of resources in the United States in the past or present.
- Analyzes examples of how groups and individuals have considered profit and personal values in making economic choices in the past or present.
- Analyzes how the forces of supply and demand have affected the production, distribution, and consumption of goods, services, and resources in the United States in the past or present.
- Analyzes the importance of financial literacy in making economic choices through the Junior Achievement Financial Literacy Unit
Social Studies Skills
- Understands reasons based on evidence for a position on an issue or event.
- Evaluates the logic of reasons for a position on an issue or event.
- Uses appropriate format to cite sources within an essay or presentation.
- Creates and uses research questions that are tied to an essential question to focus inquiry on an issue.
- Evaluates the logic of positions in primary and secondary sources to interpret an issue or event.
- Applies key ideals outlined in fundamental documents to clarify and address public issues in the context of a discussion.
Physical Education
The student is expected to meet and demonstrate all previous grade level skills.
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District will explore, develop, and refine basic movement and manipulative skills through a variety of activities at developmentally appropriate levels.
Movement Skills
- Applies more complex skills to a variety of movement activities; team sports, individual sports, and recreational activities
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District will increase understanding and appreciation of their fitness level while engaging in a variety of physical activities.
Physical Fitness
- Measures physical fitness, sets fitness and activity goals, and explores a variety of activities to maintain healthy levels of cardio- respiratory fitness, muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, and body composition
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District will demonstrate responsible behaviors and positive sportsmanship skills in individual and group activities.
Communication
- Follows rules and safety procedures with civility, practice sportsmanship, cooperation, and teamwork in a variety of games and fitness activities
- Uses communication skills without judging others when discussing sports-related issues
- Listens to and applies feedback from teacher or peers
Cognitive Skills
- Demonstrates knowledge of both past and current history of activities
- Demonstrates proper use and care for equipment of activities
- Applies basic rules and strategies in sports activities
Health
The student is expected to meet and demonstrate all previous grade level skills.
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain an active life: movement, physical fitness, and nutrition.
Understand Nutrition and Food Nutrients and How they Affect Physical Performance and the Body
Diet Analysis:
- Designs nutritional goals based on national dietary guidelines and individual activity needs
- Understands the values of different foods and predicts how they effect energy levels (review pyramid food guide)
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain a healthy life: recognize patterns of growth and development, reduce health risks, and live safely.
Recognize Patterns of Growth and Development
F.L.A.S.H./K.N.O.W.
- Defines the most common S.T.D.’s and knows their prevention, symptoms, and care
- Knows the most current information about A.I.D.S.
- Identifies the options for preventing an unplanned pregnancy (Review 7th grade)
- Defines the advantages of abstinence
- Names the risks and results of being sexually active
FLASH Lessons for Grade 8
- Lesson 1 - Reproductive System and Pregnancy
- Lesson 2 - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
- Lesson 3 - Rules for Dating
- Lesson 4 - Saying No
- Lesson 5 - Preventing STDs
- Lesson 6 - Condoms, Prevent HIV and Other STDs
- Lesson 7 - Birth Control Methods
- ISD F.L.A.S.H Lesson Alignment
Acquire Skills to Live Safely Misuse of Substances:
- Gives examples of the effects of misuse of substances
- Identifies problems that accompany substance abuse
Legal vs. Illegal
- Explains the penalties and consequences of using illegal drugs
Drug Treatment:
- Compares and contrasts treatment options available for substance abusers
- Recognizes what community resources are available to help with substance abuse issues Body
Systems: Nervous
- Analyzes how the nervous system is affected by the misuse of drugs
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District analyzes and evaluates the impact of real-life influences on health.
Understand How Environmental Factors Affect One’s Health
Advertising
- Recognizes the influence the media can have on our health decisions
Gather and Analyze Health Information Wellness:
- Defines the term ‘wellness’
- Identifies healthy habits that make a difference in your level of health
- Evaluates strategies and develops a plan to manage stress constructively
Use Social Skills to Protect Health and Safely in a Variety of Situations
- Names three skills that build health relationships (cooperation, compromise, and communication)
Understand How Emotions Influence Decision-making
- Anticipates situations which involve pressure to abuse legal and illegal drugs
- Explains the difference between negative peer pressure and positive, and gives examples of each
- Names the five steps for good decision- making
- Reviews refusal skills
The Eighth Grade student in the Issaquah School District uses analyzes health and safety information to develop health and fitness plans based on life goals.
Assess Needs and Resources
- Evaluates how fitness can effect overall health
- Analyzes one’s own needs for a personal fitness program (review community resources)