Anchor Lutheran School > K - 8 > Seventh/Eighth Grade

JUNIOR HIGH CURRICULUM

What are the Junior High's objectives and goals?

Our program is designed to instill the value of higher education and to prepare the students for high school. Students are encouraged to acquire a joy of learning not only for the sake of learning, but for the realization that it is a life long activity.

Our program is not specifically designed to accommodate students with special learning needs. However, we have been able to reach a level of success with these students when parents are willing to invest in outside resources. Many of these students have found the challenge of the course work, the consistency of expectation and the self-discipline expected by the faculty to be an aid in their educational success.

We attempt to inter-relate the basic courses of the curriculum when it is reasonable and appropriate. Both creative and formal writing is encouraged to help the students improve their writing skills. Note-taking, test-taking and study-skills are taught to help students prepare for higher education. We expect students to take responsibility for their education and for their actions.

Students at this age tend to justify being self-centered, self-indulgent, and abundant with idealism. Our program attempts to help the students with relationship building, dealing with adults, communication skills and their faith life.

A Socratic style of instruction is also used to help students develop their thinking skills.

What is the strength of our Junior High Program?

The strength of our Junior High is our strong core of Christian teachers who are not only proficient in their academic areas but also provide a caring and nurturing environment which allows students to grow personally in faith, academics, relationships, and educational skills.

What else do we offer besides the curriculum?

EXTRA CURRICULAR SPORTS

The school currently participates in inter-school co-ed indoor and outdoor soccer, boys and girls basketball, co-ed volleyball and track. Our teams are designed for participation by students in grades five through eight.

FIELD TRIPS

Our students participate in a variety of local activities ranging from fine arts, science, history and other appropriate events.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Each student is asked to complete 80 hours of service to others in the community during the school year. This type of service can range from helping set up for Chapel, helping elderly neighbors, working in a food bank, assisting with church services to almost any activity that helps an individual or group in our community.

OFF-CAMPUS EXPERIENCE

Our Junior High students participate in a wonderful opportunity to explore the heritage of our country and the culture of the eastern part of the United States. Our East Coast Heritage tour presents a variety of experiences in American History and has taken our students to Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and New York as well as a visit to the Nation’s Capitol and its many monuments and memorials.

COURSE OFFERINGS

LIFE SCIENCE

This course includes the following topics: cells; life processes; heredity and genetics; classifying and identifying organisms; viruses and monerans; protists and fungi; plant life cycles; flowering plants; simple invertebrates; complex invertebrates; cold blooded vertebrates; warm blooded vertebrates; animal behavior; support; movement and protection; nutrition and digestion; circulation and defense; respiration and excretion; systems of control; the human life cycle; maintaining a healthy body; organisms and their environments; ecosystems and biomes; and humans and their environment. Alternating with Physical Science, the Life Science course requires students to successfully complete several dissections.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE

The students will be able to describe what physical science is, explain how to work safely in a lab, describe what methods scientists use to investigate problems and how scientists make measurements. In addition, the following topics will be covered: the laws of motion; gravitation; properties of matter and its phases; the atom and its nucleus; compounds and mixtures; chemical reactions; acids and bases; work and machines; energy and power. This course alternates with Life Science.

MATH

The math curriculum attempts to accommodate students at various skill levels and they are placed in an appropriate course. We offer three levels of math:

Math 87: This is a level of math appropriate for this grade level. This allows students who are still working on their competency skills in math to not only review those skills, but to add to them as they move to a higher level.

Pre-Algebra: This course is for seventh grade students who possess advanced Math skills and for eighth grade students who have completed Math 87.

Algebra I: This is a first year Algebra course and can be taken after the Pre-Algebra course has been successfully completed.

AMERICAN HISTORY

This course provides a brief survey of the beginning of our country through the Revolution. The students will do an in-depth study of the U.S. Constitution and the Civil War. There is also a strong emphasis on our history from the period of the First World War through the Vietnam War.

CIVICS

The tradition of US Democracy, the Federal government, various state and local governments, the citizen’s role in government and the US economy will be studied. Students will be introduced to personal finance and financial decision making.

ALASKA STATE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY

Students will survey the history of Alaska from the first indigenous people in Alaska to the present time. Students also learn the geography and location of important landmarks and communities in our great state.

ENGLISH

This course is designed to help students in the technical portion of writing. It concentrates on grammar, sentence structure, word usage and putting the technical into the practical.

RELIGION

A variety of New and Old Testament literature is covered in this course. Topical studies including The Lord’s Prayer are studied.

LITERATURE

Students are introduced to a wide variety of writers including F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell; Edward Rostand; John Steinbeck; Harper Lee; Lorraine Hansberry; Mark Twain; Homer; William Golding; Joseph Conrad; Jeane Wakatsuki-Houston. Some of the literary works to be read are: The Great Gatsby; Animal Farm; Fairwell to Manzanar; Lord Jim; The Grapes of Wrath; Lord of the Flies; The Odyssey; To Kill a Mockingbird; Cyrano de Bergerac; A Raisin in the Sun; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

LANGUAGE ARTS

This is a program designed to help students improve their spelling skills and to expand and improve their vocabulary. Students work weekly with vocabulary words and their spelling. These words are also used in their writing during the year.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The curriculum stresses life enhancing sports and team sports, personal fitness, teen health issues, drug awareness and personal responsibility.

MUSIC

The music curriculum stresses music appreciation for all types of music. All students at this level participate in the Hand Bell Choir and during the school year, take part in chapel, school programs and church services.

COMPUTER

Students continue to develop their skills in word processing, data entry and transfer, and spread sheet creation. Research skills are also developed through the use of the internet. Daily writing and homework assignments may also be completed using the computer.

DRAMA

Students are provided opportunities to be part of theater productions both as actors and stage crew. Past productions performed by the students include: Taming of the Shrew, Cyrano de Bergerac, Arsenic and Old Lace, Phantom of the Opera, Midsummer Nights Dream, Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado.