7th-8th Grades Combo Academic Prep - Math/Lang. & Lit.

Language and Literature: Students coming into grades seven or eight will read short fiction together this summer. We will annotate the text, and maintain a journal in which we analyze plot, setting, characters and their development, theme, and author’s craft. Students will also work to identify the author's purpose and use of figurative language. Students will respond to daily writing prompts, which will include informational and argument topics. Principles of grammar (parts of speech, parts of a sentence, punctuation) will be reviewed or presented, as needed. The MLA format used throughout Middle School and in most high schools, will be reinforced. This course provides excellent preparation for the rigorous reading and writing program at St. Mary’s. Students in the Academic Prep course will complete the summer reading requirement as part of the course.

Instructor: Adam Goehle

Mathematics: ALGEBRA 1A/1 Extended PREP/GRADES 7-8: This year, Algebra Prep will be a four-week course for incoming 7th and 8th grade students. During this four-week span, students will review concepts from the previous year, and will be introduced to some of the topics covered in Algebra 1A and 1 Extended. Students will work on solving problems with all operations involving integers, fractions, and decimals. Students will review ratios, rates, proportions, and percentages. Students will create, evaluate, and solve numeric and algebraic expressions by following the order of operations. They will review solving one-step equations, and be introduced to inequalities and multi-step equations. They will learn how to create linear models, write and display their equations on a graph, and understand the concept of slope and calculate the slope of a line. We will also incorporate discovery-rich tasks from the Youcubed Summer Program that promote positive math mindsets. There will also be time to focus on problems and concepts in the Algebra 1A or Algebra 1 Extended summer math packet in order to prepare for the upcoming school year. This course is not designed to support Geometry prep.

Instructor: Cayden Adkison