TheHomeschoolingCompany Quick Start Curriculum Resources About Compare Pricing Placement Blog

Middle school homeschool curriculum

Grades 6-8, starting at your child's level and built around their interests, with progress you can see in every subject.

By , founder of TheHomeschoolingCompany. Reviewed .

Life science: energy through a forest food web

An ecosystem is a network of relationships; changing one population can change energy flow, shelter, and survival across the whole system.

Lesson
A Forest Is Not Just a List of Species
Goal
Model energy transfer in a food web and predict how a targeted intervention could create both benefits and tradeoffs.
Project
Build a habitat restoration plan
biology lesson "A Forest Is Not Just a List of Species": the lesson opening, its goal, and its project

The bridge to high school

  1. Grade 6: build the bridge

    Ratios, ancient civilizations, science models, and organized writing build on elementary skills.

  2. Grade 7: connect and explain

    Proportional reasoning, life science, source-based writing, and global history demand evidence.

  3. Grade 8: prepare for high school

    Linear functions, physical science, argument essays, and U.S. history lead into high school work.

  4. Every grade: a notebook in order

    An optional Notebook guide offers tips for organizing notes, including lesson headings, unit names, and ideas worth remembering. Your child can gather useful takeaways onto a review page.

Your parent dashboard

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Each subject's lesson, and whether it's done
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Transcripts and state-aware compliance drafts, written for you and ready to sign
Parent Dashboard: today's lessons by subject, then the grades, progress, and records that need you

Scope and sequence by grade

Grade 6

Math12 units · 54 skills
Ratios, rates, and percents6 skills
  • Write a ratio from a real comparison
  • Build an equivalent ratio table
  • Find a unit rate in a shopping context
  • Use a double number line for a ratio situation
  • Solve a percent-of-quantity problem
  • Explain a rate conversion using units
Fraction and decimal operations5 skills
  • Divide fractions with a visual model
  • Multiply decimals in a measurement problem
  • Use common denominators to compare fractions
  • Convert between fractions, decimals, and percents
  • Estimate before computing with rational numbers
Integers and coordinate plane4 skills
  • Order positive and negative numbers on a number line
  • Interpret absolute value as distance
  • Plot ordered pairs in all four quadrants
  • Use coordinates to describe a real location
Expressions and one-variable equations5 skills
  • Evaluate an expression with exponents and variables
  • Write an expression from a verbal phrase
  • Use the distributive property to rewrite an expression
  • Solve a one-step equation with rational numbers
  • Write an inequality for a real constraint
Area, surface area, and volume5 skills
  • Find area of triangles and parallelograms
  • Decompose a polygon into simpler shapes
  • Use nets to find surface area
  • Find volume of a rectangular prism with fractional edges
  • Explain which measurement formula fits a figure
Statistical questions and displays4 skills
  • Distinguish statistical from nonstatistical questions
  • Make a dot plot from a small data set
  • Find mean and median from a data display
  • Describe variability using range and clusters
Mathematical reasoning4 skills
  • Choose a strategy for a multi-step word problem
  • Explain why an estimate is reasonable
  • Check an answer using inverse operations
  • Compare exact and approximate answers
Scale drawings and maps4 skills
  • Read a map scale in a distance problem
  • Find a missing length in a scale drawing
  • Explain how scale changes perimeter
  • Compare original and scaled measurements
Everyday financial math4 skills
  • Compute a discount from a percent
  • Find sales tax on a purchase
  • Compare two unit-price offers
  • Explain a simple budget tradeoff
Numeric patterns4 skills
  • Extend a pattern from a table
  • Describe a rule in words and symbols
  • Compare additive and multiplicative patterns
  • Use a table to predict a later value
Measurement data project4 skills
  • Collect consistent measurement data
  • Choose a graph for measurement results
  • Write a claim about a class data set
  • Revise a claim after checking an outlier
Math capstone5 skills
  • Solve a ratio and measurement design problem
  • Defend a multi-step calculation with units
  • Use a data display to support a decision
  • Explain an error in a fraction or percent solution
  • Present a complete Grade 6 math argument
Reading6 units · 46 skills
Literary reading9 skills
  • Identify theme from repeated details
  • Explain character motivation
  • Analyze how setting shapes conflict
  • Interpret figurative language in context
  • Compare narrator perspective
  • Analyze symbolism
  • Trace conflict development
  • Compare character arcs
  • Track plot episodes across a chapter
Informational reading9 skills
  • Identify central idea
  • Trace an author's claim
  • Distinguish evidence from commentary
  • Summarize a section objectively
  • Evaluate source credibility
  • Identify text structure
  • Evaluate evidence relevance
  • Analyze author's assumptions
  • Identify main idea and supporting detail
Media and multimodal reading7 skills
  • Interpret a chart embedded in an article
  • Connect image evidence to a text claim
  • Evaluate a caption's relationship to an image
  • Compare video and print accounts of an event
  • Evaluate scale in an infographic
  • Interpret a timeline embedded in text
  • Compare headline and article evidence
Vocabulary7 skills
  • Use context clues for an unfamiliar word
  • Identify connotation
  • Distinguish denotation from connotation
  • Use word parts to infer meaning
  • Infer meaning from analogy
  • Use roots and affixes
  • Identify figurative versus literal meaning
Evidence7 skills
  • Quote textual evidence accurately
  • Paraphrase evidence without changing meaning
  • Connect evidence to an inference
  • Compare evidence across two texts
  • Rank evidence by strength
  • Explain why evidence is relevant
  • Integrate evidence across genres
Fluency and text complexity7 skills
  • Read grade-level prose with appropriate pacing
  • Use punctuation to guide oral phrasing
  • Identify sentence complexity in a passage
  • Use background knowledge to prepare for a difficult text
  • Use paragraph structure to plan reading pace
  • Identify unfamiliar syntax before rereading
  • Use repeated reading to improve accuracy
English language arts12 units · 52 skills
Literary elements5 skills
  • Identify theme in a short story or poem
  • Explain character motivation from dialogue and action
  • Analyze how setting shapes conflict
  • Describe plot structure with turning points
  • Use quoted evidence to support a reading claim
Informational reading5 skills
  • Find central idea in an informational article
  • Trace how details develop an explanation
  • Distinguish fact, opinion, and reasoned claim
  • Use text features to locate evidence
  • Compare two articles on the same topic
Vocabulary in context4 skills
  • Use context clues for an unfamiliar academic word
  • Use Greek and Latin roots to infer meaning
  • Distinguish literal and figurative language
  • Explain how word choice affects tone
Sentences and paragraphs4 skills
  • Identify sentence complexity in a passage
  • Combine sentences for clarity
  • Use commas in a series and introductory phrase
  • Write a paragraph with topic sentence and evidence
Narrative writing5 skills
  • Plan a narrative with conflict and resolution
  • Use dialogue to reveal character
  • Control pacing with scene and summary
  • Revise sensory details for clarity
  • Write an ending that follows from events
Introductory argument writing4 skills
  • State a clear claim for a familiar issue
  • Choose relevant evidence for a claim
  • Explain how evidence supports a reason
  • Respond respectfully to a simple counterclaim
Research basics4 skills
  • Write a focused research question
  • Take notes without copying whole sentences
  • Quote and paraphrase a source accurately
  • Create a simple works-cited entry
Media and multimodal texts4 skills
  • Interpret image, caption, and headline together
  • Identify purpose in a short video or infographic
  • Compare print and visual versions of information
  • Notice missing evidence in media claims
Speaking and listening4 skills
  • Prepare discussion notes from a text
  • Ask a follow-up question during discussion
  • Use evidence in a short oral response
  • Organize an oral claim with evidence
Revision and editing4 skills
  • Revise vague words into precise words
  • Edit for subject-verb agreement
  • Use transitions between reasons
  • Proofread quotation punctuation
Independent reading habits4 skills
  • Track confusion and questions while reading
  • Summarize a chapter without retelling every detail
  • Explain why a passage matters to the whole text
  • Choose a stretch text and reading plan
ELA capstone5 skills
  • Write a text-based literary paragraph
  • Write a short informational explanation
  • Present a claim in discussion
  • Revise writing after feedback
  • Prepare a Grade 6 reading and writing portfolio
Science12 units · 53 skills
Investigation and measurement5 skills
  • Identify variables in a controlled investigation
  • Measure length, mass, time, and temperature with appropriate precision
  • Record observations and measurements in a data table
  • Distinguish observation, inference, and explanation
  • Revise a simple model after new evidence
Matter and particle models5 skills
  • Distinguish substances and mixtures
  • Use a particle model to explain states of matter
  • Measure density from mass and volume
  • Explain conservation of mass in a closed system
  • Compare physical and chemical changes
Energy transfer5 skills
  • Trace thermal energy transfer by conduction, convection, and radiation
  • Compare kinetic and potential energy in simple systems
  • Use a model to show energy transformation
  • Explain why insulation changes heat flow
  • Measure temperature change in an investigation
Forces and motion4 skills
  • Calculate speed from distance and time
  • Use a graph to describe motion
  • Identify balanced and unbalanced forces
  • Explain friction in a real motion case
Earth systems and water5 skills
  • Model the water cycle with reservoirs and flows
  • Explain weathering, erosion, and deposition
  • Use maps to identify landform patterns
  • Describe how groundwater and surface water interact
  • Connect human water use to system limits
Weather and climate introduction4 skills
  • Read a weather map for temperature and precipitation
  • Explain air pressure and wind in simple terms
  • Compare weather and climate
  • Use climate data to describe a regional pattern
Ecosystem interactions4 skills
  • Build a food web from organisms in an ecosystem
  • Explain producer, consumer, and decomposer roles
  • Predict effects of a population change
  • Describe adaptations in a habitat
Earth, sun, and moon4 skills
  • Model day and night from Earth rotation
  • Explain seasons using tilt and orbit
  • Connect moon phases to relative positions
  • Compare solar and lunar eclipses
Engineering design4 skills
  • Define criteria and constraints for a design problem
  • Compare two design solutions with evidence
  • Build a simple prototype plan
  • Explain tradeoffs among materials, cost, and performance
Science data and graphs4 skills
  • Choose a graph type for investigation data
  • Identify a trend from a data display
  • Explain an outlier cautiously
  • Write a claim using one data pattern
Lab safety and tools4 skills
  • Choose safe equipment for a measurement task
  • Explain why a lab procedure controls one variable
  • Use a microscope or hand lens observation accurately
  • Describe how repeated trials improve confidence
Science capstone5 skills
  • Design an investigation about matter, energy, water, or ecosystems
  • Use a model and data table to support a claim
  • Explain a source of measurement error
  • Revise a claim after peer feedback
  • Present a Grade 6 science explanation
History12 units · 53 skills
Historical methods for ancient worlds5 skills
  • Distinguish artifact, primary source, secondary interpretation, chronology, and context
  • Build a timeline using BCE/CE, sequence, duration, and turning point language
  • Infer limits of evidence from archaeology, inscriptions, oral traditions, and later texts
  • Compare two ancient-world sources by author, purpose, audience, and reliability
  • Defend a Grade 6 historical claim about historical methods for ancient worlds using conflicting evidence
River valley civilizations4 skills
  • Explain how Mesopotamian city-states used irrigation, writing, temples, and law codes
  • Analyze Egyptian state power through Nile ecology, pharaohs, bureaucracy, and monument building
  • Compare Indus Valley urban planning, trade, sanitation, and unresolved source questions
  • Trace early Chinese dynastic authority through geography, ritual, writing, and mandate claims
Agriculture, cities, and social order5 skills
  • Explain the Neolithic shift from foraging to farming using evidence and tradeoffs
  • Connect surplus, specialization, hierarchy, taxation, and record keeping in early cities
  • Compare slavery, labor obligations, gender roles, and class structure in ancient societies
  • Evaluate how geography shaped food, settlement, defense, and exchange in early states
  • Defend a Grade 6 historical claim about agriculture, cities, and social order using conflicting evidence
Ancient law, religion, and power4 skills
  • Analyze Hammurabi-style law as evidence of order, hierarchy, punishment, and authority
  • Explain how priesthoods, temples, rituals, and sacred kingship legitimized ancient power
  • Compare polytheistic traditions and state religion in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome
  • Assess how myths and origin stories preserved values, memory, and political claims
Classical Greece5 skills
  • Compare Athens, Sparta, and other poleis by citizenship, military organization, and values
  • Explain Athenian direct democracy, exclusion, debate, empire, and civic participation
  • Analyze Persian Wars and Peloponnesian War as turning points in Greek power and identity
  • Use Greek art, drama, philosophy, and history writing as evidence of cultural priorities
  • Defend a Grade 6 historical claim about classical greece using conflicting evidence
Roman Republic and Empire4 skills
  • Explain Roman Republic institutions, patronage, citizenship, and checks on power
  • Trace Roman expansion from republic to empire using military, economic, and political causes
  • Analyze Julius Caesar, Augustus, and imperial rule as evidence of republican breakdown
  • Evaluate Roman law, roads, cities, slavery, and citizenship as tools of imperial integration
South Asia and Buddhist worlds4 skills
  • Explain Mauryan rule, Ashoka, edicts, Buddhism, and imperial moral authority
  • Analyze caste, dharma, kingship, trade, and religious change in ancient South Asia
  • Trace Buddhist spread across Asia through merchants, monks, rulers, and translation
  • Compare Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain ideas through duty, liberation, nonviolence, and practice
East Asia and classical China5 skills
  • Explain Qin standardization, Legalism, bureaucracy, walls, and imperial consolidation
  • Analyze Han rule through Confucianism, civil service, Silk Roads, and frontier policy
  • Compare Confucian, Daoist, and Legalist views of order, family, state, and human nature
  • Use Chinese inventions, texts, and material evidence to explain continuity and change
  • Defend a Grade 6 historical claim about east asia and classical china using conflicting evidence
Exchange networks and empires4 skills
  • Map Silk Road exchange of goods, beliefs, technologies, disease, and political influence
  • Compare land and sea trade routes by geography, risk, intermediaries, and cultural contact
  • Explain how empires used roads, coins, languages, and law to govern diverse peoples
  • Assess exchange as both connection and disruption using evidence from multiple regions
Late antiquity and world religions4 skills
  • Trace the rise and spread of Christianity inside and beyond the Roman Empire
  • Explain Jewish diaspora, preservation of identity, imperial pressure, and religious memory
  • Compare religious diffusion through conquest, trade, mission, migration, and state sponsorship
  • Analyze late-antique transformations as continuity, crisis, adaptation, and new religious and political forms
Ancient-world comparison4 skills
  • Compare two ancient civilizations using governance, environment, labor, belief, and exchange
  • Construct a causation paragraph explaining why one ancient state expanded or declined
  • Use archaeological and written evidence together without overstating what either proves
  • Evaluate whether ancient empires solved or intensified problems of diversity and distance
Ancient history capstone5 skills
  • Build an evidence-backed museum exhibit label for an ancient-world artifact
  • Defend a claim about state power in an ancient civilization using three source types
  • Compare classical societies by citizenship, empire, labor, gender, and political legitimacy
  • Present a historical argument with claim, evidence, context, counterclaim, and limits
  • Defend a Grade 6 historical claim about ancient history capstone using conflicting evidence

Grade 7

Math12 units · 54 skills
Proportional relationships6 skills
  • Identify a proportional relationship from a table
  • Find the constant of proportionality
  • Write a proportional equation from a context
  • Graph a proportional relationship through the origin
  • Use slope as a unit rate
  • Compare proportional relationships across forms
Rational number operations5 skills
  • Add rational numbers with opposite signs
  • Subtract rational numbers using distance
  • Multiply signed fractions in a context
  • Divide signed rational numbers
  • Explain why signs change in multiplication and division
Linear equations and inequalities5 skills
  • Solve a two-step equation with rational coefficients
  • Solve an equation with variables on both sides
  • Write an inequality from a constraint
  • Graph a one-variable inequality
  • Check a solution against the original context
Percents and financial reasoning4 skills
  • Solve a percent increase problem
  • Solve a percent decrease problem
  • Find simple interest over time
  • Compare markup, discount, tax, and tip situations
Angles, circles, and scale5 skills
  • Use angle relationships to find an unknown measure
  • Find circumference from diameter
  • Find area of a circle
  • Use scale factor to compare side lengths
  • Solve a composite-area problem with circles and polygons
Probability models4 skills
  • Find theoretical probability from equally likely outcomes
  • Estimate probability from repeated trials
  • Use a tree diagram for compound events
  • Compare experimental and theoretical probability
Sampling and inference4 skills
  • Use a random sample to estimate a population value
  • Compare two data distributions by center and spread
  • Identify a biased sampling method
  • Write a cautious inference from sample data
Linear model introduction4 skills
  • Find slope from two points
  • Interpret y-intercept in a context
  • Write a line from a table
  • Compare linear and nonlinear patterns
Mathematical reasoning4 skills
  • Break a percent problem into smaller steps
  • Use units to catch a wrong answer
  • Explain why two proportional methods agree
  • Choose a graph that matches a situation
Equation and geometry transfer4 skills
  • Write an equation for an angle relationship
  • Use an equation to find a scale length
  • Model perimeter with a linear expression
  • Connect circle formulas to proportional reasoning
Data project4 skills
  • Design a sampling question
  • Collect and display sample data
  • Compare two groups using medians
  • Defend a conclusion with sampling limits
Math capstone5 skills
  • Solve a proportional finance problem
  • Build and interpret a probability model
  • Defend a geometry solution with equations
  • Critique a statistical claim from a sample
  • Present a connected Grade 7 math solution
Reading6 units · 47 skills
Literary reading10 skills
  • Identify theme from repeated details
  • Explain character motivation
  • Analyze how setting shapes conflict
  • Interpret figurative language in context
  • Compare narrator perspective
  • Analyze symbolism
  • Trace conflict development
  • Compare character arcs
  • Analyze how dialogue reveals character
  • Infer character change from dialogue
Informational reading8 skills
  • Identify central idea
  • Trace an author's claim
  • Distinguish evidence from commentary
  • Summarize a section objectively
  • Evaluate source credibility
  • Identify text structure
  • Evaluate evidence relevance
  • Analyze author's assumptions
Media and multimodal reading7 skills
  • Interpret a chart embedded in an article
  • Connect image evidence to a text claim
  • Evaluate a caption's relationship to an image
  • Compare video and print accounts of an event
  • Evaluate scale in an infographic
  • Interpret a timeline embedded in text
  • Compare headline and article evidence
Vocabulary7 skills
  • Use context clues for an unfamiliar word
  • Identify connotation
  • Distinguish denotation from connotation
  • Use word parts to infer meaning
  • Infer meaning from analogy
  • Use roots and affixes
  • Identify figurative versus literal meaning
Evidence8 skills
  • Quote textual evidence accurately
  • Paraphrase evidence without changing meaning
  • Connect evidence to an inference
  • Compare evidence across two texts
  • Rank evidence by strength
  • Explain why evidence is relevant
  • Integrate evidence across genres
  • Use two pieces of evidence for one inference
Fluency and text complexity7 skills
  • Read grade-level prose with appropriate pacing
  • Use punctuation to guide oral phrasing
  • Identify sentence complexity in a passage
  • Use background knowledge to prepare for a difficult text
  • Use paragraph structure to plan reading pace
  • Identify unfamiliar syntax before rereading
  • Use repeated reading to improve accuracy
English language arts12 units · 52 skills
Literary analysis5 skills
  • Analyze how setting and conflict shape character choices
  • Trace theme development across a story
  • Compare two narrators' points of view
  • Explain how imagery shapes mood
  • Use embedded quotations in a literary claim
Informational claims and evidence5 skills
  • Identify claim, reason, and evidence in an article
  • Distinguish strong evidence from interesting detail
  • Trace how headings and sections organize an argument
  • Compare two authors' explanations of one issue
  • Identify loaded language in an informational text
Rhetoric introduction4 skills
  • Identify audience and purpose in a speech or editorial
  • Explain how repetition emphasizes a point
  • Identify appeal to emotion, credibility, or logic
  • Evaluate whether a rhetorical choice fits the audience
Grammar and style4 skills
  • Use phrases and clauses to add detail
  • Edit comma use with coordinate adjectives
  • Vary sentence openings for flow
  • Choose active verbs over vague verbs
Argument writing5 skills
  • Write a claim with two supporting reasons
  • Use evidence from multiple sources
  • Explain a counterargument fairly
  • Write a conclusion that extends the argument
  • Revise evidence order for stronger logic
Informational writing4 skills
  • Organize an explanation with categories
  • Use definitions and examples to teach a concept
  • Integrate a quotation smoothly
  • Write transitions that show cause and effect
Narrative craft4 skills
  • Use point of view deliberately
  • Develop a scene with dialogue and action
  • Use pacing to build tension
  • Revise a narrative for voice
Source-based research4 skills
  • Narrow a research question after background reading
  • Evaluate source credibility for author and purpose
  • Paraphrase evidence with citation
  • Group notes by subtopic
Academic discussion4 skills
  • Prepare a discussion question that invites evidence
  • Connect a comment to another speaker's idea
  • Use evidence in a discussion response
  • Disagree with a reason and text support
Media literacy4 skills
  • Analyze how visuals shape a message
  • Compare a news story and opinion piece
  • Identify sponsored or persuasive content
  • Check a media claim against a source
Revision and editing4 skills
  • Revise for precise academic vocabulary
  • Edit pronoun-antecedent agreement
  • Fix sentence fragments and run-ons
  • Strengthen transitions among paragraphs
ELA capstone5 skills
  • Write a multi-paragraph literary analysis
  • Write a source-based argument
  • Present research findings clearly
  • Revise a piece through two drafts
  • Defend evidence choices in a portfolio reflection
Science12 units · 53 skills
Cell structure and function5 skills
  • Identify cell membrane, nucleus, cytoplasm, mitochondria, and chloroplast roles
  • Compare plant and animal cells
  • Use a microscope image to make a cell claim
  • Explain how cell structures support life processes
  • Distinguish unicellular and multicellular organization
Energy in organisms5 skills
  • Trace energy through producers and consumers
  • Explain photosynthesis as matter and energy change
  • Explain cellular respiration at a middle-school level
  • Compare food webs and energy pyramids
  • Predict effects of reduced producer population
Genetics and inheritance5 skills
  • Distinguish inherited and acquired traits
  • Use a Punnett square for a simple trait
  • Explain genotype and phenotype in a family example
  • Describe mutation as a DNA change
  • Interpret a pedigree for a single trait
Human body systems4 skills
  • Explain how circulatory and respiratory systems interact
  • Describe digestion as matter breakdown and absorption
  • Explain nervous-system signaling in a reflex
  • Connect exercise to body-system responses
Evolution and adaptation5 skills
  • Explain natural selection with variation and environment
  • Use fossil evidence to infer change over time
  • Compare structural and behavioral adaptations
  • Distinguish individual survival from population change
  • Interpret a simple evolutionary tree
Ecosystem dynamics4 skills
  • Model competition, predation, and mutualism
  • Explain carrying capacity with limiting factors
  • Use population data to identify a trend
  • Predict effects of invasive species
Microbes and health4 skills
  • Distinguish bacteria, viruses, and fungi
  • Explain how vaccines prepare immune response
  • Describe antibiotic resistance as selection
  • Evaluate hygiene claims with evidence
Earth and life connections4 skills
  • Connect climate patterns to biome distribution
  • Explain how water availability shapes ecosystems
  • Use a map to compare biodiversity patterns
  • Describe human impacts on habitat change
Biotechnology introduction4 skills
  • Explain selective breeding with examples
  • Interpret a simple DNA fingerprint pattern
  • Compare benefits and risks of a biotechnology use
  • Use evidence to discuss genetic privacy
Life science investigation4 skills
  • Design an investigation with living or model organisms
  • Control variables in a growth experiment
  • Use repeated measurements for organism data
  • Write a claim about a biological pattern
Engineering for living systems4 skills
  • Define a problem related to health or ecosystems
  • Design a model solution with biological constraints
  • Test a prototype using organism or ecosystem criteria
  • Revise a design from data
Science capstone5 skills
  • Explain an organism system with cells, traits, and environment
  • Use data to defend an ecosystem claim
  • Compare two biological explanations
  • Discuss limits of a life-science model
  • Present a Grade 7 evidence argument
History12 units · 54 skills
Post-classical historical methods5 skills
  • Explain periodization by distinguishing ancient, medieval, post-classical, and early modern labels
  • Use maps to compare political fragmentation, trade routes, religious zones, and empire boundaries
  • Corroborate a travel account with a map, artifact, legal source, or later interpretation
  • Identify continuity and change across 500-1750 without treating Europe as the whole story
  • Defend a Grade 7 historical claim about post-classical historical methods using conflicting evidence
Byzantine and Islamic worlds4 skills
  • Explain Byzantine preservation, Orthodox Christianity, Justinian law, and imperial geography
  • Trace the rise of Islam through Arabian context, revelation, community, and caliphate expansion
  • Analyze Abbasid Baghdad as a center of translation, science, trade, and administration
  • Compare Sunni-Shia divisions, legal traditions, and political authority in Islamic history
African kingdoms and trade5 skills
  • Explain Ghana, Mali, and Songhai through gold-salt trade, Islam, taxation, and geography
  • Analyze Mansa Musa's pilgrimage as evidence of wealth, faith, diplomacy, and global connection
  • Compare Swahili coast city-states through Indian Ocean trade, Islam, language, and architecture
  • Use oral tradition and archaeology to reason carefully about African political history
  • Defend a Grade 7 historical claim about african kingdoms and trade using conflicting evidence
Medieval Europe4 skills
  • Explain feudal obligations, manorialism, Church authority, and local political order
  • Analyze the Crusades through religious, political, economic, and cross-cultural causes
  • Assess Magna Carta, Parliament, and legal limits on monarchy as institutional changes
  • Explain the Black Death through trade networks, social disruption, labor, and religious response
South and Southeast Asia5 skills
  • Compare Delhi Sultanate and Mughal foundations through rule, religion, military power, and culture
  • Analyze Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic interactions in South Asian politics and society
  • Explain Angkor, Srivijaya, and maritime Southeast Asia through water, temples, and trade
  • Use art and architecture as evidence for cultural exchange and political authority
  • Defend a Grade 7 historical claim about south and southeast asia using conflicting evidence
East Asia after Han4 skills
  • Explain Tang and Song governance, exams, urbanization, printing, commerce, and technology
  • Compare samurai Japan, Heian court culture, shogunate power, and social hierarchy
  • Analyze Mongol conquest, Yuan rule, trade protection, and cross-Eurasian exchange
  • Assess Ming voyages and later restrictions through state priorities and maritime power
Americas before Columbus4 skills
  • Compare Maya city-states, calendars, writing, warfare, and environmental constraints
  • Explain Mexica-Aztec power through tribute, military alliances, religion, and city planning
  • Analyze Inca roads, labor obligations, quipu, terraces, and imperial integration
  • Evaluate how geography shaped political forms in Mesoamerica, Andes, and North America
Renaissance, Reformation, and science5 skills
  • Explain Renaissance humanism, patronage, printing, city-states, and classical revival
  • Analyze Reformation causes through theology, printing, politics, corruption, and state power
  • Compare Catholic reform, religious wars, and toleration as responses to fragmentation
  • Trace scientific revolution claims through observation, mathematics, instruments, and authority
  • Defend a Grade 7 historical claim about renaissance, reformation, and science using conflicting evidence
Exploration and Columbian Exchange5 skills
  • Explain Portuguese and Spanish expansion through navigation, trade, conquest, and state rivalry
  • Analyze Columbian Exchange effects on disease, crops, animals, labor, population, and environment
  • Compare Indigenous, African, and European experiences of conquest and exchange
  • Use maps and demographic evidence to explain global change after 1492
  • Trace Zheng He, Prince Henry, Dias, da Gama, Columbus, and Magellan across motives, routes, and consequences
Atlantic slavery and empire4 skills
  • Explain Atlantic slavery through plantation demand, racial ideology, law, violence, and profit
  • Analyze resistance through maroon communities, rebellion, everyday survival, and culture
  • Compare Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English imperial systems in the Americas
  • Evaluate mercantilism, chartered companies, and colonial trade as state-backed economic systems
Gunpowder empires and absolutism4 skills
  • Compare Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, and Qing state-building through military, taxation, and legitimacy
  • Explain European absolutism and constitutionalism through Louis XIV, Parliament, and fiscal states
  • Analyze religious diversity and state control in early modern empires
  • Assess how gunpowder, bureaucracy, and trade reshaped power between 1450 and 1750
Early modern global history capstone5 skills
  • Build a comparative argument about two early modern empires using political and economic evidence
  • Explain a global exchange network with causes, participants, commodities, coercion, and effects
  • Evaluate a source from travel, trade, mission, or conquest for perspective and limits
  • Present a claim about 500-1750 global change with evidence, counterclaim, and map support
  • Defend a Grade 7 historical claim about early modern global history capstone using conflicting evidence

Grade 8

Math12 units · 54 skills
Linear functions and slope6 skills
  • Find slope from a graph
  • Find slope from two points
  • Write a linear equation from a table
  • Interpret rate of change and initial value
  • Compare two linear functions in different forms
  • Explain why a relationship is not linear
Systems of linear equations5 skills
  • Solve a system by graphing
  • Solve a system by substitution
  • Solve a system by elimination
  • Interpret intersection as a shared solution
  • Classify systems with no solution or many solutions
Exponents and scientific notation5 skills
  • Apply exponent product and quotient rules
  • Use zero and negative exponents
  • Convert between standard and scientific notation
  • Compute with numbers in scientific notation
  • Compare quantities written in scientific notation
Irrational numbers and roots4 skills
  • Approximate a square root on a number line
  • Distinguish rational and irrational numbers
  • Use cube roots in volume contexts
  • Compare decimal expansions of real numbers
Pythagorean theorem5 skills
  • Use the Pythagorean theorem to find a missing side
  • Use the converse to classify a triangle
  • Find distance between two coordinate points
  • Solve a real-world diagonal-distance problem
  • Explain why the theorem fits right triangles
Transformations and congruence4 skills
  • Describe a translation using coordinates
  • Describe a reflection across an axis
  • Describe a rotation about the origin
  • Use transformations to show congruence
Similarity, volume, and scale4 skills
  • Use dilations to explain similarity
  • Find a missing side in similar figures
  • Find volume of cylinders, cones, or spheres
  • Explain how scale affects volume
Scatter plots and association4 skills
  • Make a scatter plot from paired data
  • Describe positive, negative, or no association
  • Draw an informal line of fit
  • Use a line of fit to make a prediction
Function modeling4 skills
  • Decide whether a table defines a function
  • Compare linear, quadratic, and exponential growth patterns
  • Interpret function notation in a context
  • Use a function rule to solve a problem
Mathematical reasoning4 skills
  • Write a multi-step justification for a system solution
  • Explain when an estimate is enough
  • Check reasonableness using graph and equation forms
  • Identify a hidden assumption in a model
High school math readiness4 skills
  • Connect slope to Algebra I linear functions
  • Connect Pythagorean distance to coordinate geometry
  • Use exponent rules in scientific contexts
  • Organize a solution for a high-school-style problem
Math capstone5 skills
  • Model a real situation with a linear function
  • Use a system to compare two plans
  • Apply exponent notation to a science quantity
  • Defend a geometry solution with a diagram
  • Present a Grade 8 math argument with multiple formats
Reading6 units · 48 skills
Literary reading8 skills
  • Identify theme from repeated details
  • Explain character motivation
  • Analyze how setting shapes conflict
  • Interpret figurative language in context
  • Compare narrator perspective
  • Analyze symbolism
  • Trace conflict development
  • Compare character arcs
Informational reading10 skills
  • Identify central idea
  • Trace an author's claim
  • Distinguish evidence from commentary
  • Summarize a section objectively
  • Evaluate source credibility
  • Identify text structure
  • Evaluate evidence relevance
  • Analyze author's assumptions
  • Compare conflicting accounts of the same event
  • Compare two accounts of the same event
Media and multimodal reading7 skills
  • Interpret a chart embedded in an article
  • Connect image evidence to a text claim
  • Evaluate a caption's relationship to an image
  • Compare video and print accounts of an event
  • Evaluate scale in an infographic
  • Interpret a timeline embedded in text
  • Compare headline and article evidence
Vocabulary9 skills
  • Use context clues for an unfamiliar word
  • Identify connotation
  • Distinguish denotation from connotation
  • Use word parts to infer meaning
  • Infer meaning from analogy
  • Use roots and affixes
  • Identify figurative versus literal meaning
  • Use connotation to explain tone
  • Use connotation to infer tone
Evidence7 skills
  • Quote textual evidence accurately
  • Paraphrase evidence without changing meaning
  • Connect evidence to an inference
  • Compare evidence across two texts
  • Rank evidence by strength
  • Explain why evidence is relevant
  • Integrate evidence across genres
Fluency and text complexity7 skills
  • Read grade-level prose with appropriate pacing
  • Use punctuation to guide oral phrasing
  • Identify sentence complexity in a passage
  • Use background knowledge to prepare for a difficult text
  • Use paragraph structure to plan reading pace
  • Identify unfamiliar syntax before rereading
  • Use repeated reading to improve accuracy
English language arts12 units · 54 skills
Literary complexity5 skills
  • Analyze how theme develops through conflict
  • Explain how structure creates suspense or contrast
  • Compare a text with a film or dramatic adaptation
  • Analyze symbolism in a poem or story
  • Use precise evidence to support interpretation
Civic and informational texts5 skills
  • Analyze conflicting accounts of one event
  • Trace a central idea through a complex article
  • Identify assumptions in an argument
  • Evaluate evidence in a civic text
  • Compare source reliability across articles
Rhetoric and argument5 skills
  • Analyze how an author appeals to audience values
  • Identify concession and rebuttal
  • Explain how word choice affects credibility
  • Evaluate whether evidence fully supports a claim
  • Compare arguments on the same issue
Grammar for high school readiness4 skills
  • Use verbals to combine ideas
  • Edit misplaced and dangling modifiers
  • Punctuate restrictive and nonrestrictive information
  • Revise for concise academic style
Literary essay5 skills
  • Write a thesis about theme or character
  • Organize body paragraphs by interpretive reason
  • Integrate quotations with context
  • Analyze rather than summarize evidence
  • Revise commentary for depth
Argument essay4 skills
  • Write a debatable claim on a complex issue
  • Use credible evidence from multiple sources
  • Address a counterclaim with respect and logic
  • Use transitions to show relationships among reasons
Research project5 skills
  • Develop a research question with scope
  • Use search terms strategically
  • Create an annotated note set
  • Avoid plagiarism through paraphrase and citation
  • Explain source limits
Presentation and discussion4 skills
  • Lead a text-based discussion segment
  • Ask a clarifying and a challenging question
  • Present research with visual support
  • Use speaking pace and emphasis deliberately
Media analysis4 skills
  • Analyze design choices in an infographic
  • Compare social media claim and original source
  • Identify missing context in a media excerpt
  • Explain how medium changes message
Academic vocabulary and morphology4 skills
  • Use Greek and Latin roots in academic vocabulary
  • Distinguish denotation and connotation
  • Explain figurative language in context
  • Use domain vocabulary accurately
Revision and editing4 skills
  • Revise paragraph order for logic
  • Edit sentence boundaries
  • Strengthen quotation lead-ins
  • Remove redundancy without losing meaning
ELA capstone5 skills
  • Write a high-school-ready literary analysis
  • Write an evidence-backed civic argument
  • Present a research claim with source evaluation
  • Revise for style, structure, and correctness
  • Defend a Grade 8 portfolio with text evidence
Science12 units · 53 skills
Atomic matter and periodic patterns5 skills
  • Explain atoms, molecules, and compounds with models
  • Use the periodic table to infer element properties
  • Distinguish pure substances from mixtures
  • Model conservation of atoms in a reaction
  • Compare acids, bases, and neutral substances with evidence
Chemical reactions5 skills
  • Identify signs of a chemical reaction
  • Balance a simple chemical equation by atoms
  • Explain endothermic and exothermic changes
  • Use evidence to distinguish reaction from phase change
  • Predict products from a familiar reaction pattern
Forces and Newtonian motion5 skills
  • Use Newton's first law to explain motion changes
  • Connect net force to acceleration qualitatively
  • Explain action-reaction force pairs
  • Use free-body diagrams for simple cases
  • Calculate speed or acceleration from data
Energy, waves, and information4 skills
  • Compare mechanical and electromagnetic waves
  • Relate amplitude and energy in a wave
  • Explain reflection, refraction, and absorption
  • Use wave models to explain sound or light behavior
Electricity and magnetism4 skills
  • Build a simple circuit diagram
  • Distinguish series and parallel circuits
  • Explain current, voltage, and resistance qualitatively
  • Describe magnetic fields around magnets and wires
Earth history and geologic time5 skills
  • Use rock layers to infer relative age
  • Interpret fossil evidence for past environments
  • Explain plate tectonics with evidence
  • Connect geologic time to gradual and sudden change
  • Use maps to identify plate-boundary hazards
Solar system and gravity4 skills
  • Explain gravity as an attractive force
  • Compare planets by orbit, composition, and atmosphere
  • Use scale to model solar-system distances
  • Explain tides from Earth-Moon-Sun interactions
Climate systems4 skills
  • Trace carbon through atmosphere, ocean, living things, and rocks
  • Use climate data to distinguish trend from variation
  • Explain feedback in a climate system
  • Compare natural and human climate drivers
Scientific modeling and error4 skills
  • Revise a model after contradictory evidence
  • Interpret error bars in a data display
  • Identify confounding variables in a simple investigation
  • Use proportional reasoning in science data
Engineering physical systems4 skills
  • Design a device that transfers energy
  • Optimize a structure under force constraints
  • Test a circuit or mechanical prototype
  • Use data to choose between designs
Science data argument4 skills
  • Use multiple data sources to support a claim
  • Explain uncertainty in a measurement
  • Identify when data do not support a claim
  • Write a scientific explanation with claim, evidence, and reasoning
Science capstone5 skills
  • Model a physical or Earth system with matter and energy flows
  • Analyze data from a force, reaction, or climate investigation
  • Defend a model revision with evidence
  • Compare competing explanations
  • Present a high-school-readiness science argument
History12 units · 55 skills
Indigenous and colonial worlds5 skills
  • Compare Indigenous nations before colonization by governance, diplomacy, economy, and land use
  • Explain European colonization through charter, religion, labor demand, commerce, and empire rivalry
  • Analyze colonial regions by economy, slavery, settlement pattern, religion, and political culture
  • Use maps and sources to explain conflict, alliance, and exchange in early North America
  • Defend a Grade 8 historical claim about indigenous and colonial worlds using conflicting evidence
Imperial crisis and revolutionary ideas5 skills
  • Explain taxation without representation through imperial debt, Parliament, colonies, and protest
  • Analyze natural rights, consent, republicanism, liberty, property, slavery, and popular sovereignty
  • Compare Patriot, Loyalist, Indigenous, enslaved, and women's perspectives on revolution
  • Use pamphlets, petitions, sermons, and declarations to trace revolutionary ideology
  • Compare Locke, Montesquieu, Paine, Adams, Jefferson, and Otis on natural rights and resistance
American Revolution war6 skills
  • Lexington and Concord
  • Battle of Saratoga
  • Valley Forge
  • Battle of Yorktown
  • Defend a Grade 8 historical claim about american revolution war using conflicting evidence
  • Explain why geography, French alliance, logistics, morale, and leadership shaped Revolutionary War outcomes
American Revolution outcomes4 skills
  • Treaty of Paris 1783
  • Explain how the Revolution changed and failed to change slavery, citizenship, gender, and property
  • Analyze state constitutions, republican experiments, and conflicts over representation
  • Compare revolutionary rhetoric with limits on equality in the new United States
Constitution and early republic5 skills
  • Federalist No. 10
  • Marbury v. Madison
  • Explain Articles of Confederation weaknesses and the Constitutional Convention compromises
  • Compare Federalist and Anti-Federalist arguments over power, rights, factions, and republic size
  • Defend a Grade 8 historical claim about constitution and early republic using conflicting evidence
Early republic policy and identity4 skills
  • War of 1812
  • Monroe Doctrine
  • Analyze political parties, Hamiltonian finance, Jeffersonian republicanism, and executive power
  • Explain nationalism, sectionalism, market growth, and foreign policy in the early republic
Expansion, removal, and market revolution4 skills
  • Explain Louisiana Purchase, Manifest Destiny, and westward expansion through opportunity and coercion
  • Analyze Indian Removal, Cherokee resistance, and federal power through law and human consequences
  • Compare market revolution effects on labor, gender, transportation, cities, and regional economies
  • Use maps to explain settlement, migration, canals, railroads, cotton, and territorial conflict
Slavery, reform, and sectional conflict5 skills
  • Missouri Compromise
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • Dred Scott v. Sandford
  • Analyze abolition, women's rights, religious reform, resistance to slavery, and sectional politics
  • Defend a Grade 8 historical claim about slavery, reform, and sectional conflict using conflicting evidence
Civil War causes and war4 skills
  • Fort Sumter
  • Battle of Antietam
  • Battle of Gettysburg
  • Siege of Vicksburg
Civil War emancipation and memory4 skills
  • Gettysburg Address
  • Appomattox surrender
  • Explain emancipation as military policy, moral argument, self-emancipation, and constitutional change
  • Compare Union and Confederate war aims, resources, strategy, casualties, and political leadership
Reconstruction and unfinished freedom4 skills
  • Black Codes
  • Compromise of 1877
  • Analyze Reconstruction amendments, Freedmen's Bureau, Black political participation, and white resistance
  • Evaluate whether Reconstruction was a revolution, failure, unfinished project, or contested settlement
U.S. founding to Reconstruction capstone5 skills
  • Defend an interpretation of the American Revolution using ideology, military events, and social limits
  • Compare the Constitution and Reconstruction amendments as competing answers to union and liberty
  • Build a Civil War causation argument using slavery, politics, economics, ideology, and federal power
  • Present a source-based argument about freedom, citizenship, and equality from 1763 to 1877
  • Defend a Grade 8 historical claim about u.s. founding to reconstruction capstone using conflicting evidence
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FAQ

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